Text: Matthew 16:21-28
So why does a child need an education?
There are many answers that people will give. And it is apparent that most people think it is important. After all, consider the fact that virtually every election campaign features some sort of education plan, some sort of education reform – because they, the politicians, are looking to buy the votes of the mommies and daddies out there who are concerned for the future of their pride and joy, not to mention grandma’s and grandpa’s or aunts and uncles who have a vested, personal interest in seeing to the future success of that little boy or little girl. They want what’s best and therefore they want an education.
But that still doesn’t answer the question “why?” Why does Johnny or Sally need to go to school? What does he need to learn? What lessons does she need to take with her from her experience in the classroom to ensure her a solid future? Usually we answer the question with two key concepts; knowledge and skills. Johnny needs to know how to read, how to write, how to add, how to multiply and divide. Sally needs to know American history and world history and geography and science. They need knowledge. But they also needs skills, computer skills; how to access information on the internet, how to create a power point presentation, how to word process. Perhaps Johnny or Sally might also need trade skills; how to cook, how to build a birdhouse or a bookshelf out of wood, how to change oil or fix a flat, how to bandage a wound. These skills will help Johnny and Sally get jobs. Usually we think education involves knowledge. Usually we think education involves the development of skills. Maybe there is something more.
Last week in our Gospel text Peter the disciple of Jesus made the good confession. “Who do you say that I am?” asked Jesus. He had previously asked who others thought him to be; they answered with the popular ideas of the day – a prophet returned from Israel’s history. Not quite good enough. So Jesus asked the disciples directly who they believed him to be. Peter made the confession: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” This was neither knowledge, nor was it skill. It was revelation. This was not taught to them in a classroom. It was not learned by hands on experience. And it certainly wasn’t something that would earn them a paycheck somewhere down the road. It was revelation from God. “Blessed are you Simon Son of Jonah for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but My Father who is in Heaven.” This was revelation. Knowledge and skill are two excellent targets to shoot for, but children need more. They need the revelation, the uncovering of the truth of God’s world and God’s Word that is only found in the Scriptures. They need the revelation of the Spirit that leads to the confession of Christ as the Son of God that comes from the Father in Heaven. How many other schools offer that as part of the curriculum? Not many. But you will definitely find it here.
We are told that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word. And so the word is present here every day. It begins the day as God’s Word is shared among the little Christians but also with the big ones. It is shared in staff devotions. It is studied and committed to memory even as a part of our curriculum. It is preached in chapel. It is taught during religion class. The Word that contains God’s revelation and gives to those who hear it faith and that good confession is woven into the daily fabric of our school. Knowledge and skills are good. They might prepare you to meet your future employer. Revelation prepares you to meet your maker.
Peter the disciple made this confession and he was commended by Jesus. But here today, after only a very brief turn around we see that he had become distracted from this revelation. You see, this revelation involves a cross. And not just a figurative cross. It involves a very real, very tangible wooden Roman cross, upon which our savior came to die. The life lived by Jesus was a life of suffering. It was a life in which he took up his cross to fulfill the will of his father.
Jesus commands us to do the same. Here in our text we are told that we must deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow.
Peter did not want to hear this message so when our Lord delivered it as his father’s revelation Peter inserted his own understanding. We do that too.
That’s not the way it should be Lord. You have gotten it all wrong. You need to change your conclusions here and there. Jesus, the real thing we need from you is your Jesus knowledge and your Jesus skills. Give us your Jesus knowledge. Teach us a few tips, give us a few pointers to make our lives easier and help us to manage better. And then use your Jesus skills, your divine power, work your magic to make some good things happen for me. Peter might have asked Jesus to defeat the Romans. Maybe you want him to defeat cancer or an angry boss or instructor or coach. Maybe you want him to work some magic to keep you and your family safe or make you a winner at life. That’s what we need. Jesus, I can use knowledge, I could use some of your Jesus skills to keep me going and to help me get what I want out of life. Give me those things and I’ll be fine.
God says No. It’s not about a little extra to supplement your knowledge and your skill.
It is about death.
