“Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this morning is from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from Matthew chapter twenty-two. Dear friends in Christ, think back to the Gospel lessons of the past three weeks. We have been marching through the Gospel of Matthew, walking with Jesus on His way to the cross. These past three weeks, Jesus has launched three attacks against the religious leaders of His day. He has told them through three parables that the kingdom of God will be ripped from their hands and given to others. Israel has been disobedient, they have refused to do the Father’s will, killing the prophets sent to them, those who were inviting them to the wedding feast. Not only that, but they will soon kill His one and only Son. And what was their response? Did the Jewish leaders repent and follow Jesus? I think you can guess the answer- as we read a few weeks ago, “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest Him, they feared the crowds.” They could not just arrest Jesus out in the open, but they needed another strategy, a more cunning strategy. Our text is the first of three attempts to take care of this ‘Jesus problem,’ and to do this, the religious leaders have concocted a new plan.
“Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle Him in His talk.” This was their strategy, to get Jesus to say something that would turn people against Him. They needed a question that would have no good answer, that would place Jesus in a lose-lose situation. But first, they needed to butter Him up. “And they sent their disciples to Him along with the Herodians, saying, ‘Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.’” For all their false flattery, what these people said was correct. Jesus is true, and He does teach the way of God truthfully, most especially when He said that the only way to God is through Himself. Moreover, He does not care about man’s opinion. All that He cares about is the will of His Father, for whom He took on Human flesh. Jesus serves His Father, not the whims of men. These men spoke ‘truthfully,’ even though their purpose was deception.
The disciples of the Pharisees had a simple question for this teacher they supposedly revered so highly: “Tell us, then, what you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” They think they have the perfect question, and in many ways, they do. It sounds very innocent, a simple and honest inquiry on how a conquered people should treat their conquerors. Moreover, there are two wrong answers to this question. If Jesus says ‘no,’ if He declares that the Jews should not pay taxes to Caesar, the Pharisees will turn Him over to the Roman authorities as a revolutionary. Jesus will then be declaring that His kingdom truly is of this world, that He has come to collect power and set Himself up as an earthly king. With the God-man at their head, the Jews will be unstoppable in their quest to throw off the shackles of the Romans. On the other hand, if Jesus answers ‘yes,’ if He tells those gathered around Him that they should pay taxes to Caesar, then the Pharisees can paint Him as an opponent of the Jews, One who has no regard for the privileges of His very own people. In either option, temptation lurks, Satan is waiting for Jesus to make a false step. This is another chance for Jesus of Nazareth to grasp at glory, to court the favor of the crowds, perhaps even a chance to join with the powerful Romans. Satan wants Him to reach for earthly glory, he knows that Jesus must be derailed from the cross. But Jesus sees through it all: “But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, ‘Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?’”
And Satan continues to tempt you and me with this same question. Especially in an election season, the question comes to each one of us, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” No matter who wins and who loses on November fourth, roughly half of our nation will be elated and the other half despondent. For those of you on the losing end, the question then becomes, do we give this new government our loyalty as well? Or do we register our disappointment by failing to pay taxes or dumping our trash on yards with Obama/Biden signs? Now those are pretty extreme examples, but I am sure that you know many other ways to rebel against rulers you despise. More importantly, there is the mental despair and despondency that comes from seeing someone you detest take the podium on Inauguration Day. On the other hand, there is an equally insidious danger to the winners. Those who win political victory are tempted to put all of their trust in the government, to stake all their fortunes on the whims of a hundred million voters. Is this any different than what Jesus was tempted to do? Satan wanted Him to gather worldly glory, forsaking the purpose for which He became incarnate. Satan wants your focus on anything else but God, He wants your trust to be centered on the things of this world. On either side, despondency or elation, we forget where our hope and trust should lie. They do not lie upon humans, but instead upon the God who has created us, the God who has redeemed us. On November fourth I urge you to vote, but do we look to a candidate for our ultimate confidence, for our salvation? Do we put our trust in the government, in the mechanisms of this world alone? If not, what do we owe to Caesar, or Obama, or McCain? What did Jesus say?
The answer of Jesus is so simple that it almost seems ridiculous: “‘Show me the coin for the tax.’ And they brought Him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, ‘Whose likeness and inscription is this?’ They said, ‘Caesar’s.’ Then He said to them, ‘Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.’ When they heard it, they marveled. And they left Him and went away.” Such a simple answer to such a serious question! We simply give to the government what we owe it, whether it is taxes or obedience to the law. Jesus did not advocate rebellion, He did not take Satan’s bait to establish a kingdom upon this earth, but instead He rejected this temptation. We are especially tempted during an election season to put our hope in earthly rulers, but Jesus shows us a much better way. We give to our rulers what we owe them, no more and no less. We do not give them our ultimate hope and our confidence, we do not look toward them for salvation. But we do give them what they are owed. And why is that? What is so special about earthly governments that would have even Christians in their debt?
We render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s because Caesar’s ability to rule does not come from Himself, it comes from God. God has established earthly governments to take care of earthly things- their power flows directly from Him, just as our loyalty to government flows directly from our obedience to God. But that is not all- more importantly, God also uses earthly governments to His own ends. In our Old Testament lesson, God tells Israel that He will use Cyrus, the king of Persia, as His instrument to bring His promises to fruition, as His means of returning Israel from exile. And Cyrus will not even know it. “I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is none other.” Just as God used Cyrus to fulfill His promises, so He would use other earthly rulers, Pontus Pilate and the Jewish leaders, to fulfill His ultimate promise. Jesus rejected Satan’s offer of earthly glory because He had come to this earth for a much higher purpose. He took on human flesh in order to die, to be killed, to be executed as a common criminal. God needed an instrument to accomplish this sacrifice, and so He appointed Pilate and the Romans, who did not know God nor His plan, to be His chosen instrument of salvation, of your salvation. Jesus reminded Pilate that he was simply a part of God’s plan in John chapter 19: “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.” Jesus’ kingdom was not of this world, in fact, the world rejected it, as He was crowned with thorns and hung on a cross, shedding His blood for your sins and the sins of the entire world. Jesus was not just ‘true’ as the Pharisees flattered Him, but He was the Truth Himself, and the Jewish leaders exchanged the Truth of God for a lie when they sent Him to His death. But then God’s chosen instruments were witnesses to a greater miracle, as Pilate’s soldiers fell to the ground in fear as the tomb opened and Jesus stepped forth. His sacrifice now redeems you, His victory gives you life, life with Him forever. You have no need to put your trust in candidates, presidents, or rulers. God can use whomever we elect toward His own ends. Instead your confidence and hope is in Christ, the one who gave up His life for your sins, the one who covers you with His robe of righteousness and brings you to the marriage feast of God.
Because Christ has redeemed us, we can then live a life in fulfillment of Jesus’ words: “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” God has blessed us with so much in addition to our eternal salvation- every good gift flows from Him, and so we give back to Him what we have received from His providing hand. Not only that, but the very best, the first-fruits, go to Him in joyful thanksgiving to the Lord of the Harvest. And while we are not rebellious citizens, we are also not quiet ones. As baptized children of God, as those redeemed by Christ’s blood, we do not let the government infringe on the Gospel- it is there that we draw our line. The government was established by God to order our affairs in this life, but when those God-given authorities step into the realm of the Gospel, we are expected to disobey. We must obey God rather than men.
And so there is a balance to be struck in our Christian walk. On the one hand, we respect those placed in authority over us as those who have authority from God. On the other hand we do not tolerate their intrusion into areas in which God has not given them authority. This is not an easy balance. We prayed in our collect for today, “With You as our ruler and guide we may so pass through things temporal that we lose not the things eternal.” Satan is always using the things of this world in an attempt to draw our attention away from Christ. May we live our lives in this world in order that we do not put our trust in anything else but in Christ, the one who became man for you, the one who took on Satan for you, the one who died in your place. The Lord is forever faithful to His promises, and we pray that He will preserve us in this true faith until life everlasting, Amen.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Proper 23 of Series A (Matthew 22:1-14)
“For many are called, but few are chosen.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this morning is from Matthew twenty-two, the parable of the wedding feast. Dear friends in Christ, everyone loves weddings! Well, almost everyone. I’m sure there are people that haven’t enjoyed a wedding since their own, and can’t really stand being at them. Since Bethany is not here (at a wedding), you can tell her the next time that you see her that I did honestly enjoy our wedding. Wonderful sermon, good fellowship, and great food. Oh, the food! I have realized by being in a number of weddings over the past few years that the very best thing about a wedding is the food. Some of the best food I have ever tasted was at rehearsal dinners, including a steak about this big. And the food at the wedding itself is no slouch either, plus cake. Who doesn’t like cake! It is no surprise, then, that Jesus speaks of the kingdom of God as a wedding banquet in our text for today. “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.” Jewish weddings were a sight to behold, encompassing several days of joyous celebration, and more food than even a teenager could be expected to eat. Who could pass that up? Apparently, a lot of people.
