Jesus

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Sexagesima 2013 – Isaiah 55:10-13; Luke 8:4-15

03. February 2013
Sexagesima
Isaiah 55:10-13; Luke 8:4-15

Another week. Another parable. Last week learned how outrageously generous our Heavenly Father is to us. He brings us into His vineyard without work or merit of our own and gives us His son’s merit and righteousness as our own. Even more, He gives this same gift of Christ’s salvation, life, and forgiveness to all, regardless of when and how they were brought into His kingdom. Thus, the kingdom of heaven is given to all with unbelievable generosity.

This week we continue with another parable of God’s kingdom. Again the earthly setting, characters, and actions defy logic. They don’t make any sense. Just as with the vineyard owner so also with the Sower. Just as with the workers so with the soils. Just as with the denarius wage so with the seed. To those without eyes of faith, the God in His kingdom is reckless, wasteful, and downright idiotic. The goodness of this flagrantly wild behavior is for those with eyes of faith. We see in these parables a God who is loving, generous, and superbly good.

Last week was about God’s call and gracious gifts. Today is about His Word and its work. By Word, we mean the Holy Scriptures. We usually call these writings the Bible. But this is misunderstood. Is the Bible information to be stored away and saved for the next time you play Bible Trivia Pursuit? Is it a manual of dos and don’ts for how to be good Christian boys and girls? Is it a handbook for life giving instructions to give you a better marriage, increase your riches, or being successful in business?

The problem is that the Bible can provide all these things. It’s full of historical details, strange facts, crazy stories, and catchy sayings. There are plenty of helpful lessons that can help form kids into moral people. The Bible is full of wisdom that will help in you in all areas of life. This is all found in the Bible. But is this the Word of God? Is this God’s purpose in speaking? He says, “It shall not return to me empty, but shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

The difficulty we have with God’s Word is not its length, its sordid tales, its difficult lessons, or its grand scale. Only by knowing the purpose which God seeks to accomplish can we understand His speech. When we look for earthly wisdom and stumble upon the Sower, we pause and wonder why anyone would waste seed on obviously unfruitful soil. No right-minded farmer would chuck his seed on the road, the rocks, and in the weeds.

God as sower and His Word as His seed doesn’t behave like agribusiness of this earth. It does not purpose to give advice to the farmer or lessons about sowing seed. This shouldn’t bother you. You have ears to hear. For you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God. Only to those who are looking for something from the Word other than what it purposes to give will hear this as a crazy story.

What does God purpose to give by His Word for you today? First, the Word of God is purposefully sown upon the whole world. This Word is Law and Promises of God, their attached curses and blessings, damnation and absolution, threats and forgiveness. This is the purpose of the word that goes out from God’s mouth, and it shall not return to Him empty. It will succeed in the thing for which He sends it. This Word is preached to the ends of the earth and works despite coming from sinful mouthpieces. It calls to repentance and forgives for the sake of Christ. It binds the sin of those who do not repent.

Second, the Word is recklessly cast upon paths, rocks, thorny brush, and fertile soil, that is, people who may or may not receive it unto salvation. From the our perspective God is wastes His preaching of the Word by scattering it where it is snatched away by the devil, it can’t take root, or is choked by the cares of this world. It is not for us to say. We aren’ to judge who, when, and where the Word will work. Nor are we to judge its result. We preach. We teach. We forgive. We baptize. We feed with Christ.

Jew or Gentile? Black, red, white? Wealthy suburbanite or low-income south-sider? Immature child or gray-haired curmudgeon? Irrelevant. We didn’t create the soil. We don’t know what days, years, or decades of God’s persistent sun, pelting rain, or annual freeze and thaw will do to those hearts. Nor do we make the Word effective. No need to dress up God’s breath into digestible portions or attractive packaging. No need dummy God down for the young (or the old). Speak what God has said. It shall not return to Him empty. That’s His promise and you can take it to the bank.

But Jesus warns us to be attentive to ourselves. While we can’t tell who will receive God’s Word nor when, we can consider our own hearts. We should consider God’s description of the soils not to judge the potential of others but to be on our guard.

