Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: February 2011

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Luke 8,4-15. Sexagesima Sunday

In the Name of Jesus

Luke 8,4-15 (Matthew 13,1-23; Mark 4,1-20)

Sexagesima (2. Sonntag vor der Passionszeit) 021 Sexagesimä

Gelasius, actor, Martyr 297

27. February 2011

1. O Most Loving Father, who wills us to give thanks for all things, to dread no thing except the loss of You, and to cast all our cares on You who cares for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, and grant that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which You have manifested unto us in Your Son Jesus Christ our Lord (Book of Common Prayer 165). Amen.

2. Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Gospel according to St. Luke where the holy evangelist writes: ⁴And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to Jesus, He said in a parable: ⁵„A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. ⁶And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. ⁷And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. ⁸And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.“ As He said these things, Jesus called out, „He who has ears to hear, let him hear.“ ⁹And when His disciples asked Him what this parable meant, ¹⁰He said, „To you it has been given to know the secrets of the reign of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ ¹¹Now the parable is this: The seed is the Word of God. ¹²The ones along the path are those who have heard. Then the devil arrives and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. ¹³And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. ¹⁴And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. ¹⁵As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.“ This is our text.

3. In this morning’s parable, Jesus teaches us about the Word of God and how that Word is treated in the world. Yahweh sends forth His Word in many diverse places. The end result is that Yahweh desires to bring in a harvest of believers.

4. Yahweh’s way of spreading His Word shows His grace and patience. Where we would be tempted to limit the Word to fields and locations that offer the promise of success, Yahweh spreads His Word far and wide to the four corners of the earth, so that every field and person has the opportunity to have the Word land in their midst and upon their heart. God’s Word is sown to convict us of our sinfulness, bring us to repentance, and bring us to faith in Christ Jesus for salvation and forgiveness.

5. Nevertheless, thus far in the Gospel according to Luke, the crowds have been growing who listen to Jesus preach while the number of the Jewish religious leaders rejecting Jesus’ claim to be the Christ are growing as well. In this parable, „Jesus is answering the question of why, despite his ongoing ministry of words and deeds, so many people in Israel are not responding in faith and discipleship“ (Gibbs 680). This parable teaches something about the process and results of the preaching of the reign of God (Just 341). Jesus lists the three chief barriers that keep the crowds from believing and becoming a miraculous yield (Just 340).

6. The first barrier is that »The birds of the air devoured Word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard. Then the devil arrives and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.« Some hear the gospel, but before that gospel can penetrate their heart the devil immediately snatches it away before faith is created. The devil has many means at his disposal to accomplish this task. He might send along someone who proclaims another religion or philosophy so that the person forgets about the gospel that had been preached to him or her. The devil may use a person’s cultural heritage to sweep the gospel aside. How difficult it is for a Jew or a Muslim to believe the gospel, because that person’s culture is hostile to that very gospel and thereby lends itself as easy pickings by the devil to snatch the gospel away before it can do anything.

7. The second barrier is that »Some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.« O how many times this happens to those who hear the gospel! Many will hear the word, receive it with great joy, and believe, but the moment something bad happens to them, the moment a severe trial afflicts them, they quickly blame God and reject Him and His Word. The world is full of challenges to the Christian faith. Those who expect that once they become Christians that now their life will be one of happiness and ease are trusting in a fantasy dream that does not exist. Many times, Christians are the most troubled people in the world. A Middle Eastern Christian often lives in a country that is hostile to the Christian faith, and such Christians live knowing that they could be persecuted, tortured, and executed on account of their faith. The Christian faith does not automatically ease family tensions or conflicts, but often times such tribulations become worse. The Christian faith is not a life of peace and ease, but one of hardship and trials. Many believers lose their faith because of this hardship and tribulation.

8. The third barrier is that »Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. As for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.« If trials and tribulations don’t cause a Christian to lose faith in Jesus, then the riches of this temporal world will tempt Christians to forsake their faith Christ. These Christians are content in the faith for a while, until they look over at what the world offers, and are enticed away by the wealth of the world. Compared to the pleasures of the world, the sacrifices that Christians endure and the offerings that Christians put in the collection plate seems like an unfair trade. Alas, these Christians abandon the faith, giving up the eternal treasures of the heavenly reign for the short-lived riches of this world, which as we have experienced these past two years such worldly riches can be wiped out when the economy stops rampaging as a bull and becomes dormant like a hibernating bear.