God established the nation of Israel to be His chosen possession, to be the ones to carry forth His promises, to bring the Kingdom of God to fruition. This great banquet feast was set before them, the bounty of a King who loved His people. And so the call went out. God “sent His servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.” The people of Israel, God’s chosen nation, rebelled against the God who had set them apart, and refused to come to the feast. They had much more important things to do: “Again He sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business.” God did everything He could to invite them into the feast. He made covenants with their forefathers, covenants to bless and multiply them and to give them the Promised Land. And He did deliver this promised land, after He brought them forth from bondage in Egypt and gave to them His holy Law. All they had to do was obey, and He would bless them, He would defeat their enemies before them. But the Israelites refused. They went chasing after other gods, the gods of the people into whose land they came. But the Israelites did not simply reject this message. They also rejected the messengers that carried it. “The rest seized His servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.” This is the story of the entire Old Testament, as the God who loved Israel so much sent messenger after messenger to His beloved people, and each is rejected in turn. Many were killed, culminating with the King’s own Son, Jesus Christ.
But before we begin to point the finger at Israel, we must first look at ourselves. We too have been invited to a feast, the feast of God’s Word and His sacraments here in this place. And not only in this place, but each and every day we are invited to feast on God’s Word. And what happens? God “sent His servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come… They paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business.” Does this sound familiar? We too have quite a list of excuses for not coming to God’s banquet, whether here in His house or in our homes. The cares and worries of this life hem around us, choking out any opportunity to feast on God’s Word. Work, school, financial stress, and sports all supplant God’s banquet on our list of priorities. Even the menu can often fail to entice us. In our text, the king said, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready.” God has prepared quite a feast for us here in this place, and every time that we dine with Him though His holy Word. He provides strengthening of faith, direction for our lives, and the forgiveness of sins, but we often cut ourselves off from this feast and barely survive on a spiritual starvation diet. What would we say if someone turned down a rehearsal dinner to eat a piece of moldy bread? Pretty crazy, but no less so than cutting ourselves off from God’s Word. By doing this, we are rejecting Christ’s messengers, and the message that they carry. We are showing God what we think of His invitation to dine, much as rebellious Israel did.
For Israel’s violent rejection of the prophets, those servants and messengers of God, the king must respond in kind: “The king was angry, and He sent His troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” He had a right to be angry over their rejection- over our rejection- of His good gifts. The people whom He loved so much, as a husband loves his bride, had despised Him, and for that they deserved punishment. Thus, destruction was the fate for anyone who rejects God’s gifts, all who scorn the wedding feast. As the king said in our text: “The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.” For their rejection, for our rejection, we deserve to be weighed on the scale and found ‘not worthy,’ only destined for destruction.
And that would have been our fate had God not sent one final messenger to Israel and all of humanity- His very own Son, Jesus Christ. Israel treated Him as they had treated God’s other messengers: “The rest seized His servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.” Jesus Christ came preaching a message of repentance, preaching of the love of God for His rebellious creation, and for that He was hung on a cross, killed as a common criminal. But in God’s great plan for our salvation, it was only through His death that rebellious humanity could live. This is because Christ did not stay dead- He rose again victorious on the third day, and now He truly sits as the bridegroom in the banquet of heaven. Through His death and resurrection, He has won the feast for us, the feast of heaven, the Messianic banquet. Isaiah describes this in our Old Testament lesson: “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.” The salvation promised for us is this banquet, the wedding banquet of Christ with His Church. Here the broken marriage between God and His creation is restored, here “He will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, ‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.’” Because God dealt with our sin by dying on the cross, He will swallow up sin and death, He will wipe every tear from our eyes, bringing us to the heavenly banquet, the marriage feast of the Lamb who was slain, Jesus Christ Himself, the bridegroom wed to His Church, all those whom He has called.
And God’s call continues to sound forth to all people, as it once did to Israel. The King sends forth His servants to every land with this commission: “Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.” God calls us, and He does this through His Holy Word, spoken, read, and connected with means. God does the calling, but He continues to call through His chosen messengers. These men, called pastors, go forth throughout the world to preach this message to others, to be the instruments of God’s call. Moreover, all Christians are also sent out into the world to speak the Good News of Christ to those around them, and God works through their witness in words and action to extend His call to all people. Every Christian is therefore one of Christ’s messengers as they speak of the hope that is within them to all those they encounter. This call of God has power, not from the messenger who carries it, and not in the person who hears it. The Word of God has a power of its own, and it is through this Word that the Holy Spirit creates faith in the hearts of people, the faith that grasps the promises of God. The spread of the Word of God is truly a wonderful thing. “And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.”
And so the Church, the assembly of those called by God through the Word, has both good and bad people in it. What is the difference? We cannot see it, but the King knows. “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” Only those with the proper clothing can remain at the wedding banquet into all eternity. And what are these clothes? Isaiah tells us in our Introit for today: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness.” Only with the robe of righteousness, Christ’s own righteousness won on Calvary’s cross, can we sit at the wedding feast. And how does God bestow this robe? In our Baptism! In the earliest days of the Church, those who were baptized stepped into the water naked, were Baptized, and as they stepped out of the water they were clothed with a white robe. This robe declared that now Christ’s righteousness covered them, that when God looked at them He did not see a sinful human being, but instead He saw Christ and His righteousness. Whether or not you received such a physical robe on your Baptism day, the truth remains the same. In your baptism Christ covered you with His righteousness, He gave you the wedding garments that you will wear at His feast for all eternity. Cling to your Baptism through every storm in your life, for it is there that you can find the assurance that God is has clothed you with Christ’s righteousness.
Jesus concluded our parable with the words, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” We unfortunately see the truth of these words all around us. Many who are clothed with the Baptismal garments cast them off later in life, abandoning the faith and the robe of righteousness that Christ gave them. Some reject Christ without even putting on those garments. Why is this? It is only because of humanity’s sin that some reject Christ. When a person believes, the credit goes to God. But when a person rejects the wedding garments, the blame goes to that person. In the face of that we can only take confidence in Christ’s promises, not in our ourselves and our own feelings, we cling to our Baptism tightly, knowing that God is faithful to His promises, He is faithful to those whom He has claimed as His own, and we know that He will bring us to the wedding banquet, where we will dine with Him for all eternity, Amen.
God established the nation of Israel to be His chosen possession, to be the ones to carry forth His promises, to bring the Kingdom of God to fruition. This great banquet feast was set before them, the bounty of a King who loved His people. And so the call went out. God “sent His servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.” The people of Israel, God’s chosen nation, rebelled against the God who had set them apart, and refused to come to the feast. They had much more important things to do: “Again He sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business.” God did everything He could to invite them into the feast. He made covenants with their forefathers, covenants to bless and multiply them and to give them the Promised Land. And He did deliver this promised land, after He brought them forth from bondage in Egypt and gave to them His holy Law. All they had to do was obey, and He would bless them, He would defeat their enemies before them. But the Israelites refused. They went chasing after other gods, the gods of the people into whose land they came. But the Israelites did not simply reject this message. They also rejected the messengers that carried it. “The rest seized His servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.” This is the story of the entire Old Testament, as the God who loved Israel so much sent messenger after messenger to His beloved people, and each is rejected in turn. Many were killed, culminating with the King’s own Son, Jesus Christ.
But before we begin to point the finger at Israel, we must first look at ourselves. We too have been invited to a feast, the feast of God’s Word and His sacraments here in this place. And not only in this place, but each and every day we are invited to feast on God’s Word. And what happens? God “sent His servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come… They paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business.” Does this sound familiar? We too have quite a list of excuses for not coming to God’s banquet, whether here in His house or in our homes. The cares and worries of this life hem around us, choking out any opportunity to feast on God’s Word. Work, school, financial stress, and sports all supplant God’s banquet on our list of priorities. Even the menu can often fail to entice us. In our text, the king said, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready.” God has prepared quite a feast for us here in this place, and every time that we dine with Him though His holy Word. He provides strengthening of faith, direction for our lives, and the forgiveness of sins, but we often cut ourselves off from this feast and barely survive on a spiritual starvation diet. What would we say if someone turned down a rehearsal dinner to eat a piece of moldy bread? Pretty crazy, but no less so than cutting ourselves off from God’s Word. By doing this, we are rejecting Christ’s messengers, and the message that they carry. We are showing God what we think of His invitation to dine, much as rebellious Israel did.