The death of the Son of God for you and for your sin. And then your death. Your death to yourself so that your life is a living sacrifice. This is not a message that we will naturally gravitate toward. This is not a message we would like to hear. But this is a message we need to hear preached to us into our ears to repeat to us God’s will and God’s revelation because we so often fight against it.
Peter spoke his mind and was rebuked for it. Jesus spoke directly to Peter (and to us for that matter) to address his misunderstanding. “Get behind me Satan. You do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men.” Jesus does not mess around. He calls a thing what it is. He points out where and how we are mislead into thinking the thoughts of the Devil. It is like we are hearing that same temptation given to Jesus – “I will give you all the kingdoms of the earth.” We all want to live like kings and queens.
Remember the words, “If anyone would come after me he must deny himself take up his cross and follow me.” The cost to be a disciple of Jesus is high. One must deny one’s self. One must follow Jesus even to the cross. One must go so far as to willingly carry that cross. One must gladly take up the instrument of one’s own death if that is where Jesus will lead. Hardly a kingly throne. But this is where we must follow.
Heaven help us to do this.
Because we can not do it on our own. It goes against our nature. Our instinct is survival. Our instinct is self defense and self preservation. Whenever challenged we quickly go on the defensive. Whenever threatened we clam up and close up and protect ourselves. We become so bent on self preservation that the words of Jesus that call us out of our hiding places and into lives of service challenge us and will even sting us. “I’ve been burned before. I will not be burned again.”
Take up your cross, says Jesus. Follow me. Says Jesus. Take on yourself my burden and my yoke says Jesus. And still we do not.
Bur Jesus has. And Jesus does. And so we look to that Jesus whom God has revealed to us in the scriptures. The Jesus who did obey. The Jesus who did take the yoke. The Jesus who did pick up the cross and follow the will of His Father even unto his suffering and death. We look to Jesus who has done what we have been unable to do.
And we pray to him. Lord Jesus forgive me for my fear that would hide away when you call me to serve. And He does.
Lord Jesus forgive me for my refusal to answer your call to follow you even and especially when it calls on me to suffer. And he does.
Lord Jesus forgive me for looking to you only for a little extra knowledge or maybe a few additional life skills that will help me make my way through life. And Jesus forgives us.
Jesus forgive me for thinking of you only as my meal ticket, my ace in the hole to win me a better life. And Jesus forgives us.
Jesus forgives us for these sins and all our other sins. Jesus forgives us and washes us clean. We look to the one who did obey those commands that we have failed to keep and we see and we confess and we believe that thing that God has revealed to us: Jesus is my Jesus. Jesus did these things for me.
So why does a child need an education?
Certainly it is to pass along knowledge, knowledge about the world that God has made and the things that make it the way that it is. Children also benefit from the various skills that they pick up along the way, whether those have to do with computers or word processors or paintbrushes or scissors and glue. But more than any of these things, children benefit from hearing and studying and committing to memory that revelation, God’s revelation of himself. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word.” Our student are hearing that word. May the Word of God’s revelation about His Son bless these children. May it bless their families and move the hearts of Johnny, Sally, mom & dad, and maybe even Grandma and Grandpa to believe in the Jesus who died for them.
Amen.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Pentecost 10 - Romans 11:33 - 12:8
Grace mercy and peace be to your from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our text this morning is the epistle lesson from Romans 11, 12.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
St Paul writing in his letter to the Christian Church in Rome writes the following: “I appeal to you brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship.”
Paul commands us to present our bodies “living sacrifices”. The question is; what does it mean to be a living sacrifice?
We probably think we know. We probably assume that it means something like what we hear football coaches and motivational speakers talking about. Giving up something to achieve something else. Being completely devoted to one single purpose. We might think of Chris Gardner, the true to life character portrayed by Will Smith in the movie The Pursuit of Happiness. He held down a job, volunteered at an investment firm and raised a son all at the same time so that he could achieve his goal. We apply that same notion here and think they are the same thing. Work hard. Devote yourself to the task. Achieve and accomplish your goal.