9. Finally! »Some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the Word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.«. These, by Yahweh’s providence, have not been snatched away by the devil, they have been tested with fire and come through, and they have not been drawn away by the wealth of the world. On the last day, when Jesus returns for the harvest of His Church, the true and faithful Christians stand tall and yield a bountiful harvest of their steadfast faith in Christ Jesus their Savior from sin, death, and the devil. The growing season was difficult and beset by many dangers. Many of their fellow believers had fallen away due to tribulations and wealth. We thus must be on our guard, lest before the day arrives when Christ returns we find ourselves forsaking the Christian faith due to unforeseen trials or the glitter of worldly wealth. Those Christians who are truly the good soil must endure unto the very end.

10. Thus in today’s parable, Christ tells us that faith is a precious gift, a gift that can be lost by the onslaught of the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh. In this parable we have the mysterious doctrine of election. Thus many Christians ponder the question: „How do I know if I am of the good soil? Am I elect? Will I persevere unto the last day?“ First and foremost, you can and should know and be certain of your eternal election (Pieper 481). We cannot and should not seek assurance of our election by prying into the Divine foreknowledge of Yahweh (Pieper 481), for God has reserved this knowledge only unto the Three Persons in the Holy Trinity.

11. The assurance of our election, however, we can and should gain from the gospel (Pieper 483). The gospel tells us that the grace of our Heavenly Father in Christ is for all sinners without exception, and that this grace is actually grace, contingent on nothing whatsoever in you or me (Pieper 483). Furthermore, the gospel tells us that this grace is based on Jesus alone and His righteous and Divine merit, who for the sake of the world, and you and me specifically, laid down His precious life as the Lamb of God, suffering God’s wrath upon sin in our place as our heavenly ransom, paid the price of the law against sinners by being crucified and shedding His own holy blood that cleanses us from all sin and sinfulness, and thus when He had finished ransoming all mankind back to His Heavenly Father, descended into hell, tore off hell’s gates from their hinges, told the devil that his horrendous reign of terror is about to end, and then rose on the third day, triumphing of death and the grave, bringing in His train the resurrection of all flesh that He will grant every person on the last day. Every poor sinner, therefore, who keeps his or her faith focused on this gospel, without any side glances in the direction of the law is precisely for that reason[1] believing in his or her eternal election (Pieper 483) and therefore is of the good soil.

12. „God in His counsel, before the time of the world, decided and ordained that He Himself, by the power of His Holy Spirit, would produce and work in us, through the Word, everything that pertains to our conversion“ (Formula of Concord XI §44). The Holy Spirit has elected you and me to eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, who is our Savior and Redeemer, who was crucified and resurrected for our forgiveness and thus gives us the gift of eternal life. Faith clings to this Glorious Savior and believes that in Christ and on account of Christ we are elected and saved. Election, salvation, forgiveness, and eternal life are all gifts given to us through Christ, for great is our Heavenly Father’s love toward us and abundant is the Holy Spirit’s preservation in the Christian faith so that we endure unto the last day and receive the inheritance given to all who are God’s children through Christ Jesus alone. „May our dear Lord Jesus Christ grant us His grace so that we may diligently hear His Word, retain it in a pure heart, and bring forth fruit in patience“ (Luther 293). Amen.

13. Let us pray. O Holy Spirit, today we have heard Your saving voice in Your Holy Word, and we give all thanks and praise unto You, the Father, and Jesus Christ, for electing us, saving us, giving us faith to receive these wonderful gifts so that we need not fear or doubt our election or salvation, nor will we harden our hearts, for You preserve us in the Christian faith that trusts only in Jesus. Amen.

One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4^th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27^th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the New Testament Greek Manuscripts, Luke © 1995 by Reuben Joseph Swanson.

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.

[1] eo ipso

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Matthew 20,1-16. Septuagesima Sunday

In the Name of Jesus

Matthew 20,1-16

Septuagesima Sunday

Tyrannion, Bishop of Tyre, Martyr 310.