For Israel’s violent rejection of the prophets, those servants and messengers of God, the king must respond in kind: “The king was angry, and He sent His troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” He had a right to be angry over their rejection- over our rejection- of His good gifts. The people whom He loved so much, as a husband loves his bride, had despised Him, and for that they deserved punishment. Thus, destruction was the fate for anyone who rejects God’s gifts, all who scorn the wedding feast. As the king said in our text: “The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.” For their rejection, for our rejection, we deserve to be weighed on the scale and found ‘not worthy,’ only destined for destruction.
And that would have been our fate had God not sent one final messenger to Israel and all of humanity- His very own Son, Jesus Christ. Israel treated Him as they had treated God’s other messengers: “The rest seized His servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.” Jesus Christ came preaching a message of repentance, preaching of the love of God for His rebellious creation, and for that He was hung on a cross, killed as a common criminal. But in God’s great plan for our salvation, it was only through His death that rebellious humanity could live. This is because Christ did not stay dead- He rose again victorious on the third day, and now He truly sits as the bridegroom in the banquet of heaven. Through His death and resurrection, He has won the feast for us, the feast of heaven, the Messianic banquet. Isaiah describes this in our Old Testament lesson: “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.” The salvation promised for us is this banquet, the wedding banquet of Christ with His Church. Here the broken marriage between God and His creation is restored, here “He will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, ‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.’” Because God dealt with our sin by dying on the cross, He will swallow up sin and death, He will wipe every tear from our eyes, bringing us to the heavenly banquet, the marriage feast of the Lamb who was slain, Jesus Christ Himself, the bridegroom wed to His Church, all those whom He has called.
And God’s call continues to sound forth to all people, as it once did to Israel. The King sends forth His servants to every land with this commission: “Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.” God calls us, and He does this through His Holy Word, spoken, read, and connected with means. God does the calling, but He continues to call through His chosen messengers. These men, called pastors, go forth throughout the world to preach this message to others, to be the instruments of God’s call. Moreover, all Christians are also sent out into the world to speak the Good News of Christ to those around them, and God works through their witness in words and action to extend His call to all people. Every Christian is therefore one of Christ’s messengers as they speak of the hope that is within them to all those they encounter. This call of God has power, not from the messenger who carries it, and not in the person who hears it. The Word of God has a power of its own, and it is through this Word that the Holy Spirit creates faith in the hearts of people, the faith that grasps the promises of God. The spread of the Word of God is truly a wonderful thing. “And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.”
And so the Church, the assembly of those called by God through the Word, has both good and bad people in it. What is the difference? We cannot see it, but the King knows. “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” Only those with the proper clothing can remain at the wedding banquet into all eternity. And what are these clothes? Isaiah tells us in our Introit for today: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness.” Only with the robe of righteousness, Christ’s own righteousness won on Calvary’s cross, can we sit at the wedding feast. And how does God bestow this robe? In our Baptism! In the earliest days of the Church, those who were baptized stepped into the water naked, were Baptized, and as they stepped out of the water they were clothed with a white robe. This robe declared that now Christ’s righteousness covered them, that when God looked at them He did not see a sinful human being, but instead He saw Christ and His righteousness. Whether or not you received such a physical robe on your Baptism day, the truth remains the same. In your baptism Christ covered you with His righteousness, He gave you the wedding garments that you will wear at His feast for all eternity. Cling to your Baptism through every storm in your life, for it is there that you can find the assurance that God is has clothed you with Christ’s righteousness.
Jesus concluded our parable with the words, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” We unfortunately see the truth of these words all around us. Many who are clothed with the Baptismal garments cast them off later in life, abandoning the faith and the robe of righteousness that Christ gave them. Some reject Christ without even putting on those garments. Why is this? It is only because of humanity’s sin that some reject Christ. When a person believes, the credit goes to God. But when a person rejects the wedding garments, the blame goes to that person. In the face of that we can only take confidence in Christ’s promises, not in our ourselves and our own feelings, we cling to our Baptism tightly, knowing that God is faithful to His promises, He is faithful to those whom He has claimed as His own, and we know that He will bring us to the wedding banquet, where we will dine with Him for all eternity, Amen.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Proper 22 of Series A (Matthew 21:33-46)
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon today is the parable of the tenants, from Matthew chapter 21. Dear friends in Christ, one of the really neat things about living here with you in the Finger Lakes region is all the vineyards. Next spring and summer, Bethany and I hope to take in the sights and tastes of this beautiful region. When you are relaxing with a glass of wine while overlooking Cayuga Lake, I’m sure that you can understand why God speaks of His kingdom or His creation as a vineyard. “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house that planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower.” God planted His people Israel in the Promised Land, and He provided for their every need. He protected them from their enemies and did everything that He could so that they would produce fruit. He did not just want fruit, but He wanted fruit of the best kind, fruit brought forth from their love of Him. But God did not want to be a puppet master pulling the strings of His people, instead He wanted His people to tend His vineyard, to be the keepers of the promise, a chosen people who would serve Him and bring His promises to fruition. God “leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit.”
God had given His people so much- He had made them into a great nation under Egyptian bondage, then brought them out with His mighty hand and established them in the Promised Land. Not only that, but He entrusted His promises to their care. They were to serve Him, they were to bear fruit. But there was rumor of war and rebellion in the nation of Israel, and so God sent His servants to them. “And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them.” This is the story of the entire Old Testament. Israel rebels, God sends His servants, the prophets, to preach a message of repentance, and those messengers of God are treated shamefully. Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Hosea, Nahum, and all the others were abandoned by their people, and many lost their lives for the sake of God and His message. The people of God, His chosen possession to whom the vineyard was given, refused to give to God the fruit He expected, and instead they rejected His chosen messengers. This cycle repeats over and over again, this tragic story of the people whom God loved so dearly rebelling against Him, until God finally had enough. “Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.” The very Son of God, Jesus Christ, was then sent to rebellious Israel, to preach the message of repentance, to call upon God’s chosen vinedressers to bring God the fruit they owed Him. But instead of bearing fruit, the Jews foolishly killed Christ through the Romans, who hung Him upon the cross. The very Son of God, God in the flesh, was killed by those whom God loved. What should happen to these rebellious tenants? As you sit in your pew, you probably can think of a long list of punishments that would be appropriate for a rebellious nation, you are eager to answer with the people in Jesus’ day: “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
But like Nathan told David, this text points its finger squarely at us and says, ‘You are the man!’ We are just like the Israelites in our Christian life. We have been given the gifts of God through our Baptism, we have been given the promise of eternal life in His Holy Word, but we still try to serve ourselves. Christ does not direct His Church like the puppeteer, but instead He gives it to us to tend as a vineyard. And how do we care for this vineyard? By serving ourselves and our own interests. Our position in the Church becomes an opportunity for power, a chance to exercise authority over others. Instead of serving God through the Church, we can be tempted to use our positions for our own agenda and interests. We go our own way, often refusing to listen to those messengers which Christ has sent to us. Being selfish and self-centered is a fundamental human trait, and unfortunately it finds its way into the church as well. The tenants in our text, the people of Israel, served themselves, not the God who had given to them the vineyard. The Christian Church too often emulates them, mirroring their focus on themselves. But the worst part of our rebellion is our lack of fruit. Our faith frequently does not shine through our focus on self, we often do not bear any fruit at all. Christ is not evident in our words and actions, and therefore we bear little to no fruit. In doing this, we are doing no less than the tenants in our text. We are rejecting Christ and the Church that He established. Moreover, our sinful ambitions helped to crucify Him in the first place. It is our self-centeredness that drove the nails through His hands and feet, and for that, the Lord of the vineyard must respond.
And the Lord of the vineyard responds in judgment. “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.” For our lack of fruit, for our focus on self, we deserve for the vineyard to be given to others. The Jews saw the vineyard ripped from their ungrateful hands and given to the Gentiles. We are in danger of seeing the vineyard taken from our hands and given to others who will bear fruit. We are already seeing this happen as the center of Christianity shifts south to South America and Africa. We see this in our own country as congregations close or wither away. What are we to do?