The trouble is, Paul is not talking about achieving a goal. Paul is not talking about setting one thing aside to achieve another. Paul is talking about your death.
The first thing to note is that Paul is not saying that you should make the sacrifice. In other words, this isn’t a text about you giving something up or setting something aside. It is much bigger than that. Paul is saying that you should be the sacrifice.
In Paul’s context and in Paul’s day, sacrifices were not high achievers. Sacrifices were not the best of the best. Sacrifices were dead. A sacrifice was something you brought to the temple, slaughtered and then burned up. A sacrifice is not a metaphor. Not a symbol. A sacrifice was a thing that died.
So if the question is what does it mean to be a living sacrifice, the answer is the this: If you are going to be a living sacrifice, if you are going to be holy and acceptable to God, then you have to die. There is no way around it. You have to be completely gotten rid of, reduced to zero.
We think of sacrifice as “dream it and do it” go for it and achieve it. That might work in the business world or on the football field or maybe in the classroom. It doesn’t work with God. When it comes to our relationship with God we must be sacrificed.
This message is consistently given to us all throughout the scriptures. When it comes to God’s law and what he demands, we haven’t done it. Where we have tried we have even messed things up and gotten in the way. And because of not just those things we have done wrong, but even and especially because of our best efforts and those things we think we have done right, therefore we deserve to receive from God his anger and punishment. We deserve hell.
So Paul says to present yourselves for your death. Submit to your death. Stop trying to prove yourself. Stop trying to justify yourself. Present yourselves as meat, blood and bones fit for the fire, and he will make you holy and acceptable.
Paul commands us to be holy. Holiness is another one of those words that we don’t quite understand these days. It is a word that has changed meaning as it has been used in our own context and culture. These days to be holy means to behave in a very moral or ethical sort of way. A holy person is a person who lives their life by the book.
I was recently watching a 60 Minutes special on Albert Pujols, the St Louis Cardinal baseball player. He is a devout Christian. He doesn’t drink or smoke. He won’t even get on an elevator alone with a woman not his wife. He visits sick kids in hospitals. He provides aid for the poor in his native Dominican Republic. He is by earthly standard a guy who is devoted to living a holy life.
But the trouble is, Albert Pujols isn’t holy. Holiness isn’t another one of those “dream it and do it” ideals for us to live up to. Holiness isn’t what we should be or become or how we should behave. Holiness is what God is. Holiness is where God is. Holiness can only come from and through God.
In the Old Testament book of Leviticus the Lord has this to say: “You are holy because I the Lord your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2) Our modern translations often don’t quite do this verse the proper justice. Our ESV puts it like this: “You shall be holy because I the Lord your God am holy”. It sounds like a command, like one of those statements connected to an “or else”. Or a “You’d better”.
Not so.
The grammar is important. It’s an imperfect verb. It is a statement of fact. It is kind of like saying you wear red because you are a buckeye fan. The one necessitates the other. God is telling us, informing us as to what we are because of who he is.
He is holy. And because he is holy, we are also holy. Our holiness comes from Him. It’s not something we have concocted, come up with on our own, achieved because of our hard work and devotion, it is something that is ours only and always because it has come from him. God gives his holiness. God’s holiness comes to us as a gift.
In the Old Testament God gave his holiness by means of the temple and the sacrifices spelled out by Moses in the book of the Law. The people came with their sin to the temple, they offered their sacrifices, God received their sacrifices and sent them home with his holiness.
The New Testament changes the picture. If the Temple was the center of God’s holiness and the focus of God’s salvation in the Old Testament, Christ became the new focus of salvation and the new location for God’s holiness in the Gospels. People came to Jesus sick and went home healed. People came to Jesus oppressed and possessed by Satan and went home free. People came to Jesus with sin and went home forgiven. All the marks of un-holiness were taken by Jesus so that people left from their encounters with him as brand new and as holy. Holiness was, and is, the result of God’s power and God’s healing, and God’s forgiveness and God’s salvation found in Jesus.
