Thankfulness Is Returning to Jesus

14th Sunday after Trinity

August 28, 2016

Luke 17:11-19

Thankfulness Is Returning to Jesus

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Lepers fall apart after a while. And after some time, a leper can't speak, let alone yell. So these lepers who met Jesus and called out to Him weren't too far gone. But they knew where they were going. Leprosy had no cure and it was a bad and slow way to go. So these ten lepers were desperate.

These lepers had no where else to turn. Jesus was their last hope. And so they got as close they were allowed and yelled, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us! Have mercy on us! Give us the opposite of what we deserve!”

And Jesus did. He healed them, all ten of them. He knew that only one would come back, yet He still healed all of them. And in this act, Jesus' mercy shines. He gives gifts even to those who don't say thank. He gives gifts even to those who don't believe in Him.

Sometimes we might be too quickly pile on in our view of the nine who didn't come back. We might hear Jesus' “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?” as a disappointed parent after throwing a great birthday party . . . or college.

The nine did exactly what Jesus had told them to do. The real issue wasn't their failure to act thankful; it was their lack of saving faith. Jesus wasn't disappointed simply that they hadn't come back and bowed down to Him. We might think so if we picture Jesus as a bitter grandma who never gets thank-you letters after giving little Junior the latest smartphone.

The nine lepers heading to the Temple and its priests in Jerusalem actually would be making sacrifices to God. They would soon be saying thank you to God with offerings of birds and lambs.

The real issue wasn't their failure to act thankful; it was their lack of saving faith. The leper who came back did return because he was the type of person who loved writing thank you notes; he came back because he trusted that Jesus was the promised Savior from his sinful self-centeredness.

When you become seriously ill, it's difficult to not have your small world begin to revolve around you. Your family's schedule has to adjust to your needs; most conversations have to do with your sickness. People call to see how you are doing—if they remember, they'll ask about your spouse and kids.

Yesterday's leprosy isn't treated like today's auto-immune diseases. Lepers had no family support because they were sent away. They were outcasts. Yet still the temptation to self-pity must have been enormous. The desire to help other lepers in the leper colony must have been under attack: why help someone who will soon be falling apart and can't help you? Paying it forward doesn't work where everyone is disintegrating.

We don't know this leper's story before or after he met Jesus. But we do know that he was a sinner who was very sick. And Jesus cured both his body and his soul on that blessed day.

The former leper knew who Jesus is because there is only one who can speak and make it so: his Lord and his God. And from that day forward this blessed Samaritan used his voice doubtless to praise his Savior who spoke and saved him.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Alleluia! Amen!

The Great Samaritan Sends Out Good Samaritans

13th Sunday after Trinity

August 21, 2016

Luke 10:36-37

The Great Samaritan Sends Out Good Samaritans

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Everyone knows that they should help dying people on the side of the road—so why does Jesus tell this story?

He tells us this story because we forget who our neighbors are.

So who are your neighbors? Those who are in need, especially those you can hear and see. We learn this joyfully because Jesus is our Great Samaritan. He chose to make us His neighbors, and not just you and me, but all people, because He hears and sees all people. For us, the neighbors we help the most are those who we can see and hear, just like the Good Samaritan could hear and see the needs of the dying man.

This Samaritan in Jesus' story made a grand gesture to save this dying stranger, though he didn't intend to be grand. He simply saw someone in need—his neighbor—and helped him.

We can fall into the temptation and sin of grand gestures with our neighbors. Permit a couple of examples.

Busy working parents can save and plan a grand trip to an exotic location for their kids, when perhaps it would be wise to ponder if the time spent making the money to travel would be better spent with your kids at your non-exotic home.

As Good Samaritans, rescued by the Great Samaritan, we must ask how we can best care for our neighbors, who happen to be our kids.

Kids, we sin, too. Instead of saving and planning for a grand gesture of breakfast-in-bed on your mother's birthday once a year, what she would enjoy more is you picking up your dirty clothes once a day. She also would enjoy you cleaning up the kitchen, especially after making breakfast-in-bed for her.

As Good Samaritans, rescued by the Great Samaritan, we must ask how we can best care for our neighbors, who happen to be our parents.

The greatest king of Israel, King David, showed this Good Samaritan care, when he looked after the needs of a lame man who happened to be the son of his best friend Jonathan who was dead.

⁶When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor. David said, “Mephibosheth!” He replied, “At your service.” ⁷David said to him, “Don’t be afraid, for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.” ⁸Mephibosheth bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?” ⁹Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s steward, and said to him, “I have given your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. ¹⁰You and your sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in the crops, so that your master’s grandson may be provided for. And Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table.” . . . ¹³And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table; he was lame in both feet. (2 Samuel 9:6-10a, 13)

Mephibosheth was a nobody. He was disable and worse, he was member of the former regime of dead King Saul. But David didn't care about that, and cared for Mephibosheth. A cynic might say that this was a wise public relations move on David's part: help out a disabled person, show what a caring guy you are. This wasn't PR. This wasn't a grand gesture. David looked out for Mephibosheth because he cared. David knew how much he had received from the Lord, above all the forgiveness of his sins. How could he fail to show mercy when God had been so merciful to him? David's grand gesture was rooted in Jesus.