Quite simply, we pray for forgiveness, we beg for God’s grace, as many of the Jews in the days of the apostles’ did. And God does respond, He does show forth His love, but in the most unusual way. The beloved Son sent by the Lord of the vineyard to preach repentance, to call on Israel and you to give up self-centeredness and bear fruit, was killed by those tenants. Moreover, He was killed by us as our sins nailed Him to the tree. Mankind’s ultimate act of rebellion was placing Jesus Christ on the cross. But amazingly, that very act of rebellion by you, me, and all humanity, was the very means by which God brought about salvation. Christ had to die because He was the beloved Son of God, and God made Him the sacrifice for all of our sins. Our sins nailed Him to the cross, but there He paid the price for those sins, for that rebellion with His very own blood, taking the punishment that we deserved. God’s love for His creation was greater than our rejection of his servants, greater than every day that we do not produce the fruit that He expects. He dealt with our sin by sending His beloved Son to the cross, letting sinful men do what it says in our text: “They took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.” Jesus was taken outside of the walls of Jerusalem, and there on a hill called Golgatha He saved you. Despite all that you have done in your life, despite every moment of self-centeredness, despite every power play in the Church, He died for you, and it is only on the cross that salvation comes to you. The tenants said in our text, “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.” Those wicked men were more right than they knew. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we all receive His inheritance, the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. An inheritance is only received upon death, and in the death of God’s own beloved Son, you receive all that He earned through that death.
And so the crucified and risen Lord sets out to build His Church. Like the vineyard of Israel, Christ uses sinful people as His tenants, but we do not build on our own foundation. “Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?’” God entrusted the building of His kingdom to Israel, and as the chief cornerstone He presented to them His very own Son. But those builders rejected this cornerstone, and so they sent Christ to His death. Ironically, it is only through His rejection that Christ could become the cornerstone. This was God’s plan all along, as our text says, “This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” In being rejected, Christ won salvation, and now it is offered freely to all of us who participated in nailing Him to the cross. Only those who sin need Christ, and He comes to those sinners in His Word and Sacraments. The Word, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper are the means by which Christ builds His Church, because they are the means by which Christ comes to us, the means by which Christ conveys salvation. The Church is established for only one purpose- to save sinners. That is why we build on Christ and Him alone, and the gifts which He has given. It is here in the Church where this salvation comes to you and you are forgiven of all the sins that you have committed, especially your selfish power plays in the Church. Here Christ heals, here Christ binds our wounds, here Christ forgives, and He forgives you!
Because of all that Christ has done for us, we build upon Him, we serve Him and not ourselves. This is who we are because of our Baptism, because of the salvation given to us. We show forth the love of Christ to others, in the earnest hope and prayer that God will use our words and actions to bring others to Jesus. Paul is an excellent example for us to follow. Like us, he was a rebellious tenant who rejected Christ’s messengers and instead sought his own interests. He even had a hand in killing Christ’s messengers. But yet Paul says in our Epistle lesson for today: “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ… For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith-- that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” Because of the love of God shown by Christ to you, may you have the same attitude as Paul, being willing to consider everything as a loss for the sake of Christ. May you, like Paul, bring this message to those around you, trusting that God will bless your words and example, Amen.
God had given His people so much- He had made them into a great nation under Egyptian bondage, then brought them out with His mighty hand and established them in the Promised Land. Not only that, but He entrusted His promises to their care. They were to serve Him, they were to bear fruit. But there was rumor of war and rebellion in the nation of Israel, and so God sent His servants to them. “And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them.” This is the story of the entire Old Testament. Israel rebels, God sends His servants, the prophets, to preach a message of repentance, and those messengers of God are treated shamefully. Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Hosea, Nahum, and all the others were abandoned by their people, and many lost their lives for the sake of God and His message. The people of God, His chosen possession to whom the vineyard was given, refused to give to God the fruit He expected, and instead they rejected His chosen messengers. This cycle repeats over and over again, this tragic story of the people whom God loved so dearly rebelling against Him, until God finally had enough. “Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.” The very Son of God, Jesus Christ, was then sent to rebellious Israel, to preach the message of repentance, to call upon God’s chosen vinedressers to bring God the fruit they owed Him. But instead of bearing fruit, the Jews foolishly killed Christ through the Romans, who hung Him upon the cross. The very Son of God, God in the flesh, was killed by those whom God loved. What should happen to these rebellious tenants? As you sit in your pew, you probably can think of a long list of punishments that would be appropriate for a rebellious nation, you are eager to answer with the people in Jesus’ day: “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
But like Nathan told David, this text points its finger squarely at us and says, ‘You are the man!’ We are just like the Israelites in our Christian life. We have been given the gifts of God through our Baptism, we have been given the promise of eternal life in His Holy Word, but we still try to serve ourselves. Christ does not direct His Church like the puppeteer, but instead He gives it to us to tend as a vineyard. And how do we care for this vineyard? By serving ourselves and our own interests. Our position in the Church becomes an opportunity for power, a chance to exercise authority over others. Instead of serving God through the Church, we can be tempted to use our positions for our own agenda and interests. We go our own way, often refusing to listen to those messengers which Christ has sent to us. Being selfish and self-centered is a fundamental human trait, and unfortunately it finds its way into the church as well. The tenants in our text, the people of Israel, served themselves, not the God who had given to them the vineyard. The Christian Church too often emulates them, mirroring their focus on themselves. But the worst part of our rebellion is our lack of fruit. Our faith frequently does not shine through our focus on self, we often do not bear any fruit at all. Christ is not evident in our words and actions, and therefore we bear little to no fruit. In doing this, we are doing no less than the tenants in our text. We are rejecting Christ and the Church that He established. Moreover, our sinful ambitions helped to crucify Him in the first place. It is our self-centeredness that drove the nails through His hands and feet, and for that, the Lord of the vineyard must respond.
And the Lord of the vineyard responds in judgment. “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.” For our lack of fruit, for our focus on self, we deserve for the vineyard to be given to others. The Jews saw the vineyard ripped from their ungrateful hands and given to the Gentiles. We are in danger of seeing the vineyard taken from our hands and given to others who will bear fruit. We are already seeing this happen as the center of Christianity shifts south to South America and Africa. We see this in our own country as congregations close or wither away. What are we to do?
Quite simply, we pray for forgiveness, we beg for God’s grace, as many of the Jews in the days of the apostles’ did. And God does respond, He does show forth His love, but in the most unusual way. The beloved Son sent by the Lord of the vineyard to preach repentance, to call on Israel and you to give up self-centeredness and bear fruit, was killed by those tenants. Moreover, He was killed by us as our sins nailed Him to the tree. Mankind’s ultimate act of rebellion was placing Jesus Christ on the cross. But amazingly, that very act of rebellion by you, me, and all humanity, was the very means by which God brought about salvation. Christ had to die because He was the beloved Son of God, and God made Him the sacrifice for all of our sins. Our sins nailed Him to the cross, but there He paid the price for those sins, for that rebellion with His very own blood, taking the punishment that we deserved. God’s love for His creation was greater than our rejection of his servants, greater than every day that we do not produce the fruit that He expects. He dealt with our sin by sending His beloved Son to the cross, letting sinful men do what it says in our text: “They took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.” Jesus was taken outside of the walls of Jerusalem, and there on a hill called Golgatha He saved you. Despite all that you have done in your life, despite every moment of self-centeredness, despite every power play in the Church, He died for you, and it is only on the cross that salvation comes to you. The tenants said in our text, “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.” Those wicked men were more right than they knew. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we all receive His inheritance, the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. An inheritance is only received upon death, and in the death of God’s own beloved Son, you receive all that He earned through that death.
And so the crucified and risen Lord sets out to build His Church. Like the vineyard of Israel, Christ uses sinful people as His tenants, but we do not build on our own foundation. “Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?’” God entrusted the building of His kingdom to Israel, and as the chief cornerstone He presented to them His very own Son. But those builders rejected this cornerstone, and so they sent Christ to His death. Ironically, it is only through His rejection that Christ could become the cornerstone. This was God’s plan all along, as our text says, “This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” In being rejected, Christ won salvation, and now it is offered freely to all of us who participated in nailing Him to the cross. Only those who sin need Christ, and He comes to those sinners in His Word and Sacraments. The Word, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper are the means by which Christ builds His Church, because they are the means by which Christ comes to us, the means by which Christ conveys salvation. The Church is established for only one purpose- to save sinners. That is why we build on Christ and Him alone, and the gifts which He has given. It is here in the Church where this salvation comes to you and you are forgiven of all the sins that you have committed, especially your selfish power plays in the Church. Here Christ heals, here Christ binds our wounds, here Christ forgives, and He forgives you!
