Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Deuteronomy 7,6-12. 6. Trinity

Sunday, July 19, 2020

Deuteronomy 7,6-12. 6. Trinity

Deuteronomy 7,6-12 4320

6. Trinitatis 051

Macrina, Virgin, ✠ 379

19. Juli 2020

1. O Christ God, the Ever-present God; remind us of Your promise that where You are, there will Your servant be also, so that we draw comfort and assurance that You have dressed us in the garments of salvation and clothed us with the robe of Your righteousness. Amen. (Starck 304 ¶ 2)

2. »For you are a people holy to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God chose you to be a people for His treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more numerous than all the nations that Yahweh chose you and selected you, — for you were the fewest from all the nations —, but it is because Yahweh loved you and observed the oath that He swore to your fathers, that Yahweh has lead you out with a mighty hand and a lofty arm and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that Yahweh your God is God, the Faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations, and repays to their face those who hate Him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates Him. He will repay him to his face. You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment, the statutes and the rules that I command you today. And because you listen to these rules, keep and do them, Yahweh your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that He swore to your fathers.«

3. Last week we heard how Jesus called His first disciples: Peter, James and John. Today He teaches that being His disciple means our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees.

4. The Pharisees took seriously the expectation of Deuteronomy 7,12: »Because you listen to these rules, keep them and do them, Yahweh your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that He swore to your fathers.« The Pharisees followed the letter of the law, the Mosaic covenant, and the traditions of the elders. They prayed, tithed and worshipped; they did not murder, steal or covet. As to righteousness under the law, the Pharisees were blameless (Philippians 3,6). Jesus exhorts us in today’s Gospel pericope to exceed this righteousness. How can we do that? Didn’t the Pharisees have it all worked out?

5. Jesus and His disciples would not of been good Pharisees, for they did not follow the traditions of the elders that the Pharisees held in high regard (Matthew 15,1-2). Jesus chastised the Pharisees because some of those traditions violated the laws of Moses. The Pharisees were not the paragons of righteousness under the law that they believe themselves to be. They focused on deed and action, that is works, but forgot the inner righteousness, that is thought and desire. »Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, so that the outside also may be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. For you preach, but do not practice. You tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but you themselves are not willing to move them with your finger. You do all your deeds to be seen by others. For you make your phylacteries broad and your fringes long« (Matthew 23,25-28.3b-5).

6. To exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees is to be on a different path from the Pharisees, a path that excels in both outer and inner righteousness. And this righteous path is not one achieved under the law. Paul, himself a Pharisee, shows us the way Christ describes: »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, so that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead« (Philippians 3,9-11). Simply put: to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees is to believe in Jesus.

7. You are called to freedom; for freedom Christ has set you free (Galatians 5,13.1)! Christ is giving us His righteousness. Christ’s righteousness is spread out over the sins of all, His life is stronger than every death, His salvation is more invincible than any hell (Bayer 226; Weimar Ausgabe 7:55.1-23 Latin). In this way the believing soul is free from all sins; its faith in Christ is safe in the face of death and is protected from hell, because the eternal righteousness as well as the eternal life and salvation of Christ are all given to us as a gift (Bayer 226; Weimar Ausgabe 7:55.1-23 Latin). Thus Christ creates for Himself a magnificent person without spot or wrinkle, since He purifies us in the waters of Holy Baptism through the Word of life, that is, through what is worked through faith, which comes through the Word, through life, through righteousness and through salvation. »Just as Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness (Galatians 3,6), so to our faith in Christ credits His righteousness to us. This is the righteousness that exceeds the Pharisees, and this righteousness uses our freedom as an opportunity through love to become slaves to one another (Galatians 5,13). The good fruits that are born from this righteousness are: love (αγαπη), joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control; against such things there is no law (Galatians 5,22-23). »In Christ we are a people righteous to Yahweh our God.« Next week we will hear how Jesus exhibited this righteousness by feeding a crowd of 4000 and finishes with more food than what He began with. Amen.

8. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, Your Name is worthy to be praised; give us opportunities daily to be righteous to others through acts of charity, so that in us they see You, the God who loves them and has liberated them from sin and wrath. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Sunday, July 19, 2020

Deuteronomy 7,6-12. 6. Trinity

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