Paul was aware of this as he was writing our text so here is the picture he presents: You come to God with nothing but your sin. Because of this sin you must die and there is no way around it. So present yourself for that death. “Present your bodies to God as a living sacrifice.” And here’s what God will do. He will take your body, he will take your death and in exchange he will give you his body, his life. You will be the body of Christ. You will have the life of Christ lived in you. And as such you will be holy.
Your life won’t be your life. Your life won’t be the life that you have built or achieved or earned or won. It will be the life that he achieved that he lived, that he earned and that he has given to you for free only because he has loved you.
This is the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ.
Just one week ago, here at St Paul Chuckery, there were three things that happened. Two were wonderful gifts and miracles of God, the third was somewhat tragic. Last week God gave out his holiness. God fulfilled this word in our text. First when he baptized little McCain Thrush; miraculously putting to death McCain’s sinful nature and simultaneously raising him and resurrecting him to a new life, to a holy life. And then, God bent the rules of heaven and earth as he tucked his body and blood in with and under ordinary bread and wine so that we ate and drank and were filled with the body and blood of Jesus. Our sins were forgiven and God gave his holiness to you and me to be shared by you and me. In these actions God gave to us right here in this place what the New Testament calls koinonia, unity and fellowship and life together.
I am concerned that we forgot this unity. Church ended. We sang the last hymn. And then from what I could tell, we proceeded to entrench ourselves against one another. Our words were laced with frustration and distrust and anger against one another. God gave us unity. You divided yourselves against yourselves.
Yes, St Paul Chuckery has money problems. You have this problem as the result of probably ten or more years of spending too much and then passing the bill along through Thrivent. You need to fix this and you need to commit yourselves to work together and to listen to each other so that you can fix your problems.
So far you have not. I have heard reports of finger pointing and blame and passing the buck. You have allowed new frustrations coupled with old sins to divide you. You need to repent of this spirit of division. You need to confess this sin here to each other. You need to learn to forgive and love and trust each other. We need to have our unity and fellowship and life together restored. I would propose that we do that right now.
In your blue hymnal open to Page 308 to an order for public confession…
In our Gospel text from Matthew 16 Jesus says something entirely profound and powerful. He says to Peter, “On this rock, that is to say on the confession that Jesus is the Christ, I shall build the church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
The foundation of the Christian Church is the forgiveness given by Jesus. Satan and his demons and all the gates of hell would try to lock us up in frustration and anger and sin and bitterness and self justification. Satan would try to tear us apart and drive a wedge into our fellowship and there are times that he has had an awful lot of success in doing that very thing. But Christ’s church is built on forgiveness. It is the very foundation of it. And this forgiveness smashes the gates of hell and obliterates the chains of sin.
And Jesus gives us the key. The key to unlock heaven. And Jesus gives the authority to administer his forgiveness to his church. “Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
I have heard your confession. As a called and ordained servant of Christ and by his authority I forgive you your sin in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
St Paul writing in his letter to the Christian Church in Rome writes the following: “I appeal to you brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship.”
Paul commands us to present our bodies “living sacrifices”. The question is; what does it mean to be a living sacrifice?
We probably think we know. We probably assume that it means something like what we hear football coaches and motivational speakers talking about. Giving up something to achieve something else. Being completely devoted to one single purpose. We might think of Chris Gardner, the true to life character portrayed by Will Smith in the movie The Pursuit of Happiness. He held down a job, volunteered at an investment firm and raised a son all at the same time so that he could achieve his goal. We apply that same notion here and think they are the same thing. Work hard. Devote yourself to the task. Achieve and accomplish your goal.
The trouble is, Paul is not talking about achieving a goal. Paul is not talking about setting one thing aside to achieve another. Paul is talking about your death.
The first thing to note is that Paul is not saying that you should make the sacrifice. In other words, this isn’t a text about you giving something up or setting something aside. It is much bigger than that. Paul is saying that you should be the sacrifice.
In Paul’s context and in Paul’s day, sacrifices were not high achievers. Sacrifices were not the best of the best. Sacrifices were dead. A sacrifice was something you brought to the temple, slaughtered and then burned up. A sacrifice is not a metaphor. Not a symbol. A sacrifice was a thing that died.