Rasmus Jensen, First Lutheran pastor in North America (Canada), † 1620

20. February 2011

1. O Heavenly Father, gracious in mercy and justice, You sent Your only begotten Son to redeem us from sin and the curse of sin. We are prideful. We are demanding. We fail to fully comprehend Your good will. Pour out upon us the Holy Spirit and give us the same mind as Your beloved Son, Christ Jesus. Help us to proclaim the gospel to our neighbors who may feel unworthy of God’s calling and gifts. As Jesus teaches us in today’s parable, all are equal in Your sight for You give eternal life to all people regardless of who they are. Help us to spread the joy of this parable to our borough and neighbors for in doing so we are pointing them to Jesus who brings the good gift of life everlasting. Amen.

2. Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Gospel according to St. Matthew where the holy evangelist writes: ¹Then Jesus said to His disciples, „For the reign of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. ²After agreeing with the laborers for a denariusa day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, ⁴and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ ⁵So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. ⁶And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ ⁷They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ ⁸And 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.’ ⁹And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. ¹⁰Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. ¹¹And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, ¹²saying, ‘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.’ ¹³But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? ¹⁴Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. ¹⁵Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’¹⁶So the last will be first, and the first last.“ This is our text.

3. Before we delve into the parable itself, we need to examine the previous context and discussion between Jesus and His disciples. Matthew 19 concludes with a discussion where Jesus points out that the rich and powerful do not necessarily make it into heaven. The apostles then wonder, well, what about us who have left our jobs and families to be Jesus’ disciples? What is our fate? Jesus replies, »When the Son of Man is seated on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also be seated on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for My Name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first« (19,28-30). Jesus challenges the popular first century Jewish understanding of salvation: the wealthy must surely enter heaven ahead of the poor because the wealthy are blessed by Yahweh as is seen in their wealth and riches. Jesus counters: not so fast; the poor will make it into heaven before the rich. The first will be last, and the last will be first.

4. Jesus, as He so often does in the Holy Gospels, teaches that the conventional wisdom of this temporal world does not apply to the Divine wisdom of the heavenly world. The gospel that Jesus teaches in the Holy Gospels is: „human beings with their prestige and their perceived blessedness play no part whatsoever in achieving entrance into eternal salvation on the Last Day“ (Gibbs 988). Whether you are rich or poor, well-educated or a fool, eternal life and salvation are received purely by God’s grace and mercy as His gift to us, and this gift is found in His Son Jesus Christ, whom we receive through faith.

5. Thus Jesus narrates the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. At the beginning of the work day, the owner goes out and hires day laborers to work the field for a day’s standard pay. Throughout the day the owner continues to go out and hire more day laborers and promises to pay them „what is right“. Finally, with only an hour left in the day for work, the owner hires more day laborers who have waited by idly all day. When the time comes for payment, the owner pays the workers who labored for only one hour, and he gives them the same payment that he promised to those hired first and had worked nearly twelve hours. So too with each group the owner hired, they also receive a full day’s wage. Finally, the first group, who had worked the longest, receives their agreed upon wage.

6. Every single one of us is thinking: „That is not fair! Those who worked the longest should receive some sort of extra bonus or reward for their work in the field.“ The owner almost appears to be a communist: paying everyone the same wage regardless of the work done. Commercially and economically, the owner in this parable is a fool (Gibbs 898). Jesus teaches in this parable that some, namely the first group of hired day laborers, find the graciousness and liberality of the vineyard owner to be unfair. In reality, the owner is very, very gracious with His wealth. Thus, the parable’s theme is: „God treats all those who are in the reign of heaven the same; owning to God’s grace, there is no distinction on the Last Day“ (Gibbs 988). „Everything is in the hands of the Lord and from the hands of the Lord. Here are no reservations, qualifications, or demands but discipleship, faith, being given happy generous gifts beyond calculation“ (Nagel 64).

