03. August 2011
Joanna, Mary, and Salome, Myrrhbearers
Proverbs 31:10-31

Preached at the Redeemer Family Conference 2011.

In the holy name of Jesus. amen.

Today we commemorate three known as the “faithful women.” these three cared for our Lord, giving of their bounty for his body. There is a particular danger for a young, relatively inexperienced pastor to stand in this pulpit and spout off what it means to be an excellent wife. It seems that King Lemuel, the one belonging to God, thought the same thing. Just in case we think his Wisdom is lousy, he credits it to his mother. Jewish legend as well as Strong’s lexicon thinks this unknown king is really a pseudonym for King Solomon. That would attribute this oracle to Bathsheba.

What if it was written by Solomon from an oracle of his mother Bathsheba? Consider how Proverbs 31 begins: “what are you doing, my son? What are you doing, son of my womb? What are you doing son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings.” Most split verses ten and following of Proverbs 31 from what proceeds. There is no way Bathsheba or even Solomon could have worthy wisdom on the subject. It must have been authored by someone else, this mythical King Lemuel.

After a brief aside on drunkenness and some advice on righteous judgement, the poem of vs. 10-31 begins. Yes, in the Hebrew it is clear this poem ought to stand on it’s own, each phrase beginning sequentially following the Hebrew alphabet. But what if this poem wasn’t a later addition but was meant to explain the sort of wife who will not take the strength of the man, the sort of wife that won’t destroy the nation?

Bathsheba is not known for her virtue. She was culpable in her adulterous affair as evidenced by the death of her own son. I suspect most scholars, translators, and probably most Christians can’t stand the thought of that woman telling Solomon, the king of wives and concubines, what she considered the ideal traits for a wife.

Attributing this poem of the virtuous wife to an anonymous author has it’s advantage. We’re not hampered by Solomon’s philandering nor his mother’s adultery. We can take all the attributes given as moral examples, to teach our young women, to guide our wives, and to encourage our men. The problem is that none of us has met such a woman. That is the way of the Proverbs. In the words of one of the wisest of popular sages: “do or do not, there is no try.” Everyone wife is so marred that they have failed in every point. And every husband has wrecked their marriage time and time again.

What husband cherishes his excellent wife more than jewels? What husband has trusted his wife to the deepest recesses of his heart? What husband daily thanks the Lord for the blessing by praising the woman of his flesh? Not mere praise but saying, “Many women have done excellently but you surpass them all.”

Wives have the worse end of this poetic bargain. What wife does her husband good and not harm all the days of her life? She works with willing hands, she brings home the bacon, she rises before daybreak to make the biscuits, plants a vineyard, works out at the gym, stays up all night working, serves at the charity auction, makes all her clothes and linens, and she does this all while her husband sits among the elders. She is marked by strength and dignity. On her tongue is wisdom and kindness. “She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.” If we are to believe the Proverb as the standard, everyone, wives and husbands alike, fall short of the ideal.

Still, there is such a thing as a virtuous woman and a noble husband. The fundamentalists love Proverbs 31 because it gives an architecture for carrying this out. There are precise letters to this law. But just like a Greek or a German paragraph, the all important nugget of wisdom is dropped at the end. Whoever wrote this said at the end: “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.”

Everything that precedes the terminus is understood by it. Thus, this Proverbial poem describes the woman whose excellence is the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. So it is for each Christian wife, husband, and household. Fear, love, and trust in God above all things governs all our thoughts and doings. Proverbs 31:10-31 is not a prescriptive laundry list, a grocery list, an errand list, or to do list for each wife who desires to be excellent. Nor do those few admonitions for the husband make him noble. The wife who desires excellence and the husband who desires to love and cherish her both begin with the fear of the Lord.

Even in at a conference like this, where we share much, there will still be differences about what the Lutheran family ought to look like. The Internet is replete with discussions and even arguments regarding schooling, procreation, discipline, family life, women working outside the home, and more.

We often don’t agree on the practical because we disagree on the principle. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. The brilliance of this conference is the centrality of the liturgy of Word and blessed Sacrament. From Christ himself we hear and receive. We leave our preconceptions and worldly expectations at the door. We begin and end with the fear of the Lord, receiving his blessings with open hearts and minds.