So if the question is what does it mean to be a living sacrifice, the answer is the this: If you are going to be a living sacrifice, if you are going to be holy and acceptable to God, then you have to die. There is no way around it. You have to be completely gotten rid of, reduced to zero.
We think of sacrifice as “dream it and do it” go for it and achieve it. That might work in the business world or on the football field or maybe in the classroom. It doesn’t work with God. When it comes to our relationship with God we must be sacrificed.
This message is consistently given to us all throughout the scriptures. When it comes to God’s law and what he demands, we haven’t done it. Where we have tried we have even messed things up and gotten in the way. And because of not just those things we have done wrong, but even and especially because of our best efforts and those things we think we have done right, therefore we deserve to receive from God his anger and punishment. We deserve hell.
So Paul says to present yourselves for your death. Submit to your death. Stop trying to prove yourself. Stop trying to justify yourself. Present yourselves as meat, blood and bones fit for the fire, and he will make you holy and acceptable.
Paul commands us to be holy. Holiness is another one of those words that we don’t quite understand these days. It is a word that has changed meaning as it has been used in our own context and culture. These days to be holy means to behave in a very moral or ethical sort of way. A holy person is a person who lives their life by the book.
I was recently watching a 60 Minutes special on Albert Pujols, the St Louis Cardinal baseball player. He is a devout Christian. He doesn’t drink or smoke. He won’t even get on an elevator alone with a woman not his wife. He visits sick kids in hospitals. He provides aid for the poor in his native Dominican Republic. He is by earthly standard a guy who is devoted to living a holy life.
But the trouble is, Albert Pujols isn’t holy. Holiness isn’t another one of those “dream it and do it” ideals for us to live up to. Holiness isn’t what we should be or become or how we should behave. Holiness is what God is. Holiness is where God is. Holiness can only come from and through God.
In the Old Testament book of Leviticus the Lord has this to say: “You are holy because I the Lord your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2) Our modern translations often don’t quite do this verse the proper justice. Our ESV puts it like this: “You shall be holy because I the Lord your God am holy”. It sounds like a command, like one of those statements connected to an “or else”. Or a “You’d better”.
Not so.
The grammar is important. It’s an imperfect verb. It is a statement of fact. It is kind of like saying you wear red because you are a buckeye fan. The one necessitates the other. God is telling us, informing us as to what we are because of who he is.
He is holy. And because he is holy, we are also holy. Our holiness comes from Him. It’s not something we have concocted, come up with on our own, achieved because of our hard work and devotion, it is something that is ours only and always because it has come from him. God gives his holiness. God’s holiness comes to us as a gift.
In the Old Testament God gave his holiness by means of the temple and the sacrifices spelled out by Moses in the book of the Law. The people came with their sin to the temple, they offered their sacrifices, God received their sacrifices and sent them home with his holiness.
The New Testament changes the picture. If the Temple was the center of God’s holiness and the focus of God’s salvation in the Old Testament, Christ became the new focus of salvation and the new location for God’s holiness in the Gospels. People came to Jesus sick and went home healed. People came to Jesus oppressed and possessed by Satan and went home free. People came to Jesus with sin and went home forgiven. All the marks of un-holiness were taken by Jesus so that people left from their encounters with him as brand new and as holy. Holiness was, and is, the result of God’s power and God’s healing, and God’s forgiveness and God’s salvation found in Jesus.
Paul was aware of this as he was writing our text so here is the picture he presents: You come to God with nothing but your sin. Because of this sin you must die and there is no way around it. So present yourself for that death. “Present your bodies to God as a living sacrifice.” And here’s what God will do. He will take your body, he will take your death and in exchange he will give you his body, his life. You will be the body of Christ. You will have the life of Christ lived in you. And as such you will be holy.
Your life won’t be your life. Your life won’t be the life that you have built or achieved or earned or won. It will be the life that he achieved that he lived, that he earned and that he has given to you for free only because he has loved you.
This is the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ.