7. As so often happens in the Holy Gospels, sinful humanity’s perspective clashes with Yahweh’s way of doing things. On this temporal earth, no one is truly equal. Some have more talent than others. Some are brighter or wealthier than others. Some are well compensated for their vocation, while others are not. There is a vast disparity between salaries and time spent working in every vocation. In the business world of vocations, this is the way it is and it is usually beneficial for the economy to have different levels of wage compensation based on experience, education, promotion, and competition. But as Jesus cautions with today’s parable, the way things work in this temporal world is not the way they work in the heavenly world. „God operates backward of the way we calculate“ (Nagel 63).

8. From Adam until the present, all who believe in Jesus Christ and are in His Church will receive the same wage. Whether one became a Christian as a baptized infant or was converted on his or her deathbed, all who believe in Jesus Christ will receive the same wage. Whether one is a prince or a pauper, a pope or a parishioner, all who believe in Jesus Christ will receive the same wage. All disciples are equal in the present and future reign of God in Jesus (Gibbs 988). With this good owner, all will ultimately be treated the same at the end of the day (Gibbs 991). The last will be first, and the first will be last; everyone is equal in Yahweh’s reign of heaven.

9. The problem is with sinful human beings. We try to force our way of doing things into God’s way of doing things. It is like taking a square part and trying to force it into a triangle-shaped opening. The square is not meant to go into the triangle opening, only the triangle shape is meant to go into the triangle opening. You’ve seen children do this with that toy: they try to force one shape into a different opening. This children’s toy is meant to teach them how to place the appropriate shapes into the appropriate openings. When we try to force our shape into God’s opening, it does not work, and it will not work until we line ourselves up with God’s way of doing things.

10. Yahweh’s way of doing salvation is that all are treated equally and receive the same wage, namely eternal life. The Pharisees in Jesus’ day did not appreciate this because, they argued, we Jews have been the chosen people for thousands of years and therefore we should receive something extra in the heavenly reign compared to these late-believing Gentiles. The apostles also had this same mindset: we were the first of the disciples, therefore we should be afforded greater rewards in the heavenly reign than the rank and file disciples. Even in their own apostolic band, the apostles repeated ranked themselves in positions of importance, every one of them desiring the coveted seats next to Jesus when He took up His throne. We are even tempted today to entice Jesus that when a person believes in Jesus upon his or her deathbed they are ushered into heavenly paradise is all well and good, because it is about faith after all, but we certainly deserve something extra for we have borne the brunt of a lifelong discipleship to Jesus from our infant Baptism. Life-long believers certainly deserve a little more gratuity, don’t they Jesus?

11. Christ our Lord, however, remains steadfast, for from Adam until the present, all who believe in Jesus Christ and are in His Church will receive the same wage. Whether one became a Christian as a baptized infant or was converted on his or her deathbed, all who believe in Jesus Christ will receive the same wage. Whether one is a prince or a pauper, a pope or a parishioner, all who believe in Jesus Christ will receive the same wage. The last will be first, and the first will be last; everyone is equal in the reign of heaven. Thus Jesus teaches in today’s parable.

12. The pericope that immediately follows today’s parable is that Jesus tells His apostles for the third time in Matthew’s Gospel: I am going to be crucified, but then resurrected. Such is life in the Church and the heavenly reign: it is a life of hardship and tribulation for Christians. And yet, Jesus Himself reveals that He, the Son of God, who is the First, had arrived on this earth to become Last, so that in Him we all are moved to the front of the line and made first. Christ Jesus who is the Almighty Son of God, descended to this earth, became a man, and humbled Himself to suffer and die on the cross so that we now have forgiveness and salvation in His Name. Furthermore, Christ is the firstborn from the dead, so that we who now die later will on the last day share in His firstborn resurrection from the dead when He Himself will resurrect our physical bodies from the grave.

13. „Remarkably, all those who have left anything behind for the sake of Jesus’ name will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. In light of this promise, all comparing now must be put aside. For this is how it is in the reign of God. The last will be first, and the first will be last“ (Gibbs 993). Everyone is equal in the heavenly reign; everyone receives the same gracious gift of eternal life. And yet, even more, for Jesus promises that in His heavenly reign we will recoup one hundredfold what we suffered as loss in this temporal life. The gift of eternal life and the rich blessings that await us in Yahweh’s presence are incomparable to all the wealth on this terrestrial earth. Do not despair. Be of good cheer. Remain steadfast in the faith that clings to Jesus alone for salvation and forgiveness. For the gift of eternal life by God’s grace is a treasure that surpasses all others. „God has His own way with each one of us. He is the Lord; we are given to by Him who is bountiful beyond deserving or calculation“ (Nagel 66). Amen.

14. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, the First who became Last, help us to understand the way of Your heavenly reign so that we do not present our pleas before You because of our righteousness but because of Your great mercy, for in You alone do we find the heart of our Heavenly Father who is loving, giving, and gracious, in abundance, to us His dear children. Amen.

One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Matthew 17,1-9. The Last Sunday in Epiphany

In the Name of Jesus

Matthew 17,1-9 (Mark 9,2-13; Luke 9,28-36)

The Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord (Last Sunday after Epiphany)

Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, France † 368

13. February 2011

1. O Heavenly Father, who sent Your beloved and well-pleased Son to be our Glorious Redeemer, we acknowledge that at times we act like Your disciples and apostles before Your resurrection who had difficulty comprehending the gracious and merciful things You were about. Such misunderstanding and ignorance is rife within Your Church and even more so outside Your Church where the whims of people are accepted instead of Your Holy Scriptures. O send us the Holy Spirit, so that we, like Your post-Easter disciples and apostles, grasp Your will and ministry to suffer, die, and rise again for the redemption and salvation of all the nations of this fallen world. Help us to see in Your majestic transfiguration the power and glory of Your cross and empty tomb wherein the world has been liberated from sin, death, and the devil. Amen.

2. Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Gospel according to St. Matthew where the holy evangelist writes: Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transformed before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus: „Lord, it’s good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.“ While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said: „This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!“ When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. Then Jesus came to them and touched them and said: „Get up, and do not be afraid.“ And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone. As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying: „Tell no one what you have seen until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.“ This is our text.

3. The manifestation of Jesus in Divine glory at His transfiguration is yet another revelation of who Jesus is, namely God. In his Gospel, St. Matthew bookends Jesus’ transfiguration with Jesus’ declaration that the Son of Man must go up to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, be killed, and on the third day be raised from the grave (16,21; 17,22-23). Jesus told His disciples this six days before His transfiguration, and also again shortly after His transfiguration. These are the first and second times in Matthew’s Gospel when Jesus teaches this important doctrine. Jesus will teach the disciples this doctrine two more times in the Gospel according to St. Matthew (20,17-19; 26,1-2).

4. This teaching was not popular among Jesus’ disciples. When Jesus first taught it, the apostles, through their spokesman Peter, rebuked Jesus and exhorted that such a shameful end to the Christ should not happen (16,22). The second time Jesus taught this doctrine, His apostles were greatly distressed (17,23). The third time Jesus spoke on this topic, the mother of James and John, sons of Zebedee, pleaded for Jesus to grant her sons a seat at His left and right in His reign. The fourth time Jesus proclaimed this doctrine, the elders and chief priests immediately gathered to plot Jesus’ arrest and death. The responses to Jesus’ teaching that He will die and rise again are less than stellar.

5. The Christ brings the reign of heaven, and the priority of the reign of heaven is the salvation of fallen mankind. Thus, the primary focus of the reign of heaven is the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The disciples struggled with the hiddenness of the reign of heaven (Gibbs 856). This reign was hidden because Jesus’ teaching on it contradicted what the disciples expected the reign of heaven to be. The disciples expected the reign of heaven to be one of great glory, power, and prestige in which the disciples would reap the blessings as followers of the Christ. Interestingly, three of the outspoken disciples about this reign of glory are Peter, James, and John, the very disciples Jesus takes along with Him up to the mountain to witness His transfiguration.

6. Jesus transfiguration was an event that fit the disciples’ concept of the reign of heaven. Not only was Jesus glorified, but Moses and Elijah appear on the Galilean mountain top to speak with Jesus. The disciples finally have their desired version of the reign of heaven. Finally, Jesus reveals His Divine power and glory and two of the greatest figures in Jewish history appear: Moses the bringer of the Law from Mt. Sinai, and Elijah the prophet and miracle worker.

