Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Romans 12,17-21. 4. Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Romans 12,17-21 3814

4. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 049

Margaretha, Virgin, Martyr at Antioch, Turkey, 275

13. Juli 2014

1. O God, Thou Source of life and Force for good. The evil ones seek to hinder the lives of our neighbors. Give us the hearts of love and strengthen us so that we may overcome evil with good (VELKD, Prayer for 2014’s 4. Sunday after Trinity § 1). Amen.

2. »Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written: »Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.« To the contrary: »If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.« Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

3. In our Gospel Lection Jesus said: »Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you.« These are some of the most misinterpreted verses in the Bible. You’ve heard it said by Christians and non-Christians alike: „Who am I to judge?“ or „Don’t judge me!“, but Jesus was not calling for the overthrow of the judicial system. Judges and laws exist to first, create and keep order, and second, to punish those guilty of reckless law-breaking.

4. The context of Jesus’ teaching is how the Jewish crowds and His Christian disciples should treat their enemies. Jesus teaches: »Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you and pray for those who abuse you« (Luke 6,27-28). Thus in the context of Luke 6 Jesus says: »Be merciful to your enemies, even as your Father is merciful to them. Do not judge your enemies, and you will not be judged; do not condemn them, and you will not be condemned; forgive your enemies, and you will be forgiven; give to your enemies, and it will be given to you.« »If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. But love your enemies, and do good, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons and daughters of the Most High, for He is kind even to the ungrateful and the evil« (Luke 6,27-28.32-33.35).

5. This is the opposite of how people act. Often we justify hating our enemies, ridiculing them and seeking to do harm to them. We are tempted to judge, condemn and not forgive our enemies. Those we love, however, in our best moments, we are willing to be merciful to, put the best construction on their words and actions and forgive them when they ask for forgiveness. Jesus, therefore, calls His Christians to a higher standard. He exhorts us to love all people, friend and foe alike. We are to put the best construction on everyone’s words and actions. We are to forgive all people, even when they have not asked for that forgiveness. There is only one way to do this.

6. Jesus says: »First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your neighbor’s eye.« „Our log is not only so large but also so near to us that it blocks our vision and we do not even see it. Jesus is the one who gives sight to the blind. He reaches out His hand to our log and pulls it out. ‘This must go. I want you to see.’ Jesus takes the logs out of our eyes. He drags them to Calvary, and on the timber that blinds and kills, He is killed. Jesus dies for our sins, and the wood we have supplied becomes, by His death, a declaration of that sin’s forgiveness. When the logs from our eyes have been through Calvary, we see. We see Jesus on the cross supplied by us, for us. We see ourselves as forgiven sinners. Then, when we bump into another sinner, we are able to help, for love comes sideways. We know the things that contradict Christ and the pain and ruin they work. We want each person we meet to be freed of them, and we are there to help him or her“ (Nagel 170,4-5).

7. Running these logs and specks through Jesus makes all the difference. »Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.« We see God’s mercy on full display at the crucifixion of His Son, for on that cross God’s mercy is revealed in the crucified Jesus. »Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;« God’s judgement and condemnation were poured out in full upon the crucified Jesus. He has born all our sinful judgement and condemnation under the law, suffered as one found guilty under the law. On the cross, God’s judgement and condemnation have been poured out, satisfied and fulfilled in Christ Jesus. How does God forgive? He forgives through Jesus who is the Certainty of our forgiveness and salvation. Thus the Apostle Paul can proclaim: »There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit« (Romans 8,1-4). »Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.« Is there any more a gracious giver than God? God gives to us abundantly through Christ Jesus. He holds nothing back, for He pours out His grace so that it overflows. Again Paul: »Sin reigned in death, but grace also reigns through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord« (Romans 5,21).

8. There is sin in our lives, sin as big and bulky as logs. But we have a Lumberjack who is good at taking logs out of peoples’ eyes and sending those logs down river to be disposed of at the cross „You have some logs to confess, logs to be pulled out and dragged to Calvary. Cleansed and forgiven, you may then see as a servant sees, as a burden-bearing Savior sees. Lord, take from us, though it hurts, all that blinds us and hinders the flow of Your love“ (Nagel 172,11).

9. And with the logs removed from our eyes we now see clearly God’s love for us and our neighbors. God’s love is a salve on our eyes and helps us to in turn love others. That love is manifested as the Apostle Paul describes it in his Epistle to the Romans: »Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.« This is the love that Jesus shows to us, and it is the love we in turn show to our neighbor. We first receive forgiveness before we forgive; before we are merciful, we must receive mercy from God (Luther 102,15). God shows us forgiveness and mercy through Jesus Christ. „Our Savior gives us all things, physical and spiritual, earthly and eternal, gratuitously [freely] and out of pure goodness“ (Luther 100,10). May the Holy Spirit move in our hearts to love others as Christ loves us and loves them. Amen.

9. Let us pray. O Lord, we give thanks to You and sing praises to Your Name, O Most High, bless us with Your love so that we in turn can share that love to our neighbors and be a blessing to them in this world that often oppresses people. 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 14, 2014

Romans 12,17-21. 4. Sunday after Trinity

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