Just one week ago, here at St Paul Chuckery, there were three things that happened. Two were wonderful gifts and miracles of God, the third was somewhat tragic. Last week God gave out his holiness. God fulfilled this word in our text. First when he baptized little McCain Thrush; miraculously putting to death McCain’s sinful nature and simultaneously raising him and resurrecting him to a new life, to a holy life. And then, God bent the rules of heaven and earth as he tucked his body and blood in with and under ordinary bread and wine so that we ate and drank and were filled with the body and blood of Jesus. Our sins were forgiven and God gave his holiness to you and me to be shared by you and me. In these actions God gave to us right here in this place what the New Testament calls koinonia, unity and fellowship and life together.
I am concerned that we forgot this unity. Church ended. We sang the last hymn. And then from what I could tell, we proceeded to entrench ourselves against one another. Our words were laced with frustration and distrust and anger against one another. God gave us unity. You divided yourselves against yourselves.
Yes, St Paul Chuckery has money problems. You have this problem as the result of probably ten or more years of spending too much and then passing the bill along through Thrivent. You need to fix this and you need to commit yourselves to work together and to listen to each other so that you can fix your problems.
So far you have not. I have heard reports of finger pointing and blame and passing the buck. You have allowed new frustrations coupled with old sins to divide you. You need to repent of this spirit of division. You need to confess this sin here to each other. You need to learn to forgive and love and trust each other. We need to have our unity and fellowship and life together restored. I would propose that we do that right now.
In your blue hymnal open to Page 308 to an order for public confession…
In our Gospel text from Matthew 16 Jesus says something entirely profound and powerful. He says to Peter, “On this rock, that is to say on the confession that Jesus is the Christ, I shall build the church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
The foundation of the Christian Church is the forgiveness given by Jesus. Satan and his demons and all the gates of hell would try to lock us up in frustration and anger and sin and bitterness and self justification. Satan would try to tear us apart and drive a wedge into our fellowship and there are times that he has had an awful lot of success in doing that very thing. But Christ’s church is built on forgiveness. It is the very foundation of it. And this forgiveness smashes the gates of hell and obliterates the chains of sin.
And Jesus gives us the key. The key to unlock heaven. And Jesus gives the authority to administer his forgiveness to his church. “Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
I have heard your confession. As a called and ordained servant of Christ and by his authority I forgive you your sin in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
August 7 Romans 10:5-17
Our Word from the Lord for today has to do with Righteousness. A righteousness that indicates your standing before God, that indicates that you have fulfilled those necessary criteria to be in a relationship with God. He does not accept any thing less than perfection. You must meet his requirement for righteousness or there will be, there can be no relationship. Our text tells us what must happen so that a relationship with God can exist. There are two possible ways. There are two tracks, two methods that can be employed to ensure a right relationship with God. Paul discusses this in our text this morning.
He tells us that there are two kinds of righteousness. And that is to say that there are two possible ways to come to God. Now, that might sound strange at first, that might go against our Lutheran, doctrinal preclusions. But that is what the text says. There are two ways to achieve this righteousness. There are two ways by which we might fulfill the necessary requirements to be in a relationship with God. There are two methods that one might follow.
Now lets be clear, to say that two ways or methods or tracks or options for entering a relationship with God, for receiving salvation is only to say that those things are there. It doesn’t quite mean that there are two options for us. There is one option available to you and me, only one option that will work for us, that will ensure that we wind up in that right relationship with God. The other option is there but it just won’t work for you and me. It would be sort of like a young man who wanted to apply for a college scholarship and wound up applying to American Association for University Women. The Scholarship is there. It is an option. But it is not an option for him.
That same sort of arrangement exists for us, for people; for men and women and children who want to have a relationship with God. There are two options available, but for us only one of those option will work.
Basically, Paul tells us that there are two kinds of righteousness. There is a righteousness according to the law and there is a righteousness according to faith. That is to say, for those who desire to be in a relationship with God, God has very specific requirements that one must fulfill. There are two options. The first is that you obey his law, you obey the ten commandments perfectly from the start of your life and your very existence through to all eternity. You must obey these commandment without every breaking one of them. No other gods, no dishonoring The Lord’s Name, Remembering the Sabbath Day, Honoring father and mother, never harming or injuring another person, complete sexual purity, never stealing, never gossiping or slandering, never coveting. Do this completely and perfectly and you can have a perfect and loving relationship with God.