7. Many Christians throughout the millennia have mistakenly understood Jesus as a new and greater Moses. With this understanding, many Christians perceive Jesus as primarily a Christ who brings the law and commanding people how to live a moral and ethical life. A law-giving Christ is a fierce and terrible Christ. We think it will be beneficial, because a law-giving Christ is what this chaotic and unruly fallen world needs. People need to be told how to live, and evil doers need to be punished. All is well and good when Christ is applying the law to other people, but the law never just targets those other people for the law comes around and accuses us of sin and guilt that merits God’s wrath. The fear of God’s wrath compels us to sorrow and repentance.

8. Christ does not need to bring new laws, for God’s commandments were fully and perfectly given to men and women through the Prophet Moses. „The Scriptures contain God’s plans to save Israel and the whole creation, and Jesus is the manifestation of that plan of God. Therefore Moses is there“ (Gibbs 856). Thus, Moses’ appearance at Jesus’ transfiguration is not to point to Jesus as a new and better Moses, but rather to proclaim that He who fulfills the Law and Prophets is here in the person of Jesus who has arrived to save all the nations from sin and death.

9. We have seen, then, why Moses appears at Jesus’ transfiguration, but why is the Prophet Elijah there? Such a question perplexed Peter, James, and John, too as they asked Jesus on the journey down the mountain „Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must arrive?“ (17,10). „Elijah’s appearance is a reminder of how the reign of God has already broken into the present in Jesus and that this end-time reality is manifesting itself in Israel and the world in a hidden and paradoxical way. The day will come when all things are restored. That restoration, however, has already begun, and it has begun in Jesus, who is ‘God is with us’ and who brings the reign of God. Therefore Elijah is there as well“ (Gibbs 856-57).

10. Jesus’ transfiguration, however, is not about Moses and Elijah, but about Jesus alone. The chief purpose of the Transfiguration is to proclaim the true identity and glory of Jesus, so as to under gird and support Jesus difficult teaching of the cross (Gibbs 852). „Cross“ and „glory“ are not mutually exclusive categories, but are the divinely ordained sequence of salvation, both for Jesus who accomplishes it and for those who receive it in Christ (Gibbs 851). Jesus’ glorious transfiguration evokes the glory of Yahweh Himself (Gibbs 855).

11. Both Moses and Elijah prepared the way for Jesus and thus they both focus attention onto the Christ. God the Father also speaks at His Son’s transfiguration. He proclaims from the cloud, »This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!«. Q: What are the disciples to listen to from Jesus? What are we to listen to from Jesus? A: Listen to what Jesus says about Himself: Jesus must suffer, be crucified, and rise from the grave. This is the ministry of the Christ, and it is a ministry of the gospel which proclaims Yahweh’s grace and mercy upon all nation, including you and me.

12. This grace and mercy is always before our eyes, for the gospel is portrayed in our stained glass window that is dedicated to Jesus’ Transfiguration. To the left of the Transfiguration is the scene from Genesis 18 when Abraham hosted Yahweh Himself and two angels. To the right is a scene from Daniel 3 when God appears in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Each scene teaches us that salvation is at the hand of Yahweh and that His mercy is poured out upon His people, especially those in this 21^st century who are His baptized children.

13. At the end of Jesus’ transfiguration, Matthew simply describes the setting, »And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone«. Jesus. Only Jesus. He is the author of our salvation and the perfecter of our sanctification. Jesus only on the cross suffering and dying for our sins. Jesus only rising from the grave, triumphing over death with new life. Jesus gives us the forgiveness of the cross. Jesus gives us the promise of resurrecting our bodies on the last day. Jesus alone brings us the gospel of His Heavenly Father’s grace. Only Jesus. Amen.

14. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, whose transfiguration revealed You as the brilliance of the eternal light and a stainless mirror of that Divine power and an image of His goodness, pour upon us Your transfigured glory so that we are assured of our justification based entirely on Your holy merit and that each day we are sanctified more and more into Your righteous image and glory. Amen.

One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Matthew 13,24-30. 5th Sunday after Epiphany

In the Name of Jesus

Matthew 13,24-30

5. Sunday after Epiphany (5. Sonntag nach Epiphanias)

Dorothea, Virgin, Martyr at Caesarea in Cappadocia 287.