It is true that you can harden your heart to God and stop being receptive to His Word. You can refuse to hear preaching. You can stubbornly avoid teaching from the Word. You can hear in one ear and let it out the other. This makes your faith easy pickings for the Devil. He comes like a raven and snatches that Word away from you. Continued resistance to the Word can make your heart so hard that it becomes like stone. Stone that cannot receive the Word nor the rain and sun of God needed to nourish it. You can let other gods grow up like thorns, distracting you from the truth, and eventually strangling God’s Word with the errors of the world.

Faithfulness is not in vogue these days. People jump around from one church to another assuming it doesn’t matter. Lutheran or Roman Catholic? Baptist or no-name non-denom? Reformed or Bible church? We’re all Christian, right? We need to ask a deathly serious question. Do all these confessions share the chief purpose for which God gives His Word? If we don’t agree why God speaks do we share the same faith?

This is a serious matter. It affects many of you in this congregation. It probably touches every family in some way. If we can profess to be Christians together ought not we preach and teach the Word of God truthfully together? Go church shopping sometime. Consider the words of their singing. Listen to the preaching. What is the chief aim of the Word coming from the congregation and preacher’s mouth? Is it consistent to what comes from God own speech in the Holy Scriptures?

You’ll discover how easy it is to be trodden by false doctrine and become resistive to the truth. You’ll see how some are hardened completely to the truth of the Word. You’ll find some churches more concerned with the cares of this world than what God says in His Word. And the greatest sadness is that many or even most have lost sight of the purpose for which God sent His Word. God sent His Son Jesus to reconcile the world unto himself. The Word of God is the good news that in the cross of Jesus Christ you are given forgiveness of all your sins. In His resurrection you see the first-fruits of your own resurrection on the day of His return.

This is the purpose of God’s Word. He will accomplish the terraforming of your heart of soil into a fertile ground for salvation. His Holy Spirit will fall like rain and His Son shine like the sun to crack open the hard path, pulverize the rocks, and scorch the thorns. You can’t make your heart any more ready for the Word than God has already. The good work He has begun in you will reach its completion in the day of Jesus Christ.

After the Holy Spirit prepares you by the Word, that same Word takes root. It is nourished by the gifts of the Spirit. The springs of eternal life water that seed until it takes root and grows in you. It is fertilized with absolution. It is nourished with heavenly food. And Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, shelters His tender shoot from the pecking of Satan’s beak, from the suffering rays of the midday sun, and from the encroachment of the thorny cares of this world. This Word came forth from the Father’s mouth to forgive, to give life, and to take you into eternal salvation. All this He will do. He will accomplish it. He will succeed in it. Amen.

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

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

“Outrageous Grace” Septuagesima 2013 – Matthew 20:1-16

27. January 2013
Septuagesima
Matthew 20:1-16

You have heard it said that parables are “an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.” As earthly stories go these parables are often too outrageous to be true. The parable of the laborers and the vineyard is not all that helpful for business advice. No earthly master would run a vineyard paying everyone the same rate no matter how much or little they worked. It’s bad for business, discriminatory, and alienates the workers.  The master doesn’t care about tomorrow and is only concerned about today’s harvest. The master is generous but he’ll shortly be out a vineyard. Jesus’s parable is lousy advice about how to be a business owner.

What about the laborers? Does God promise to reward diligence with a job? Or perhaps work hard and you’ll get paid? Or don’t be lazy or you might miss a decent job prospect? And maybe that God gives higher pay to those who wait? No, those seem off, too. The parable’s application doesn’t seem to have anything to do with business, labor, running a vineyard, or even the character of a decent business owner or worker.

We know these parables to have meaning for us but their point is not to be more like the characters in the story. In today’s story this would involve being a terrible businessman or to stop complaining at work.

The parable’s value to you personally is indicated by the phrase “the kingdom of heaven is like…”  Jesus did not say “for the kingdom of the earth is like.” Jesus is describing for you what is true of his church rather than giving you life lessons. He is describing spiritual realities by way of comparison to an earthly setting. When this comparison is made in the parables, we learn how radically different and uncharacteristic God is. No one and nothing in this earth behaves like our God.