Now that is the first criteria, the first method, the first kind of righteousness. There is a second option. But that is the first, complete and perfect obedience to the Lord’s Commandments. It is as Paul says and as he quotes from Leviticus, “The person who does the commandments shall live by them.”
But here’s the problem: we don’t do the commandments. We don’t honor God. We don’t honor his name. We skip church, we skip our daily prayers and devotions. We disrespect our parents and other authorities. We hurt our neighbor, we lust, we steal. We are gossips and slanderers. We covet. And so this option, this kind of righteousness, the method for living in a right relationship with God, while it would work in theory will just simply not work for us.
We require that second option. The second kind of righteousness, that second method for a right relationship with God.
“But hold on just a minute,” we say. “Not so fast.” Maybe there’s a middle way. There’s the law, perfect and total obedience to God’s commandments but maybe there’s a middle way. Maybe there’s a third option. One that combines the best of both. One is black the other is white. Perhaps there is room for gray. And this third, middle of the road, humanly devised method for righteousness is the one that most people choose. We like it. It appeals to us and makes us feel good because we get to set the standard for what passes for righteousness. We get to tell God whether or not he should accept us and receive us into a relationship with him.
It usually goes something like this:
“God loves everyone and so he wouldn’t condemn anyone.”
Or “God wants me to be happy so he wouldn’t make rules that get in the way of my happiness.”
Or “God forgives sinners so it doesn’t matter what I do, God is going to forgive me anyway.”
And then there’s this ever popular method. “God just says you’ve gotta have faith. I believe. I have a strong faith. I’m even a confirmed Lutheran.”
We come up with these excuses. We tell God why he has to accept us and then we expect him to agree.
Friends. There are not three kinds of righteousness. There are two. We don’t get to define the parameters for either one of those methods. We don’t get to draw up the criteria and then tell God how to enforce them. God is God. He sets the rules. He creates the standards. When we start to play God, when we believe that we get to define what it means to be in a relationship with God, then God defaults us back to this first option where we have to completely and totally and perfectly obey His Law. His Commandments. The result is inevitably our destruction, our doom, forever in hell.
But there is that second way. There is that second option that God has made available and by which people can enjoy a right relationship with him.
That way is faith. Here the Word of the Lord from our text:
But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Because of that first method, that first kind of righteousness, that first set of criteria for being in a relationship with God, we all stand condemned to death. So God in his great mercy created a new way. He sent his only Son to fulfill that old standard, to obey the commandments and thus earn a relationship with the Father through his perfect obedience. And then he engineered a trade. An exchange. He earned a relationship with God and he gives that merit and that worthiness to us. And he takes away from us our failure to obey that law. In other words, he takes away from us our death and our doom and our destruction.
And then, in return and to complete the trade, he gives to us his righteousness. He gives to us a right and restored relationship with the Father. All that is left for us is to believe. To confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead and through this; that is to say, through faith, we receive that righteousness. We receive that relationship with God. We receive that salvation and we are not put to shame.
This gift is yours. God places it before you today. I am here to preach and proclaim that Word so that you can receive it, believe it, and be saved. As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.” So hear this word and believe this word. Because “faith comes by hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ.”
He tells us that there are two kinds of righteousness. And that is to say that there are two possible ways to come to God. Now, that might sound strange at first, that might go against our Lutheran, doctrinal preclusions. But that is what the text says. There are two ways to achieve this righteousness. There are two ways by which we might fulfill the necessary requirements to be in a relationship with God. There are two methods that one might follow.
Now lets be clear, to say that two ways or methods or tracks or options for entering a relationship with God, for receiving salvation is only to say that those things are there. It doesn’t quite mean that there are two options for us. There is one option available to you and me, only one option that will work for us, that will ensure that we wind up in that right relationship with God. The other option is there but it just won’t work for you and me. It would be sort of like a young man who wanted to apply for a college scholarship and wound up applying to American Association for University Women. The Scholarship is there. It is an option. But it is not an option for him.