Amand, Pastor and Apostle to the Franks in the Low Countries. † 675.

6. February 2011

1. Set us free, O Lord, from the bondage of our sins and give us, we beseech You, the liberty of that abundant life which You have manifested to us in Your Son our Savior Jesus Christ (Book of Common Prayer 164), for we are good wheat that has grown from Your gospel sowing throughout the world. Nevertheless, we run the risk of being choked out by the weeds in our midst, coerced to the false doctrines of the devil, and at times outnumbered by false teachers and false Christians, so that we resign ourselves to despair. Now pour out upon us Your Holy Spirit so that we are renewed and encouraged, and renewed and encouraged we go forth with boldness to the task of spreading the gospel of Christ Jesus so as to raise up new Christians in the world and to thwart the evil designs of the devil so that Jesus Christ and He alone is proclaimed and adored as our crucified and risen Savior. Amen.

2. Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Gospel according to St. Matthew where the holy evangelist writes: ²⁴Jesus put another parable before them, saying, „The reign of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, ²⁵but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weedsamong the wheat and went away. ²⁶So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. ²⁷And the servantsof the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ ²⁸He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ ²⁹But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. ³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’“ This is our text.

3. Jesus’ Parable of the Weeds of the Field is the first of three parables that Matthew records in chapter 13 that teach that the reign of God is now happening in Jesus’ ministry in an unspectacular way that the unbelieving crowds find unsatisfying (Gibbs 694). When Jesus retires for the day, He interprets privately for His disciples the Parable of the Weeds of the Field. The meaning of the parable is: »The field is the world. The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the good seed is the children of the reign. The enemy who sowed the weeds is the devil, and the weeds are the sons of the evil one. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His reign all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the reign of their Father« (13,36-43).

4. With the arrival of Jesus, the Heavenly Father has begun to take back His fallen creation under His divine will and rule. The Jewish crowds, and even Jesus’ disciples, have a preconceived notion of how this would unfold in history. First century Judaism expected the promised Christ to be an „anointed one“ from the royal line of David. This Christ, however, was not seen as God Himself or the Son of God, but as a mighty, victorious ruler who was not eternal but would live for several hundred years and die (Voelz). The Prophet Isaiah was ignored who described the Christ as a suffering servant who would die for His people, and therefore Jesus’ peers had no concept of a resurrected Christ from the dead. This re-imaged Christ of the first century was expected to restore good order to creation, and this meant first and foremost that He would restore Israel’s fortune. Practically, Jesus’ peers understood this to mean that King Herod and his family (who were Jewish half-breeds and lovers of the Greco-Roman culture) would be tossed off the throne and a true and proper royal descendant of David would rule Judea as king. Next this Jewish King would sweep the Romans out of Palestine, secure the traditional borders of Israel, and usher in a golden age in the spirit of David and Solomon’s reign.

6. By Matthew 13 this anticipated power shift had not occurred. Herod’s family still ruled Judea. The Roman pagans still occupied the Promised Land. Israel’s fortunes were not being restored as the people hoped and expected. To be sure, Jesus proclaimed Himself to be the Christ and the Son of Man, He did indeed heal the sick and rightly teach the people, He was fulfilling the Christological prophecies, but Jesus is not merely confining Himself to the chosen people of Israel, for He is reaching out to the pagan Gentiles and also gathering them into the reign of heaven. In the minds of most Jewish people (the disciples included), Jesus is not the Christ they were looking for. At the end of chapter 13, Jesus returned to His hometown of Nazareth where He is summarily rejected by the townspeople. As his Gospel progresses, Matthew informs us that the religious leaders and rulers of Israel also reject and condemn Jesus.