This fear receives our Lord’s Word, however it may work. Proverbs 31 might rightly cause us all, husbands and wives, children and unmarried, to fear God’s wrath. The standard set is higher than we can vault. Yet, we also learn there is great reward for those who keep this Word. The virtuous wife will honor her husband. The loving husband will praise and bless his wife.  This, not of their own doing, but born out of their fear of the Lord. Not only fear in the wrath sense, but fear in the sense of love and trust. They hear this wise Word and gladly do … sometimes.

If Bathsheba gave this as oracle to Solomon, we know Solomon did not heed it’s wisdom. His house was undermined by his wives and their idolatry. They did not fear the Lord of his fathers. He gave over his strength to them and they began the destruct on of him and his kingdom. So also, Solomon’s plethora of wives makes the opening rhetorical statement all the more poignant: “An excellent wife, who can find?” Solomon went to his grave in this pursuit. He, like most, even today, sought exotic women in strength, wealth, land, and skill. There’s a little Bathsheba and Solomon in each of us. Who can find such an idealized woman?

Our struggles as families, wives chaffing under the weight of Proverbs 31 expectations, husbands neglecting their wives in praise, admiration, and trust, and even children forgetting to rise up and call their mother blessed, all are the result of our selfish pursuits and sexual idolatry.

Perhaps Proverbs 31 is a word of warning. Men—be content with the woman your heavenly Father gave you to be your wife. Cherish her more than any earthly treasure, honor her, trust her, and praise her.  Women—fear the Lord in all you do. Take joy knowing that the Lord will guide your hands and feet, not giving you merely outward charm or beauty but strength and dignity, wisdom and kindness.

Perhaps Proverbs 31 is also a lament we share with a poor, miserable king who wasted his days pursuing everything in his women but the one thing that matters, the fear of the Lord. The many wives and concubines and even the wisest of all, Solomon in all his glory, was not arrayed as the lilies of Christ’s field.

Therein is the beauty of Proverbs now illuminated in the light of Christ. “An excellent wife who can find?” No doubt, if sought through the eyes of charm and outward beauty. Yet, Christ adorns with his precious flowers with more than simple adornment. He transforms them from the inside out. The old shriveled impression of the excellent wife is reborn in his shed blood. New life is given to her, a holy and righteous fear of the Lord is instilled in her, and she is clothed in the garments of the most beautiful. This he grants to each of us as his precious blood-bought bride, the church.

What a gift it is to be the bride who is more precious than jewels! How lovely it is for the children of the Lord to rise up and call her blessed. What joy it is to love and trust our bridegroom as we serve him in night and day, with hands and feet, even laughing at the time to come.

“An excellent wife who can find?” This household of church and Christ was redeemed at the cross. Your homes, built on the union of husband and wife are all redeemed, too. Forgiveness grounded in the Word, given in Holy Baptism, and nourished with Christ’s own flesh and blood, are the center of the Christian home.

Which is to say, Jesus Christ, is the center of your home. The noble husband upholds and cherishes his wife. The Christian home and especially the excellent wife forgets neglect, idleness, apathy, and lack of charity. The excellent wife fears of the Lord, with a holy and righteous fear that is the fruit of her hands, the works that praise her in the gates. These are the “faithful women.” Amen.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
Grace Lutheran Church
Dyer, Indiana

24. July 2011
Trinity 4
Luke 5:1-11

One of the hardest things to understand about Jesus’ ministry is the seeming willingness of the multitudes, the crowds, and the the disciples to leave their belongings behind and follow Jesus. It happens so often, we are led to believe by the Holy Scriptures that this is normal behavior. If it was so common for Jesus, then why doesn’t it happen today, among us?

The rampant plague that ravages the faith today is a Christ-less Christianity. Jesus takes second stage to the ecstasy and practical life lessons. Many Christians think that God cares most about how we feel. God does not want anyone to be sad, to suffer under the weight of depression, to grieve interminably. He wants us to be happy, clappy, and overjoyed.