Because of all that Christ has done for us, we build upon Him, we serve Him and not ourselves. This is who we are because of our Baptism, because of the salvation given to us. We show forth the love of Christ to others, in the earnest hope and prayer that God will use our words and actions to bring others to Jesus. Paul is an excellent example for us to follow. Like us, he was a rebellious tenant who rejected Christ’s messengers and instead sought his own interests. He even had a hand in killing Christ’s messengers. But yet Paul says in our Epistle lesson for today: “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ… For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith-- that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” Because of the love of God shown by Christ to you, may you have the same attitude as Paul, being willing to consider everything as a loss for the sake of Christ. May you, like Paul, bring this message to those around you, trusting that God will bless your words and example, Amen.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Article in October School Newsletter
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
When I started teaching in the classrooms of Zion Lutheran School two weeks ago, one of the lessons I started with the kindergarten and first graders was the Ten Commandments. I don’t know about you, but for me, that phrase makes me think of Charlton Heston bringing down the tablets from Mount Sinai (kids, ask your mom or dad about that movie- it’s even older than me!). As we work through all ten together, learning what they are and what they mean, I wanted to expose both parents and the students in other grades to some thoughts of what the Ten Commandments are all about. This month, I will speak briefly on the structure of the Commandments, while next month we will focus on its use.
The Ten Commandments can be nicely divided into two parts, or ‘tables.’ The first concerns our relationship with God (the first through third commandments), while the second concerns our relationship with other people (fourth through tenth commandments). An easy way to think about this is by drawing a cross. The vertical line is the connection between us and God. That relationship is shaped by the first three commands. The horizontal line is the connection between us and our neighbor. The important idea to keep in mind is that our ‘horizontal’ relationships in this world are defined by, and flow out of, our relationship with God. Because God has shown us such love by sending us His Son for our salvation, we then go out and show that same love for one another. It is only on the basis of the first three commandments that we can go out and live the other seven. Even more specifically, all Ten Commandments flow directly out of the first. Because God is the only true God, we will worship Him and keep His name holy. Moreover, we will order our relationships with others in a way that reflects His identity as true God. The Ten Commandments provide a structure of our lives in Christ, but more on that next month! God’s blessings!
In Christ,
Vicar Maronde
When I started teaching in the classrooms of Zion Lutheran School two weeks ago, one of the lessons I started with the kindergarten and first graders was the Ten Commandments. I don’t know about you, but for me, that phrase makes me think of Charlton Heston bringing down the tablets from Mount Sinai (kids, ask your mom or dad about that movie- it’s even older than me!). As we work through all ten together, learning what they are and what they mean, I wanted to expose both parents and the students in other grades to some thoughts of what the Ten Commandments are all about. This month, I will speak briefly on the structure of the Commandments, while next month we will focus on its use.
The Ten Commandments can be nicely divided into two parts, or ‘tables.’ The first concerns our relationship with God (the first through third commandments), while the second concerns our relationship with other people (fourth through tenth commandments). An easy way to think about this is by drawing a cross. The vertical line is the connection between us and God. That relationship is shaped by the first three commands. The horizontal line is the connection between us and our neighbor. The important idea to keep in mind is that our ‘horizontal’ relationships in this world are defined by, and flow out of, our relationship with God. Because God has shown us such love by sending us His Son for our salvation, we then go out and show that same love for one another. It is only on the basis of the first three commandments that we can go out and live the other seven. Even more specifically, all Ten Commandments flow directly out of the first. Because God is the only true God, we will worship Him and keep His name holy. Moreover, we will order our relationships with others in a way that reflects His identity as true God. The Ten Commandments provide a structure of our lives in Christ, but more on that next month! God’s blessings!
In Christ,
Vicar Maronde
Article in October Newletter
From the Vicar,
‘Spirituality’ is a popular term in our world today. It seems as if people are searching for this elusive sense of the spiritual in their lives, most often a spirituality that is divorced from organized religion, much less the Christian Church. Within the Church, too, people are searching for ‘spirituality,’ and the shelves of Christian book stores are filled with hundreds of titles that promise just that. The popularity of books such as The Purpose Driven Life or The Prayer of Jabez indicate that people are drawn to those who seem to have all the answers, and even Lutherans are drawn into the focus on self that we find between the covers. A true Christian spirituality does not focus on us or what we do, but instead focuses on Christ and what He has done for us.
In distinction and contrast with all the books we find on ‘spirituality’ in the local bookstore, there are several Lutheran authors who have written short and easy to read books on the faith. Several times during this coming year, I will review these books and recommend them to you for your own reading. It is my prayer that these authors can help you to understand Christianity and Lutheranism as focused solely on our Savior, and not on self. This month, I would like to speak about a book by Rev. Daniel Preus, entitled Why I am a Lutheran: Jesus at the Center.
Rev. Preus intends within the pages of his book to demonstrate how Jesus is at the center of all that is Christian. He does not set out to describe the Lutheran faith, and he recommends Luther’s Small Catechism for that task (more on that handbook of Christian ‘spirituality’ next month). It is his hope that in starting with Christ, it will become apparent that he and many others are Lutheran quite simply because no other confession places Christ so firmly at the center. The primary metaphor that Rev. Preus uses to demonstrate this is three mountains. The first is Mt. Sinai, where the Law was given, the Law that accuses and condemns us. The second and most important mountain is Mt. Calvary, where Christ shed His blood for us. This mountain is where we can meet God and live. The final mountain is Mt. Zion, or the Church, where we join with all who have gone before us in fellowship with God. Within his discussions of these three mountains, Rev. Preus describes the faith, from justification and the Sacraments to worship. Especially important to his assertion that Christ is at the center is the concept that we can only reach Mt. Zion through Mt. Calvary. Any attempt to reach Mt. Zion on our own only results in our being placed once again at the foot of Mt. Sinai, facing God’s wrath alone. This is where popular Christian ‘spirituality’ goes wrong. When we focus on our own efforts to please God, we have returned to Mt. Sinai by ourselves. The good news is that Christ has faced God’s wrath for us by going to the cross on Mt. Calvary.
Rev. Preus writes in a very engaging style, using stories from his childhood and his time as a pastor to illustrate his topics. In addition, he challenges his readers by teaching theological terms and quoting from Lutheran theologians. The use of hymnody provides a connection to the worship of the Church, as we sing what we believe (more on that in another newsletter). It is appropriate for those of High School age on up, though I would not hesitate having Middle School children start working through it. I have several copies in my office, if anyone is interested in taking a look, or you can contact Concordia Publishing House to purchase your own. Christ truly is at the center of all that we believe and confess as Christians, and through this wonderful book Rev. Preus has reemphasized this fact for us all. God’s blessings!
In Christ,
Vicar Maronde
‘Spirituality’ is a popular term in our world today. It seems as if people are searching for this elusive sense of the spiritual in their lives, most often a spirituality that is divorced from organized religion, much less the Christian Church. Within the Church, too, people are searching for ‘spirituality,’ and the shelves of Christian book stores are filled with hundreds of titles that promise just that. The popularity of books such as The Purpose Driven Life or The Prayer of Jabez indicate that people are drawn to those who seem to have all the answers, and even Lutherans are drawn into the focus on self that we find between the covers. A true Christian spirituality does not focus on us or what we do, but instead focuses on Christ and what He has done for us.
In distinction and contrast with all the books we find on ‘spirituality’ in the local bookstore, there are several Lutheran authors who have written short and easy to read books on the faith. Several times during this coming year, I will review these books and recommend them to you for your own reading. It is my prayer that these authors can help you to understand Christianity and Lutheranism as focused solely on our Savior, and not on self. This month, I would like to speak about a book by Rev. Daniel Preus, entitled Why I am a Lutheran: Jesus at the Center.
Rev. Preus intends within the pages of his book to demonstrate how Jesus is at the center of all that is Christian. He does not set out to describe the Lutheran faith, and he recommends Luther’s Small Catechism for that task (more on that handbook of Christian ‘spirituality’ next month). It is his hope that in starting with Christ, it will become apparent that he and many others are Lutheran quite simply because no other confession places Christ so firmly at the center. The primary metaphor that Rev. Preus uses to demonstrate this is three mountains. The first is Mt. Sinai, where the Law was given, the Law that accuses and condemns us. The second and most important mountain is Mt. Calvary, where Christ shed His blood for us. This mountain is where we can meet God and live. The final mountain is Mt. Zion, or the Church, where we join with all who have gone before us in fellowship with God. Within his discussions of these three mountains, Rev. Preus describes the faith, from justification and the Sacraments to worship. Especially important to his assertion that Christ is at the center is the concept that we can only reach Mt. Zion through Mt. Calvary. Any attempt to reach Mt. Zion on our own only results in our being placed once again at the foot of Mt. Sinai, facing God’s wrath alone. This is where popular Christian ‘spirituality’ goes wrong. When we focus on our own efforts to please God, we have returned to Mt. Sinai by ourselves. The good news is that Christ has faced God’s wrath for us by going to the cross on Mt. Calvary.