7. Such a response is not the way things were supposed to pan out. The Christ was supposed to usher in an age of peace and prosperity, not resentment and rejection. With today’s parable, Jesus teaches us that His ministry unfolds according to His will and not our will. What Jesus teaches about His ministry is: After the Son of Man sows the seed of the gospel, the devil comes along in the night and sows the seed of dissension. The Apostle Paul told the Galatian Christians that there is only one gospel, that of Christ crucified, but that false preachers proclaim a false gospel that is not centered upon Christ (Galatians 1,6-9). Martin Luther once quipped, „Where God builds a church, the devil puts up a chapel next door“ (Luther). The gospel yields Christians who receive the forgiveness of sin freely without any merit on their own. The seeds of dissension yield people who seek to work out their forgiveness through works righteousness and legalism. The obvious response would be to root out these dissenters from the field of the world and the Church so that we can finally achieve peace and prosperity, but Jesus commands that both be allowed to grow until the harvest is reaped on the day of His second advent. It is tempting for us to engage in Christian versions of jihad, inquisitions, and witch hunts, all with pure motives, mind you, but Jesus forbids us to undertake such actions because in our zeal we will inevitably uproot and destroy innocent Christians. Lest any child of God be lost, Jesus is willing to put up with the weeds the devil has sown among His Christian people. Jesus desires to bring in the entire harvest and not lose a single Christian.

8. In this parable we see the Epiphany theme in which the glory of Yahweh manifested itself through Jesus. We cannot expect Jesus to make decisions that necessarily conform to our twenty-first century ideas of conventional wisdom. Rather than focusing on uprooting the weeds of the devil, Jesus would have us dedicate our service to continue to sow the gospel seed. As the gospel is sown through the Word and the Sacraments, the Holy Spirit will raise up new Christians.

9. Nevertheless, such a methodology will make being the Church and Christians increasingly more difficult and more discouraging. Our time on this earth will not be one of ease and peace, but rather it will be one of discord and conflict with heretics, charlatans, false teachers, and false churches all of whom challenge Christ and His Church. On this earth, charlatan churches seem to thrive and expand while Christ’s beloved churches seem to be wilting and fading. We look abroad to the Middle East and discover Christian brothers and sisters under the thumb of the weeds. Coptic Christians in Egypt suffer violence. Iraqi Christians are persecuted. Turkish Christians are forbidden to evangelize. Such is the Church’s existence in the world in Jesus’ day and in our day, even in America who prides herself as the land of religious freedom and tolerance. Jesus, however, would have our eyes focused not on the present day but rather on the last day. In today’s parable, Jesus lays deliberate emphasis upon the final goal toward which the reign of heaven will inevitably press (Gibbs 708). His purpose is to reassure us (Gibbs 708). The day will arrive; the age will reach its consummation (Gibbs 708). On that day all things will be set right (Gibbs 708).

10. In this parable, Jesus encourages us to take the long view, and set our hope on the day that will certainly arrive (Gibbs 709). That tension must not be destroyed, and we must accept that fact (Gibbs 710). Life on this earth will be one of conflict between the children of the gospel and the children of works righteousness. Christians will struggle with the religions and philosophies that were sown by the devil. Both will grow and live together in this world. The difficulty will only be resolved by the angels on the last day (Gibbs 710). „Yet the hope remains. The day is coming. It will be the Son of Man’s day, and His angels will do the sorting. God may seem slow, but He is never late“ (Gibbs 711).

11. The end, the last day, is worth the struggle and the patient waiting. We are the children born from the sowing of the gospel. Christ’s death on the cross purchased our forgiveness, and His resurrection from the dead is the promise of our own bodily resurrection. We are destined for a heavenly harvest: The righteous will shine like the sun in the reign of their Father. Jesus has promised us this glorious existence. Just as wheat is harvested and bound for making bread and other foodstuffs for the benefit of mankind, so also Christians will be harvested and delivered to our Heavenly Father where we will enjoy everlasting life in the presence of the Triune God, the angels and archangels, and all the company of Christians in heaven. Christ’s ministry is about bringing us to heaven, and His gospel is sown to create Christians who will enjoy that eternal life. The weeds in this earthly life are a mere annoyance compared to the glorious fellowship being prepared for us right now in Yahweh’s heavenly realm. Amen.

12. Let us pray. O Lord, whose steadfast love is poured out upon the earth, send us patience and steadfastness as we struggle on this earth as the Church militant so that we may praise You now as we await the last day when we will reap the harvest of everlasting fellowship in Your Divine presence as the Church triumphant. Amen.

One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

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