The problem is things aren’t all that good. Our job is still on the chopping block, the plethora of meds we take still hasn’t lifted the dense fog of gloom, the loved one is still gone and our heart still aches. The only way to make us feel better about the reality is for our churches to try to help us forget. The problem is that the upbeat songs and hymns fade, the cheery sermon becomes a wisp of a memory, the coping mechanisms aren’t practical, and no vibrant congregation will substitute for the bone of our flesh that death ripped from us. Who wants a savior who brings them sadness and grief?

Many other Christians think God cares most about how we live. God wants everybody to be little, perfect angelic cherubs, fluttering about in their lives with not a care on this earth. All Ten Commandments are joyfully kept. No hatred is on the lips. No greed in the heart. No lust for the other. Parents loved and cherished. The Sabbath kept faithfully. Prayers and songs proclaimed to the LORD in all we do. No idolatry of the ourselves.

The problem is that no one is holy except God himself. No one loves God completely. We love ourselves more than our neighbor. We even cast off our own flesh and blood when we crave the companionship of work or mistress more than they. Nothing is enough for our greedy hearts. Bigger, better, newer, and shiny is our way.  We even place our pursuit for rest and vacation over the rest of the LORD on the Sabbath. The problem is that none of us has the sanctified life our faith demands. All of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Even when we desire to do better, we falter and fail. All those practical life lessons, telling us how to be a better Christian, even the best of the bunch, the cream of the crop, end up collapsing under the weight of our own sinful condition. Who wants a savior who shows us our sin and brings us to despair?

We should be shocked that people followed Jesus. The Christ, the Son of the Living God, cares most for redeeming you. He wants to save you from your sin-wrecked lives. He wants to lift you out of the pit of despair. He wants you to be washed in the blood of his sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. He wants your parched lips to taste and see that he is good.

That’s why our churches are filled with weak Christians who only reluctantly come to church. That’s why our churches are filled with hatred, greed, power, lust, adultery, homosexuality, and every other manner of shame and vice. Our churches bring sinners what really matters—Jesus and his shed blood. Forgiveness, life, and salvation is only found in Jesus. When we take our eyes off the LORD whom we crucified, our teaching becomes vapid and pointless.

Its no wonder then that the multitudes don’t flock to church each Lord’s day. Its no wonder crowds don’t gather around our pulpits to hear the Word of God. Its no wonder our members don’t drop everything and become our LORD’s disciples. What we suffer is a absence of Jesus.

Just this week, Campus Crusade for Christ decided to change their name to “Cru.” They immediately went on the defensive, saying that “campus” and “crusade” no longer represented their locale or method. So why take “Christ” out of their name? They said: We were not trying to eliminate the word Christ from our name. We were looking for a name that would most effectively serve our mission and help us take the gospel to the world. Our mission has not changed. Cru enables us to have discussions about Christ with people who might initially be turned off by a more overtly Christian name. We believe that our interaction and our communication with the world will be what ultimately honors and glorifies Christ.

Sounds like folks ashamed to confess Christ’s name. Sounds like out-and-out rejection of the second commandment. It seems like such a practical decision, yet one has to wonder if its motivated by the desire to boldly confess or by the fear that confession will leave you high and dry.

Not so in today’s Gospel. St. Luke records: On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

These crowds knew exactly where to find the Word of God. Namely, in the person of the Word incarnate, Jesus Christ. So passionate, even obsessed, were they that they pressed in on him. We know what kind of message Jesus gave. His word is recorded in the Word. The utterances from his mouth were and continue to be the very Word of God. They hung on his every Word for they knew it was of God.

That’s not to say everyone listened. Scripture is replete with rejections of the Word of the Lord. Adam and Eve rejected the good word. One patriarch after another thought they knew better than God. The people of God were plagued by disease, invasion, and captivity for their rejection. Even Jesus was rejected by many and crucified when finally everyone abandoned Him.

So we can’t expect complete success. The Spirit blows when and where He wills, granting faith to follow the Word to those whom he elects. We don’t know who will believe. We do know something though of these crowds. I don’t think it would surprise us to learn that they are same sort of sinners and tax-collectors, prostitutes and thieves, pagan Gentiles and faithful Jews, that keep popping up through his whole ministry.

The kind of people who hear our Lord’s Word, follow him, even press around him to hear every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God, are the same sort of people who have been burned by every false religion out there. They have burned by the churches who thought they could cheer them up with a spectacular worship extravaganza. They have been burned by churches who told them to shape up so God will love them. They have burned by every church that refuses to come to grips with Jesus.