Rev. Preus writes in a very engaging style, using stories from his childhood and his time as a pastor to illustrate his topics. In addition, he challenges his readers by teaching theological terms and quoting from Lutheran theologians. The use of hymnody provides a connection to the worship of the Church, as we sing what we believe (more on that in another newsletter). It is appropriate for those of High School age on up, though I would not hesitate having Middle School children start working through it. I have several copies in my office, if anyone is interested in taking a look, or you can contact Concordia Publishing House to purchase your own. Christ truly is at the center of all that we believe and confess as Christians, and through this wonderful book Rev. Preus has reemphasized this fact for us all. God’s blessings!
In Christ,
Vicar Maronde
Proper 21 of Series A (Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32)
“Why will you die, O house of Israel?” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this morning is the Old Testament lesson read a few moments ago from Ezekiel eighteen. Dear friends in Christ, we all have little phrases that we use for a variety of situations. Some simply don’t make sense, like “A stitch in time saves nine.” Just who is taking the needle to our clocks and why do we only save nine? Wouldn’t ten be better? Others do make good sense, like “a penny saved is a penny earned.” Well, maybe not in this economy. In our text today, we hear about a phrase that the Israelites spoke amongst themselves: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” Huh? At first glance, it seems like the Israelites are as crazy as we are. But if we look closer, the meaning becomes apparent. The Israelites are saying that when the fathers sin, their children are punished. The fathers are the ones who eat the sour grapes, but who takes the consequences? Their offspring. The children are punished for the sins of their parents. Something seems wrong here.
God quotes this saying in our text because the people of Israel are using it to make an accusation against God. They are saying that God’s judgment is arbitrary, that He is punishing people no matter whether they are wicked or righteous. The Israelites are asserting that God does not care who bears the brunt of His wrath, just so that He gets angry at someone. God’s punishment hits the wicked and righteous in a pattern that seems random, and when you get down to it, that is unfair. We in the Christian Church today say many of the same things. You pray, you go to church, you read your Bible, but still, bad things happen to you. Meanwhile, your neighbor, who is probably still sleeping right now, doesn’t even own a bible, and only uses the Lord’s name in vain, is living pretty well. Trouble does not seem to strike him, despite how much he must be ticking off God with his life. How can this possibly be fair? The bad things of this life, the consequences of living in a sinful world, hit believer and unbeliever alike, and there seems to be no pattern to it. Like the Israelites, we call out God, perhaps by using a phrase like we find in our text. But when you make an accusation about God, you had better be ready for Him to defend Himself.
And God’s reply does thunder forth: “Hear now O Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?” He points the arrow back squarely at us. We are the sinful ones, we are the ones who messed up His perfect creation, and now we have the guts to stand up and tell Him that His ways are not right? Our ways are unjust, we wallow in sin each and every day, and for that we deserve only punishment, eternal punishment. But God is not a teenager who simply passes the blame onto someone else. He has something to say about His ways: “Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.” Every soul belongs to Him, and He judges them one at a time. His judgment comes to each person, wicked or righteous, and that judgment is not based on our parents or on our past. It comes to each person at the time of death, as God says, “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord God.” Our accusation against God is answered by a terrible pronouncement. God’s judgment is not arbitrary or random. It does not come in this life, but instead upon death, and as our text states, “the soul who sins shall die.” We have all sinned, we have all broken God’s Law, and God’s judgment is announced here for us- death.
And so God has a message to each and every one of you- repent! “Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin.” Our sin will be our ruin unless we turn away from it, and instead follow the path that God has laid out for us in His Law. Sin has become a burden for us, weighing us down and carrying us to the grave in disobedience to God’s will. God speaks to us, “Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed.” Unless we turn from our sin and cast it away from us, a holy God cannot abide with us. “When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die.” There is only one problem. None of us can do that on our own. We are dead in our sins, we cannot turn from them or cast them off by ourselves. But God has yet one more message for us in our text. “I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God.” He will show His love and His grace so fully that we will never have a need to complain about His arbitrary judgment.
God’s judgment was death, and we did deserve it, but God’s desire is life, and life with Him. And so God sent His Son into the world, the only truly righteous person (as we heard last week), who had no sin to turn from or cast off. Instead of casting off sin, He took sin onto His own shoulders. As St. Paul puts it so beautifully in our Epistle lesson for today, Jesus Christ was the One “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” God takes no pleasure in the death of anyone, most especially His one and only Son. But it was only through death that His divine judgment could be satisfied, and so Christ was given to die. The Lord of heaven and earth then poured out the wrath we deserved on Jesus Christ, punishing Him as God mourned. The entire earth shook in mourning on the Good Friday, as God in the flesh was sacrificed for sinful man. It was on the cross that God showed all people that His judgment is not arbitrary or random, but instead it was focused on one person, the only one who could take all of our sin away. But it was also on the cross that God showed all people that His grace and love for His sinful creation is so powerful, so overflowing that He was willing to give up His very own Son to save us, to save you! Even though He has no pleasure in the death of anyone, He still put His Son to death for your sins! And when Christ stepped forth from the tomb on Easter Sunday, God declared all of you righteous through His blood. Only one thing remained- as God told the Israelites in our text, you must “make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.”
And it is here that we run up against another brick wall. If we could not turn from our sin and cast it off by ourselves, how can we make ourselves a new heart and a new spirit? As I told you earlier, we are dead in our trespasses and sins, and as a dead person cannot become alive by himself, so we could not repent or make a new spirit. And without a new heart and a new spirit, Christ’s death and resurrection means nothing to us- they are simply interesting historical events. Thanks be to God that this is a weak translation! Another way to take this verse is “get for yourself a new heart and a new spirit,” and the only way we ‘get for ourselves’ a new heart and a new spirit is through the work of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit! God’s grace overflows once again! Christ does not only pay the price that we could not, but He delivers His gifts to us, renewing our hearts and spirits to receive those gifts in faith. He does this through the Word, but He especially does this through the washing of water with the Word. In your Baptism God gave you a new heart and a new spirit, putting to death your sinful heart and spirit, drowning them with all of their corruption. Now, with this new heart and spirit, we can receive the gifts of God, and he delivers them to us, the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. In our text, God spoke of how He judges each person individually. “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord God.” Because of Christ’s death on your behalf, this judgment is ‘not guilty,’ you are declared righteous for His sake.
God asked Israel in our text, “Why will you die, O house of Israel?” Israel does not have to die because God will show forth His grace on the cross, saving all Israel and all humanity from the punishment we deserved. He asks the same question to us today. We can confidently answer Him, “No, we will not die, because you have paid the price for us!” God’s desire for you is now life, not a life free from troubles on this earth, but instead life, in heaven, life forever, life with Him! “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live!”
And now that we have been claimed by Christ, now that we have been saved by His cross and washed by the waters which give to us life, we live a life of repentance. Each and every day we live out our Baptism, dying to sin and rising to Christ. As our text says, “Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.” Each and every day the Holy Spirit works within us to enable us to repent of our sin, and He works to renew our heart and spirit. We live a life shaped by our baptism, shaped by the cross, and strengthened by His Word and the Lord’s Supper. When we come forward to the communion rail, we will receive life, we will eat at the banquet of life, we are dining at the table of heaven. God desires life for each and every one of you, and He brings it to you here today, once again in this place, as He did on your Baptism day. May He strengthen and sustain you in your Baptismal life until He brings you from temporal life to eternal life, Amen.
God quotes this saying in our text because the people of Israel are using it to make an accusation against God. They are saying that God’s judgment is arbitrary, that He is punishing people no matter whether they are wicked or righteous. The Israelites are asserting that God does not care who bears the brunt of His wrath, just so that He gets angry at someone. God’s punishment hits the wicked and righteous in a pattern that seems random, and when you get down to it, that is unfair. We in the Christian Church today say many of the same things. You pray, you go to church, you read your Bible, but still, bad things happen to you. Meanwhile, your neighbor, who is probably still sleeping right now, doesn’t even own a bible, and only uses the Lord’s name in vain, is living pretty well. Trouble does not seem to strike him, despite how much he must be ticking off God with his life. How can this possibly be fair? The bad things of this life, the consequences of living in a sinful world, hit believer and unbeliever alike, and there seems to be no pattern to it. Like the Israelites, we call out God, perhaps by using a phrase like we find in our text. But when you make an accusation about God, you had better be ready for Him to defend Himself.
And God’s reply does thunder forth: “Hear now O Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?” He points the arrow back squarely at us. We are the sinful ones, we are the ones who messed up His perfect creation, and now we have the guts to stand up and tell Him that His ways are not right? Our ways are unjust, we wallow in sin each and every day, and for that we deserve only punishment, eternal punishment. But God is not a teenager who simply passes the blame onto someone else. He has something to say about His ways: “Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.” Every soul belongs to Him, and He judges them one at a time. His judgment comes to each person, wicked or righteous, and that judgment is not based on our parents or on our past. It comes to each person at the time of death, as God says, “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord God.” Our accusation against God is answered by a terrible pronouncement. God’s judgment is not arbitrary or random. It does not come in this life, but instead upon death, and as our text states, “the soul who sins shall die.” We have all sinned, we have all broken God’s Law, and God’s judgment is announced here for us- death.