That same sort of arrangement exists for us, for people; for men and women and children who want to have a relationship with God. There are two options available, but for us only one of those option will work.
Basically, Paul tells us that there are two kinds of righteousness. There is a righteousness according to the law and there is a righteousness according to faith. That is to say, for those who desire to be in a relationship with God, God has very specific requirements that one must fulfill. There are two options. The first is that you obey his law, you obey the ten commandments perfectly from the start of your life and your very existence through to all eternity. You must obey these commandment without every breaking one of them. No other gods, no dishonoring The Lord’s Name, Remembering the Sabbath Day, Honoring father and mother, never harming or injuring another person, complete sexual purity, never stealing, never gossiping or slandering, never coveting. Do this completely and perfectly and you can have a perfect and loving relationship with God.
Now that is the first criteria, the first method, the first kind of righteousness. There is a second option. But that is the first, complete and perfect obedience to the Lord’s Commandments. It is as Paul says and as he quotes from Leviticus, “The person who does the commandments shall live by them.”
But here’s the problem: we don’t do the commandments. We don’t honor God. We don’t honor his name. We skip church, we skip our daily prayers and devotions. We disrespect our parents and other authorities. We hurt our neighbor, we lust, we steal. We are gossips and slanderers. We covet. And so this option, this kind of righteousness, the method for living in a right relationship with God, while it would work in theory will just simply not work for us.
We require that second option. The second kind of righteousness, that second method for a right relationship with God.
“But hold on just a minute,” we say. “Not so fast.” Maybe there’s a middle way. There’s the law, perfect and total obedience to God’s commandments but maybe there’s a middle way. Maybe there’s a third option. One that combines the best of both. One is black the other is white. Perhaps there is room for gray. And this third, middle of the road, humanly devised method for righteousness is the one that most people choose. We like it. It appeals to us and makes us feel good because we get to set the standard for what passes for righteousness. We get to tell God whether or not he should accept us and receive us into a relationship with him.
It usually goes something like this:
“God loves everyone and so he wouldn’t condemn anyone.”
Or “God wants me to be happy so he wouldn’t make rules that get in the way of my happiness.”
Or “God forgives sinners so it doesn’t matter what I do, God is going to forgive me anyway.”
And then there’s this ever popular method. “God just says you’ve gotta have faith. I believe. I have a strong faith. I’m even a confirmed Lutheran.”
We come up with these excuses. We tell God why he has to accept us and then we expect him to agree.
Friends. There are not three kinds of righteousness. There are two. We don’t get to define the parameters for either one of those methods. We don’t get to draw up the criteria and then tell God how to enforce them. God is God. He sets the rules. He creates the standards. When we start to play God, when we believe that we get to define what it means to be in a relationship with God, then God defaults us back to this first option where we have to completely and totally and perfectly obey His Law. His Commandments. The result is inevitably our destruction, our doom, forever in hell.
But there is that second way. There is that second option that God has made available and by which people can enjoy a right relationship with him.
That way is faith. Here the Word of the Lord from our text:
But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Because of that first method, that first kind of righteousness, that first set of criteria for being in a relationship with God, we all stand condemned to death. So God in his great mercy created a new way. He sent his only Son to fulfill that old standard, to obey the commandments and thus earn a relationship with the Father through his perfect obedience. And then he engineered a trade. An exchange. He earned a relationship with God and he gives that merit and that worthiness to us. And he takes away from us our failure to obey that law. In other words, he takes away from us our death and our doom and our destruction.
And then, in return and to complete the trade, he gives to us his righteousness. He gives to us a right and restored relationship with the Father. All that is left for us is to believe. To confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead and through this; that is to say, through faith, we receive that righteousness. We receive that relationship with God. We receive that salvation and we are not put to shame.
This gift is yours. God places it before you today. I am here to preach and proclaim that Word so that you can receive it, believe it, and be saved. As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.” So hear this word and believe this word. Because “faith comes by hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ.”
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
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