The comparison goes like this: God is the master of the house whose vineyard needs workers. We are the laborers in His vineyard. The foremen are the pastors of the church who distribute our the denarius wage. From this earthly comparison what are we to learn about God, his church, his nature, and your faith?

The point is not about the labor. Jesus is not teaching us that our hard work will merit his generosity in this life or the life to come. Far from it. Some came in the eleventh hour putting in only an hour of effort and yet are rewarded with the same pay of a denarius as those who labored all twelve hours. The point is not the labor but the reward. This reward is given equally and generously to all who are brought into His vineyard.

What is the reward for being made a laborer in the Father’s vineyard? You receive the gracious favor of God. Regardless of your laziness, your hard work, your faithful life, or your wickedness, God chooses you. He goes out to the obvious potential Christians and says “follow me into my vineyard!” He goes into the marketplace of ideas and calls all to place their hand at His winepress. He even goes after those who have no regard for His work or His gracious wage and sends them to work. So the Father’s grace is first manifest in His call.

This is necessary. By your sinful condition, you were separated from God. You were outside His high and protective walls. You lacked the sustenance of his fine food. You did not walk with Him in the cool of the day. Thus, grace is to be welcomed again into fellowship with God, to serve Him in righteousness and blessedness. Grace is to be forgiven and welcomed back into the shelter of His home and vineyard fortress. Grace is to taste and see that the LORD is good.

Not only does God call you into his vineyard, His grace gives you the promised reward when your labors are ended. This begins now. The kingdom of heaven begins in the holy church with the forgiveness of sins received in the very voice of God, a washing in His blood, and rich food of His body and blood. The reward is already yours, whether life-long Lutheran or newcomer. You are safely in Christ’s vineyard.

And this reward lasts into eternity. For God your life is but a day. At the end of that day, that is, when you die, he’ll give you the reward for your labors. His graciousness isn’t simply the call to be His servant here in time but also the promise of eternity. Grace begins now with forgiveness of sins, a washing of rebirth, and a foretaste of the feast to come. The promised reward is the feast, the resurrection of the body, and everlasting life.

Thus, the parable is not about the labor but the reward. When He called you He promised you a just reward. Even before you heard the call the promise of forgiveness and eternity were yours. Why? Because God the Father sent His Son Jesus Christ to earn this reward for you. This is why the hours of labor are irrelevant. The gracious denarius is yours not for the labor’s sake but for the sake of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He has already earned this reward for you and gives it to you freely as a gift.

God’s kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, is ridiculously generous. Jesus warns us not to begrudge our heavenly Father His generosity. Salvation and the means of God’s favor are given freely as a gift. They are not earned or merited. If someone walks through these doors having heard God’s call, I cannot say as foreman, “these gifts are not for you.” No, they are freely forgiven not for the sake of their effort but for the sake of Christ.

When they ask to be baptized into God’s holy family after being instructed by God’s holy Word and thereby saved, the faithful foreman gives to them this gift as the call agreed upon. If someone young or old—child or elderly—desires the Lord’s body and blood, confesses the one faith truthfully, and will receive the shepherding of your pastor’s care, the faithful foreman gives the gifts and feeds the child of God.

Too often we begrudge God his generosity. We think that forgiveness should only come to those who are sorry enough, pious enough, or Lutheran enough. Yet, none of us are godly enough. Despite the truth of our condition, our heavenly Father in His mercy showers his grace and favor on us in the forgiveness of sins. We are weak earthen vessels to dispense the mercy as his vineyard laborers.

We’re concerned about the baptized, not sure the parent’s heart is in the right place, and worried that the child will forsake this gift. At the end of the day, it is not ours to decide where and when to baptize. What must I do to be saved? Believe and be baptized. At that we give the gift.

The Lord’s Supper has often been polluted by thoughts of merit and worth. So-called “worthy reception” is typically understood as having to once-upon-a-time jumped through all the right Confirmation hoops. But who has received the sacrament worthily? “That person is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’” Preparedness is not a matter of work but faith. Worthy reception is believing that Christ’s body and blood are given for your forgiveness.

