Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Ezekiel 18,1-4.21-24.30-32. 3. Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Ezekiel 18,1-4.21-24.30-32 3714

3. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 048

Isaiah, Prophet, 759-699 BC

Jan Hus, Reformer, Martyr 1415 in Konstanz, Germany

6. Juli 2014

1. O Merciful God of Life, Thou King of the world. Set Your eyes upon the lost, and open the hearts and ears of us who are secure. Remind us of Your grace. Show us that the the defenseless have dignity, too, and encourage us to use our blessings to seek out those who are lost. Use us to show them Your mercy (VELKD, Prayer for the 3. Sunday after Trinity ¶ 2). Amen.

2. »The Word of Yahweh came to me: „What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? As I live, declares the Lord Yahweh, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. Behold, every life is Mine; the life of the father as well as the life of the son is Mine: the person who sins shall die. But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all My statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord Yahweh, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die. Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord Yahweh. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord Yahweh; so turn, and live.“«

3. The Prophet Ezekiel exhorts men and women to: »Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin, for the person who sins shall die.« For this reason, the Divine Service is prefaced with the prepatory rite of Confession and Absolution. We confess our sinfulness, repent and receive God’s forgiveness. For people who were baptized and raised in the Church, this rite is second nature. The Lutheran Church falls into the Christian tradition that emphasizes confession and absolution, and this puts us in company with the Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican Churches. Other Protestant Churches place less emphasis on formalized rites of confession.

4. What we learned in the Church is often not known among those who have little or no contact with the Church. Such people are like the lost lamb in Jesus’ parable. They may not know that they are lost and in danger; they may know but do not care or they may know but don’t know how to get out of their lost situation. Jesus Himself goes out and finds the lamb who has wandered away and is lost in sin. This brings comfort to countless parents who lament over the children who have turned their backs on God, gotten themselves lost and don’t know how to return home. Such lost children are not forgotten, and the prayers of worried parents do not go unheard. Jesus hears. Jesus knows. Jesus acts.

5. At first glance, the action of the shepherd may seem a bit overdone. It is, after all, one lamb out of one hundred. A 1% loss can be written off as the cost of herding sheep. Some get lost or killed by wolves. A 1% loss is regrettable, but certainly nothing to fret and worry about in the long run. It is better to keep the 99 other lambs safe so profits can be maximized. That is how the corporate world thinks. Maximize profits, minimize losses and if the risk is too high, then cut your loses with the one lost lamb and carry on with business as usual. A political approach would come to the same conclusion, too. One voter will not tip the election one way or the other. It is best keep the majority safe and secure in your constituent pocket. We do, after all, follow a democratic process where the majority rules. One lone lamb can be sacrificed if it ensures the other ninety-nine are still favorable to you and support you. The Pharisees and scribes in Jesus’ day argued the same way. One lost lamb is not worth the expense or jeopardizing the safety of the ninety-nine. Jesus should just stick with the wealthy, respectable Jews who really care about the law and the covenant unlike the sinful rabble that Jesus has been spending His time with recently.

6. Jesus makes it clear in the Gospels that His method of saving the lost will not follow the economic, political or pharisaic way of logic. Jesus acts as a shepherd, and as our Good Shepherd He looks for His lost sinners out of great love for His fallen creation for you are the pinnacle of His creation. Love is the great motivation for leaving the 99 in order to find the 1. Love does not crunch the numbers, pander to the majority or weigh the good people to be of more worth than the rabble. Divine love urges Jesus to seek what is lost and to find it. This is so because Jesus created mankind to be in perpetual fellowship with Him, and He lovingly finds those who have separated themselves from that Divine fellowship. Jesus acts out of serious responsibility for His creation. Although it is our fault as sinners that we have wandered off, it is Jesus’ responsibility as our Shepherd and God to make sure you do not wander off, and if you do, to seek you out, find you and bring you back into His glorious presence. This love and Divine action is vastly different from what other religions say about God. The Greeks and Romans often understood the gods to be no morally better than humans. They saw the gods as petty and cruel who plagued mankind with suffering. It wasn’t much better in Judaism at that time, either. The covenant that Yahweh had made at Sinai had degenerated into the pagan belief that God loves the righteous and despises the sinner. If God did good, then God showered His love upon you, but if you were sinful, then He cursed you with all sort of tribulations.