And so God has a message to each and every one of you- repent! “Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin.” Our sin will be our ruin unless we turn away from it, and instead follow the path that God has laid out for us in His Law. Sin has become a burden for us, weighing us down and carrying us to the grave in disobedience to God’s will. God speaks to us, “Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed.” Unless we turn from our sin and cast it away from us, a holy God cannot abide with us. “When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die.” There is only one problem. None of us can do that on our own. We are dead in our sins, we cannot turn from them or cast them off by ourselves. But God has yet one more message for us in our text. “I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God.” He will show His love and His grace so fully that we will never have a need to complain about His arbitrary judgment.
God’s judgment was death, and we did deserve it, but God’s desire is life, and life with Him. And so God sent His Son into the world, the only truly righteous person (as we heard last week), who had no sin to turn from or cast off. Instead of casting off sin, He took sin onto His own shoulders. As St. Paul puts it so beautifully in our Epistle lesson for today, Jesus Christ was the One “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” God takes no pleasure in the death of anyone, most especially His one and only Son. But it was only through death that His divine judgment could be satisfied, and so Christ was given to die. The Lord of heaven and earth then poured out the wrath we deserved on Jesus Christ, punishing Him as God mourned. The entire earth shook in mourning on the Good Friday, as God in the flesh was sacrificed for sinful man. It was on the cross that God showed all people that His judgment is not arbitrary or random, but instead it was focused on one person, the only one who could take all of our sin away. But it was also on the cross that God showed all people that His grace and love for His sinful creation is so powerful, so overflowing that He was willing to give up His very own Son to save us, to save you! Even though He has no pleasure in the death of anyone, He still put His Son to death for your sins! And when Christ stepped forth from the tomb on Easter Sunday, God declared all of you righteous through His blood. Only one thing remained- as God told the Israelites in our text, you must “make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.”
And it is here that we run up against another brick wall. If we could not turn from our sin and cast it off by ourselves, how can we make ourselves a new heart and a new spirit? As I told you earlier, we are dead in our trespasses and sins, and as a dead person cannot become alive by himself, so we could not repent or make a new spirit. And without a new heart and a new spirit, Christ’s death and resurrection means nothing to us- they are simply interesting historical events. Thanks be to God that this is a weak translation! Another way to take this verse is “get for yourself a new heart and a new spirit,” and the only way we ‘get for ourselves’ a new heart and a new spirit is through the work of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit! God’s grace overflows once again! Christ does not only pay the price that we could not, but He delivers His gifts to us, renewing our hearts and spirits to receive those gifts in faith. He does this through the Word, but He especially does this through the washing of water with the Word. In your Baptism God gave you a new heart and a new spirit, putting to death your sinful heart and spirit, drowning them with all of their corruption. Now, with this new heart and spirit, we can receive the gifts of God, and he delivers them to us, the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. In our text, God spoke of how He judges each person individually. “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord God.” Because of Christ’s death on your behalf, this judgment is ‘not guilty,’ you are declared righteous for His sake.
God asked Israel in our text, “Why will you die, O house of Israel?” Israel does not have to die because God will show forth His grace on the cross, saving all Israel and all humanity from the punishment we deserved. He asks the same question to us today. We can confidently answer Him, “No, we will not die, because you have paid the price for us!” God’s desire for you is now life, not a life free from troubles on this earth, but instead life, in heaven, life forever, life with Him! “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live!”
And now that we have been claimed by Christ, now that we have been saved by His cross and washed by the waters which give to us life, we live a life of repentance. Each and every day we live out our Baptism, dying to sin and rising to Christ. As our text says, “Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.” Each and every day the Holy Spirit works within us to enable us to repent of our sin, and He works to renew our heart and spirit. We live a life shaped by our baptism, shaped by the cross, and strengthened by His Word and the Lord’s Supper. When we come forward to the communion rail, we will receive life, we will eat at the banquet of life, we are dining at the table of heaven. God desires life for each and every one of you, and He brings it to you here today, once again in this place, as He did on your Baptism day. May He strengthen and sustain you in your Baptismal life until He brings you from temporal life to eternal life, Amen.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Proper 20 of Series A (Matthew 20:1-16)
“So the last will be first, and the first last.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our consideration this morning is from Matthew chapter twenty, the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. Dear friends in Christ, we in America have a problem that I will call the “arrogance of the present.” We have an ignorance of history that causes us to think that what is happening today is more significant than whatever came before. We are so impressed with our advances that we look down on those who preceded us. And this can go in both a positive and negative direction. On the one hand, we can think that our world today is so much better than any other period in all of history. We are so much more enlightened than those who lived centuries or millennia ago, so much so that the human race today must be the pinnacle of all that God created us to be! We have this sense of superiority, the arrogance of a culture that dismisses people who lived in the past. On the other hand, the romantics among us believe that our society is so much worse than what came before. We have reached the pinnacle, alright, but the pinnacle of decay and moral depravity. Both extremes are quite simply wrong. In every facet of our society we are building off the advances of others, and those closer to the front of the chain were often much smarter than we. On the negative side, we can find plenty of moral decay in every society on earth, from Adam and Eve on. Even the 50’s weren’t as perfect as I hear people say…
We do not find this arrogance of the present only in our society, but also in the Church. Once again, the primary culprit is ignorance of history. We can often have this sense in the Church that our situation today is like nothing the Church has ever seen before, forgetting the wise words of Ecclesiastes, “there is nothing new under the sun.” Jesus’ parable for today can apply to that sort of arrogance. If we view the time scale of this parable as the entire history of the Church, then we see that those who labored with the apostles receive the same reward and work in the same vineyard with the same tools as those who serve today. The Church is a unity that extends throughout all time. Next week when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, the liturgy we will use is nearly 2,000 years old, and it has been a vehicle for proclaiming Christ’s supper for almost the entire history of the Church. We will worship with all those who have come before us. Christ continues to build His Church as He always has, through the proclamation of His Gospel and the administration of the sacraments.
This parable can also be viewed in the scope of a person’s lifetime. Some of us are called by Christ as infants, when our Lord used those around us to bring us to the blessed baptismal waters. “For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.” Some of us come into the Church as children, perhaps through the witness of a Christian day school. “And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went.” Others of us are brought to the faith as adults of any age, brought into a relationship with Christ through the witness of friends or family. “Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.” Finally, some only confess Christ upon death, and are washed with the waters that bring us life as life itself is fading. “And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’” The Holy Spirit does the hiring, working faith in a variety of ways, at a variety of times in a person’s life, but humans have this bad habit of making judgments on how he does this. The new convert will often look down upon those that have been in the Church for life as not enthusiastic enough. On the other hand, those who were baptized as infants and raised in the Church can look down upon new converts, wondering what took them so long, and thinking that they are somehow lesser Christians. Both groups look down on death-bed conversions, and wonder whether it was legitimate. It is for us just as the text says: “And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’” Our parable teaches us that no matter when in our lives we entered the vineyard as a Christian, we still are equal in the kingdom of heaven. Our age at conversion does not matter, and neither does the century we live in. We are all equal in God’s eyes, as our text says: “I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?”
Within the Church, we can also have this haughty attitude toward those who hold different roles. All Christians are equal, but our roles in the Church are different. If you read throughout the New Testament, you will find that different people are given different roles. Paul talks about wives being in loving submission to their husbands, and husbands giving up their entire lives in love to their wives. Children are to love and obey their parents. A pastor has a different role than a layperson, and a vicar is stuck somewhere between. Conflict comes when we view our roles as an opportunity for power, and use it to dominate other people. On the other hand, conflict also comes when we attempt to take over the roles given by God to others. God wants us to respect the roles given to others, and to not abuse the roles He gives to us.