Do not begrudge the Father His generosity. The kingdom of heaven comes without our work or even without our prayers. God will save the whole number of the elect in His time. For some this is the first hour, for others the eleventh, and for others in between. It’s not about the work or the having “done the time” but is about God’s gracious favor to every laborer without any merit or worthiness in them. It’s not about the work but the reward.

How does God’s kingdom come, after all? The kingdom of heaven “comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.” (SC, III.2)

While the truth is not complicated it is unbelievable and contrary to our nature. It requires faith to give the Holy Spirit all the credit for making you a Christian and keeping you that way. You’d rather credit the faith of your parents, your Sunday school teachers, your diligent study, or even your pastor(s). All these have a role to play but merely as weak instruments wielded by the Holy Spirit’s powerful hand.

It was not your work that made you one of God’s children, nor the hand of the pastor, nor even the water that washed over you, but rather the Word of God acting through Word and water. It is not your work of stumbling out of bed on Sunday morning, dragging out your Bible during the week, or even going on your knees in prayer that keeps you in the faith but instead the Holy Spirit enlightening you with daily, rich forgiveness of sins.

We confess that it is the Holy Spirit who calls, gathers, and enlightens the Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. The call to be a member of the one holy Christian church comes from God the Holy Spirit. He is the one who gathers you to the feet of Jesus Christ. He enlightens you in all matters of salvation and life by the gift of forgiveness received by the Holy Word and the blessed Sacraments.

The way of salvation is not about the labor but rather entirely about the grace of the Holy Trinity. For the Father sent His Son Jesus to redeem you, to earn your reward in your stead. Now the Father and Son send the Holy Spirit to call you and the world to come into the vineyard, be sheltered behind those walls, washed and clothed in Christ, to be fed and nourished with His body and blood, and to patiently labor until the promised reward of heaven is yours. God might make for a terrible business man and we grumpy laborers but such is the kingdom of heaven. Thanks be to God!

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

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

“Climb Every Mountain” – Transfiguration 2013 – Exodus 34:29-35; Matthew 17:1-9

20. January 2013
Transfiguration
Exodus 34:29-35; Matthew 17:1-9

Everyone wants a mountaintop experience. Maybe you have had such an experience figuratively or literally. Would you describe any events in your life this way? Or if you considered the general contour of your life’s topography would it be more valleys and shadows than mountains and brilliance? No wonder then that when we are trudging through those ravines of life we look forward to the small peaks with the joy, hope, and clear vision they bring. We want those experiences that thrill and delight.

This desire applies not only to our daily lives but to spiritual lives, too. We desire to see the glory of God, to receive the exhilaration of His presence, to see clearly the landscape and the path of our life, and to delight in all His many gifts. We want from God a mountaintop experience to remember.

This is, of course, why we see some people in church only infrequently like on Christmas and Easter. They know those days will be filled with joy and comfort. They’re not so sure that the weekly grind of the Divine Service will provide the same. And if we’re honest, we’ll say they’re right. The weekly service often seems more of a valley with each of us more slouching than leaping towards the promised land. Our prayers are drudgery, our voices lackluster, and our attention waning.

The problem is that we are wrong to judge the value of our life experiences based on whether they make us happy or not. Anyone with the wisdom of age will tell you they learned as much or more from the rotten experiences of life as they did from the moments of joy, peace, or hope. The war-torn scars of the soldier, the withered hands of the worker, or the stretch marks of the mother all tell of an experience that was difficult yet incredibly valuable. Those experiences may have glimpses of glory but were often difficult drudgery.

God never promises your life will be easy nor every moment a mountaintop experience. Your heavenly Father “disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Heb 12:6; cf. Prov. 3:11). God works this way in your life, both body and soul. He allows you to experience pain, grief, and disease to strengthen your trust in Him. You will suffer even death because of your sin. You are dust and to dust you shall return. This discipline of your body is not His final work. God promises healing and will give it. Ultimately this is the gift of Jesus in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.  Just as Christ died and rose so also you who are in Him will die and rise.