7. Jesus showed up and turned all these misconceptions about God on their head. During His public ministry, Jesus tirelessly searched for His lost. How many a sleepless night or an exhausting day did our Lord experience while He was about His ministry? For three years Jesus traveled north and south, east and west, in the land of Judea searching for His lost. He was beset upon by many adversaries that meant to prevent Him: sicknesses and infirmities which He healed; His own religious authorities whom He silenced; demons whom He cast out; the dead flesh which He resurrected. He went first to the lost in Israel, but He also sought out the Gentiles, who were not sheep of His fold, and made them part of His flock.

8. In Gethsemane, Jesus was burdened with heavy grief. He sweated drops of blood. He stood before Pilate as His own people and religious leaders rejected Him and called for His death. He felt the scourge of the whip on His back and chest, the crown of thorns roughly pressed into His scalp, and the sharp nails in His hands and feet. With His crucifixion, Jesus suffered the agony of the cross because that was the means necessary to bring you safely home. You were His responsibility, and Jesus lovingly paid the price to redeem you back. Jesus bore the cross on His shoulders and carried you home to safety and salvation.

9. This Merciful and Active God was at odds with 1. century men and women, and He is at odds with people still in the 21. century. How many people view God as some detached, old man with a long white beard who sees what happens on the earth, but does very little to help those who are suffering? How many people view God as a stern judge who weighs our every action in His Divine scale, meting out justice upon those whose good deeds outweigh the bad, but metes out judgment upon those whose bad deeds outweigh the good? Jesus challenges these misconceptions about God and shows us how God really is. God is loving, merciful and caring. He looks for the lost one and leaves behind the ninety-nine who are safe and secure. Jesus acts. Wherever there is evil, wherever an innocent suffers, there is Jesus to rescue, to save and carry home on His Divine shoulders.

10. „On our wounds and injuries Jesus poured the balm of forgiveness, and for our hunger He gave the food of His Word and the fellowship of His family. If we are in the flock today, we must confess it is because Jesus has so often come after us and carried us back.

11. „When we stray, we know that it is we who stray; when we are brought back, we know it is He who has brought us back. It is of the Lord’s mercy that we can call ourselves “His” today and hereafter. Here is our reliance and our certainty, not in our respectability or decent lives or anything of us. It is only in the unfailing mercy of our Shepherd, so patient and so good.

12. „To be in the flock means to be guided by the Shepherd, to follow His bidding and example, and that means sharing His concern for the lost sheep. We may not, like the Pharisees, ignore the lost sheep and write them off as not good enough, not fit to be associated with Christ and ourselves. Nor may we, like the prodigal’s elder brother, resent the special effort for the lost son and claim that if anybody is to be bothered, it must be me.

13. „We know ourselves to have been so often lost sheep. We know what it means to be a lost sheep, to be found, and to be borne back to the flock on the shoulders of the Shepherd. We want other lost sheep to know that too. We do not have to look far to find lost sheep. Within the circle of our own family and friends we find them. Near us there are many wandering, lost from the Shepherd and the flock. There was one person who recently told the visitors, “We have seen people from your church go past on their way to church for years and years, but nobody ever invited us to come.”

14. „When we go after the lost sheep and seek them out, we show Jesus what it means to us that He has sought us out and brought us back to the fold. In doing this we are promised a share in the angels’ joy. This joy is God’s goal for us. Joy is never in isolation. Separate from Christ and His flock the is joy is lost to us. His joy is in us knit together, sharing the angels’ joy over lost people brought to life in Christ. This joy is ours in giving our lives to the Good Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep“ (Nagel 168-69 ¶ 12-16). Amen.

15. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus, You are merciful and gracious, find us when we become separated from You so that we trust once again in Your slowness to anger and Your abounding loving kindness. 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 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Monday, July 7, 2014

Ezekiel 18,1-4.21-24.30-32. 3. Sunday after Trinity

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