They know their life stinks. They know that they’re not good enough. They know that sorrow, depression, and grief are real. They know that there is no earthly solution for this eternal problem. The despair drives them to hear the remedy that is Jesus. They want Jesus, the one from God, who will save them.

They might not know it yet. But I think they suspect that Jesus is going to bless them in ways none of their churches did. So also, Jesus. He know what he is about to do. He is going to suffer and die for them, to redeem them from their sickness, from their grief, and the grave. He hears their pleas for mercy and will relieve them.

There is something yet about this Word though that is hard for us to grasp. Consider St. Luke’s account:

4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. 

Those clear and simple words “do not be afraid” cause the disciples to do the outrageous. Simon Peter, James, and John, leave everything. They leave mother and father, they leave occupation and home, they leave livelihood and friends, to follow Jesus. We probably don’t like this word all that much. We love our parents, our job, our home, our friends, and our multitude of toys. To leave our life behind for Jesus sake and the Gospel, that’s a mighty tall order.

And not only the disciples but the crowds. Jesus had to feed the four thousand and the five thousand because they followed without packing lunch. Multitudes gather, crowds assemble, widows, orphans, the sick, and lame all press on Jesus without thinking of the consequence, the future, or anything but the moment with Jesus.

The closest we come is the popular worship of celebrities. Adoring fans will do nearly anything to catch a glimpse or even a touch of their favorite star. Jesus is a superstar of sorts. The light of the world really. The light no darkness can overcome. But unlike the pop celebrities of our age, Jesus is about to do something truly spectacular. His victory will be so risqué that not even News of the World will print it.

He will lay down his life, suffering cruelty and death, for the sake of each and every follower. And on the third day, He rose just as he prophesied according to the Scriptures. His victory is accepted by the Father in His glorious ascension to the right hand. He exercises all authority on heaven and earth now upon us, his disciples.

Jesus set aside his glory to be incarnate of the virgin Mary. We rightfully call his life from birth to death, resurrection to ascension, his humiliation. For he humbled himself, not in glory and splendor, but he rode forth in lowly pomp to die.So it is with all his disciples. His authority and majesty still act in utter humility here on this earth. We receive our LORD’s forgiveness not as the gift of a superstar. His gifts are diamond-studded, glitzy affairs. No, he comes to you know with simple pastors who probably are a lot like simple fishermen. They have common names and common skills. They may even be a bit boring or tedious. Yet, like Jesus who sat in the boat and opened his mouth, so also your pastors stand before you opening their mouth. And God-willing, out comes the very Word of God.

This Word is the net let down into the sea. Of itself, it does nothing. All night we might toil and still catch nothing. In the morning, at the time we least expect it and at our LORD’s behest, we let out the Word again. And behold, by the power of the Spirit sinners come into the holy ark of the church for repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

Its no wonder that Simon Peter fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” That’s what the crowds were doing, too. We too are rightly astonished at the great things our Lord has done for us. We are flabbergasting that God would take on our wickedness and crucify it in His own body. Not only that, we are thankful. Amazed. Joyful.

One can understand how a Christ-centered Gospel for forgiveness of sins transforms the lives of everyone who hears it. That’s why you’re here right now. You desire this Word to be placed in your ears and on your tongue. You long to be fed by the pure Spiritual meal that is Christ himself. Its no wonder then that faithful Christians recenter their life around Jesus. Their finances, their homes, their work, and even their leisure is dedicated to Jesus Christ and His Word. Our days begin and end with prayer. Our offerings come out of our paychecks first. The catechesis of our youth is considered before academics and extracurriculars. Our work must be first of all God-pleasing. Even in leisure, we take time for prayer, for hymn-singing, and for hearing the Word.

We hold Jesus to this promise. “if you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:31ff) Jesus Christ and Him crucified will always be held front in center in our churches and in our lives. For He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Perhaps our Lord will bless us with an abundant catch of fish according to His good and gracious will. Let us not grow weary of doing this good work. Let us remain steadfast in his Word, pressing in on his every word, whether from the font, the pulpit, or the altar. We only say, “teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”

In Name of the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
Grace Lutheran Church
Dyer, Indiana