God the Father is also attentive to your soul. He gives you His commands that confess His perfect will. Given your sinful condition these accuse you and terrify your conscience. You are tempted to sin but never more than you can handle. This holy Law is a guardian or taskmaster. It restrains evil in you, shows you your sin, and shows you what God expects of you. This word is humbling for no one keeps it. It’s discipline scares our soul, frightened to death of the prospect of hell. As with bodily discipline this is not God’s proper work. His Law always gives way to the gift of the Holy Gospel. For there is forgiveness in God the Son. His death and resurrection gives you forgiveness. There is no more condemnation for you have been freed by His blood.

Our physical and spiritual experiences with God are not always what we would call a mountaintop experiences, if by the expression we mean that they are comfortable and happy. When Moses brought the God’s holy Law to the people from Mt. Sinai, did they receive him joyfully? No, this “mountaintop experience” scared them. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.

Moses came as the messenger of the almighty God and a little bit of that glory wore off onto Moses. But remember that this was after Moses’s second trip up Sinai. After the first trip he returned to discover the people worshipping a golden calf. Moses showed God’s displeasure by melting the calf and forcing the people to drink it mixed with water and God himself sent a plague upon them. In His mercy God heard Moses’s intercession and forgave the people. God called Moses to once again travel to Sinai and there cut new tablets for the Law. When Moses returned to the people they were rightly frightened. Would God again be displeased with them?

This righteous fear continued. Every time Moses went in to speak before the LORD, he would return with his face shining. The people knew that He had spoken with the LORD. When Moses lifted the veil they would hear the God’s Word. They would have a “mountaintop experience” in God’s way. The words Moses spoke did not always lift their spirits but they were always for their good. The people hated the reflected glory in Moses’s face and were terrified when the veil was lifted. For Moses’s ministry was of the Law and thus of accusation, condemnation, and death.

This is not the mountaintop experience our bodies long for nor the one that is our soul’s hope. Perhaps that is why St. Peter acted the way He did on Mt. Tabor? perhaps he thought he was finally having the mountaintop experience that everyone hoped for. After six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.

One has to wonder if Peter had not paid attention in his sabbath lessons.  Jesus and Moses shining in glory shouldn’t make happy or comfortable. He should be frightened out of his wits. When anyone goes up on a mountain and ends up with shining flesh it is a moment of terror. But not Peter. He said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. Peter wants to continue to dwell on the mountain, to be accused by the Law, and to know only God’s  terrifying glory. He wants to live under the Law and not the greater and proper work of Jesus to die for their sins.

Jesus converses with Moses and Elijah and is speaking of His exodus (according to St. Luke.) From the mountain of Transfiguration Jesus turns His face toward Jerusalem where He will climb another mountain. On Mt. Calvary the true glory of God will be revealed, the glory of the only-begotten of the Father. On that mountain Moses’s ministry of condemnation will cease. Jesus will die for the sins of the world, ushering in a new ministry of righteousness. The glory of Jesus (and Moses and Elijah) that Peter wanted to package in tents on Tabor will be shown to have no glory at all. As St. Paul said, “What once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it” (2 Cor 3:11).

Peter was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from 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 terrified. Now Peter, James, and John make the connection. Now they know that the glory in Jesus they see is truly the glory of God. Now they are rightly terrified, fearing God’s judgment and His holy presence.

But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. Already at this mountain a new mountaintop experience begins. God’s holy Law is surpassed by the gift of Jesus. The Father’s voice that terrifies is followed by the Son’s voice of comfort. Brilliant glory is shrouded so that we would bask in the cross of Christ.

This is a different sort of mountaintop experience. It begins when Jesus comes to you. After you are terrified by the Father’s discipline, the Son comes with the touch of forgiveness. He speaks to you tenderly and says “Rise, and have no fear.” These words are greater than Moses. Their glory more brilliant than even the sun.

Jesus tells death “It is finished” and he transfigures it into eternal life. He says to water, “save” and it is transfigured into a saving flood. He says to bread and wine, “body and blood” and He is transigured for your forgiveness. He calls sinners “forgiven” and you are transfigured into the redeemed. He says to His church “shine” and we are transfigured into cities shining on hills. From that little mountain of Calvary now a greater mountain is rising up in you. For Christ has gathered you together to Mount Zion to give you the best experience of all—forgiveness in Him.

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

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