It is so easy to look down upon one another for any reason, whether it is the century they lived in, the age they came to faith, or the role they have been given. In doing this, we are letting our pride get in the way, and we are demonstrating that we do not deserve God’s good gifts. All we deserve is His judgment, because we are rejecting His overflowing love and generosity to others. As God says through the landowner in our text, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?” Our haughty attitudes, our arrogance toward others in the faith, deserve for Christ to simply tell us, as the landowner did, to ‘go’- out of the Church, out of the kingdom, away from Christ’s gifts. But when we humbly repent, Christ brings us back in. The reward we deserve is punishment, but the reward we receive is something immensely better. When the landowner called the second group, he said to them, “You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.” The word used there for ‘right’ is the same word for righteous, or just. Righteousness is an important word in the Bible, and it means that we have a right standing before God. This righteousness could mean all of the good things that we do added up, a big pile of our good works that we present to God. Righteousness could be our making ourselves right in God’s eyes, making up for our sin by our work. We could be forced to attain our own righteousness, but instead righteous does not describe us, it describes Jesus Christ. Jesus was the only truly righteous man, the only perfect person who fulfilled God’s will. But He was not only man, but also God, and as true God and true man, the only truly righteous one, He went to the cross to pay the price for all the sinful. The blood of God in the flesh was shed on the Good Friday, and there Christ gave up His life for you. And as the righteous one, Christ was vindicated on Easter Sunday, when God accepted His sacrifice by raising Him from the dead. But the death of even a righteous man, even God in the flesh, meant nothing if it was not delivered to you. In Baptism His righteousness is then applied to you- this is the Good News of the Gospel. We were not left to attain our own righteousness through all of striving toward God and perfection. If left to ourselves, we would never come close to righteousness. Instead, Christ gives His righteousness as a gift, it covers us, and as a result, God declares us righteous, He declares our sins forgiven, He gives us eternal life. The ‘right’ payment given to all the laborers is the righteousness of Christ, won on Calvary’s cross and applied to you!
But this righteousness is not for those who already think themselves righteous. Those who in pride look down on others in the Church already have a righteousness of their own, a righteousness that comes from their own sense of superiority. When we realize that all Christians are equal in that they receive an equal reward from Christ, His righteousness applied to them, we will in humbleness repent of our own self-righteousness. We will then understand the truth of Christ’s words: “So the last will be first and the first last.” Anyone who would place themselves first in the kingdom of God due to their pedigree, their superiority, or their office in the Church, will be last. They have no need of a Savior because they have a righteousness of their own, based on their own pride. However, those who in humility confess all their sins and admit that without Christ they are lost will be first in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus Christ and the Church He founded on His shed blood are for sinners, and no one else. Those who in their self-righteousness see no sin have no place in the Church. Instead, it is all of us who are broken down by our sin, who have been beaten down by the Law that need Christ’s healing hand. We need His gifts, we need His healing, and it is here in this place that He gives them freely and openly, in equal measure to all whom He has called.
As our Old Testament lesson reminds us, God’s ways are not our ways. God says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” We would expect that a pastor would be a more important Christian than anyone else, or that those of us living in the ‘here and now’ are more vital to God, or that those born and raised in the Church would have a greater reward. But none of that is true. God gives His gifts freely to all who need them, all those sick with the affliction of sin. May you see your need for your Savior and in humility repent and come to this place to receive healing, forgiveness, and strength, each and every time that it is offered, Amen.
We do not find this arrogance of the present only in our society, but also in the Church. Once again, the primary culprit is ignorance of history. We can often have this sense in the Church that our situation today is like nothing the Church has ever seen before, forgetting the wise words of Ecclesiastes, “there is nothing new under the sun.” Jesus’ parable for today can apply to that sort of arrogance. If we view the time scale of this parable as the entire history of the Church, then we see that those who labored with the apostles receive the same reward and work in the same vineyard with the same tools as those who serve today. The Church is a unity that extends throughout all time. Next week when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, the liturgy we will use is nearly 2,000 years old, and it has been a vehicle for proclaiming Christ’s supper for almost the entire history of the Church. We will worship with all those who have come before us. Christ continues to build His Church as He always has, through the proclamation of His Gospel and the administration of the sacraments.
This parable can also be viewed in the scope of a person’s lifetime. Some of us are called by Christ as infants, when our Lord used those around us to bring us to the blessed baptismal waters. “For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.” Some of us come into the Church as children, perhaps through the witness of a Christian day school. “And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went.” Others of us are brought to the faith as adults of any age, brought into a relationship with Christ through the witness of friends or family. “Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.” Finally, some only confess Christ upon death, and are washed with the waters that bring us life as life itself is fading. “And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’” The Holy Spirit does the hiring, working faith in a variety of ways, at a variety of times in a person’s life, but humans have this bad habit of making judgments on how he does this. The new convert will often look down upon those that have been in the Church for life as not enthusiastic enough. On the other hand, those who were baptized as infants and raised in the Church can look down upon new converts, wondering what took them so long, and thinking that they are somehow lesser Christians. Both groups look down on death-bed conversions, and wonder whether it was legitimate. It is for us just as the text says: “And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’” Our parable teaches us that no matter when in our lives we entered the vineyard as a Christian, we still are equal in the kingdom of heaven. Our age at conversion does not matter, and neither does the century we live in. We are all equal in God’s eyes, as our text says: “I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?”
Within the Church, we can also have this haughty attitude toward those who hold different roles. All Christians are equal, but our roles in the Church are different. If you read throughout the New Testament, you will find that different people are given different roles. Paul talks about wives being in loving submission to their husbands, and husbands giving up their entire lives in love to their wives. Children are to love and obey their parents. A pastor has a different role than a layperson, and a vicar is stuck somewhere between. Conflict comes when we view our roles as an opportunity for power, and use it to dominate other people. On the other hand, conflict also comes when we attempt to take over the roles given by God to others. God wants us to respect the roles given to others, and to not abuse the roles He gives to us.
It is so easy to look down upon one another for any reason, whether it is the century they lived in, the age they came to faith, or the role they have been given. In doing this, we are letting our pride get in the way, and we are demonstrating that we do not deserve God’s good gifts. All we deserve is His judgment, because we are rejecting His overflowing love and generosity to others. As God says through the landowner in our text, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?” Our haughty attitudes, our arrogance toward others in the faith, deserve for Christ to simply tell us, as the landowner did, to ‘go’- out of the Church, out of the kingdom, away from Christ’s gifts. But when we humbly repent, Christ brings us back in. The reward we deserve is punishment, but the reward we receive is something immensely better. When the landowner called the second group, he said to them, “You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.” The word used there for ‘right’ is the same word for righteous, or just. Righteousness is an important word in the Bible, and it means that we have a right standing before God. This righteousness could mean all of the good things that we do added up, a big pile of our good works that we present to God. Righteousness could be our making ourselves right in God’s eyes, making up for our sin by our work. We could be forced to attain our own righteousness, but instead righteous does not describe us, it describes Jesus Christ. Jesus was the only truly righteous man, the only perfect person who fulfilled God’s will. But He was not only man, but also God, and as true God and true man, the only truly righteous one, He went to the cross to pay the price for all the sinful. The blood of God in the flesh was shed on the Good Friday, and there Christ gave up His life for you. And as the righteous one, Christ was vindicated on Easter Sunday, when God accepted His sacrifice by raising Him from the dead. But the death of even a righteous man, even God in the flesh, meant nothing if it was not delivered to you. In Baptism His righteousness is then applied to you- this is the Good News of the Gospel. We were not left to attain our own righteousness through all of striving toward God and perfection. If left to ourselves, we would never come close to righteousness. Instead, Christ gives His righteousness as a gift, it covers us, and as a result, God declares us righteous, He declares our sins forgiven, He gives us eternal life. The ‘right’ payment given to all the laborers is the righteousness of Christ, won on Calvary’s cross and applied to you!
But this righteousness is not for those who already think themselves righteous. Those who in pride look down on others in the Church already have a righteousness of their own, a righteousness that comes from their own sense of superiority. When we realize that all Christians are equal in that they receive an equal reward from Christ, His righteousness applied to them, we will in humbleness repent of our own self-righteousness. We will then understand the truth of Christ’s words: “So the last will be first and the first last.” Anyone who would place themselves first in the kingdom of God due to their pedigree, their superiority, or their office in the Church, will be last. They have no need of a Savior because they have a righteousness of their own, based on their own pride. However, those who in humility confess all their sins and admit that without Christ they are lost will be first in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus Christ and the Church He founded on His shed blood are for sinners, and no one else. Those who in their self-righteousness see no sin have no place in the Church. Instead, it is all of us who are broken down by our sin, who have been beaten down by the Law that need Christ’s healing hand. We need His gifts, we need His healing, and it is here in this place that He gives them freely and openly, in equal measure to all whom He has called.
As our Old Testament lesson reminds us, God’s ways are not our ways. God says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” We would expect that a pastor would be a more important Christian than anyone else, or that those of us living in the ‘here and now’ are more vital to God, or that those born and raised in the Church would have a greater reward. But none of that is true. God gives His gifts freely to all who need them, all those sick with the affliction of sin. May you see your need for your Savior and in humility repent and come to this place to receive healing, forgiveness, and strength, each and every time that it is offered, Amen.
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