You see, in order to save us from dying, Jesus did something grand: He died. Imagine every one of us dying on the side of a road. Your Great Samaritan finds you and instead of taking you to an inn or hospital, He sets up the cross that He was carrying. He raises it up right next to you and climbs up it and hangs there for you. He dies and then on the third day He comes back to life. And then He comes to you, not just with wine, but with water and bread, too, and raises you to life when He speaks to you: “Get up, for I forgive you in My name and in my Father's name and in my Spirit's name.”

As you have been shown mercy, getting the opposite of what you deserve, show mercy to those close to you and support those who give mercy to those far away. Show mercy to your parents and to your kids; use money to send out nurses, builders, and pastors who bring mercy to those who seem far away to us.

Dearly raised dead, we are alive in Christ. Jesus sends you out to show mercy to those who used to be dead like you and to those who are still dying in unbelief.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Alleluia! Amen!

His Love That Did Not Move

The Marriage of Jonathan Hoback & Kim Lendt

August 13, 2016

Trinity Lutheran Church

Nicollet, Minnesota

John 15:12-14

His Love That Did Not Move

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Dear Kim & Jonathan, what will your marriage be like? Will it be like Ruth and Boaz's marriage? Will it be like Hannah and Elkanah? Will it be like Noah and his wife's?

My prayer for you today is that your marriage will reflect the love of Christ for His bride. He described her as His dearest friend.

¹²My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command. (John 15:12-14)

His bride is us, His holy Church, in which every member is His dearest friend. On the cross His great love for His friends led Him to lay down His life. He didn't become frustrated, decide that the relationship with His friends was literally killing Him, and get down from the cross as He easily could have done. So often we speak of love as being active. Here the greatest love of all did not move. Jesus stood, or rather, hung firm for His friends and sacrificed His life for us.

He stood firm and died for you, Kim and Jonathan, many centuries ago. And He baptized you, many years ago, and stands firmly beside you now.

Today you are getting married. It is good when friends marry each other, especially two friends of Jesus, but even though planning a wedding can be stressful, starting today your friendship and your love will be truly tested.

In the months ahead you'll get to know the real Kim and the real Jonathan. Maybe you already think you have a handle on who is a picky eater, who is messy, who turns up the TV too loudly, who is the night owl and who is the early bird. These little things and a million things like them will put your friendship to the test.

But there's more. You're about to promise to live with your friend until death, standing firmly beside each other in the little things and the big things.

When you sin against each other, it's a big deal. But God's mercy is even bigger. It might very well feel a little like laying down your life when as Jesus' friend, you know you need to repent and ask for forgiveness from your spouse. Be resolute and stand firmly up to your own transgression and ask your friend for mercy.

And the one sinned against, stand firmly by your friend in Christ and forgive them. Show your friend mercy, just as Christ pours mercy down on His friends.

Christ chose you to be His friends, and now you have chosen each other as husband and wife. You are creating a new Christian home, where Christ is the vine and you are His branches. Vines deliver life daily; the branches receive life daily.

So as true branches of the true Vine, receive Jesus daily. Remember the day He baptized you. Speak aloud the words of Jesus in your home to each other and to the other branches with which He may bless you. Come to church and receive His preaching and His sacrament for the forgiveness of your sin.

The end of all things is near, and getting closer every hour, every day, but this is the fruit that will last.

Even when married life together is difficult,

as it was with Hannah and Elkanah,

even when it is peaceful and filled with joy,

as it was with blessed Ruth and Boaz,

even when it just a matter of surviving,

as it was with faithful Noah and his family on the ark,

take heart, dearly beloved, that Jesus, Your dear friend, stands firmly beside you. He laid down His life for you. As you stand firmly with each other, He stands firmly beside you.

☩

In the Name of Jesus.

Jesus' Mercy Justifies the Bad Guy

Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

August 7, 2016

Luke 18:9-14

Jesus' Mercy Justifies the Bad Guy

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Who's the bad guy in this story?

¹⁰“Two men went up to the temple complex to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹The Pharisee took his stand and was praying like this: ‘God, I thank You that I’m not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹²I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’ ¹³“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, turn Your wrath from me—a sinner!’ (Luke 18:10-13)

So have you figured it out. . . . Yes, it's you. It's us. We are the bad guys who look at others and say, “I'm not like other people.” Maybe you think this at church. Maybe you say this at Wal-Mart. You definitely look around at home and say this.

We see others and judge them, not out of care or mercy, but in self-rightness. We think we are better than others. It may be when we are putting our offerings into the offering plate. It may be when we are cleaning the house. It may be when we are playing video games while others make supper for us. Few, if any, of us are fasting in the name of Jesus, but we are just as judgmental as that bad Pharisees in Jesus' story.

This Pharisees is like many of us today. They think that if they do extra credit, the Great School Teacher in the Sky is going to give them a gold star. In the time of the Old Testament the Lord had commanded fasting . . . once a year. This Pharisee was doing 100 times more than what the Lord had commanded. Wow! The Lord didn't require that your tithe, your ten percent offering, include the small herbs you had: mint, dill, cummin, rue. But this scrupulous Pharisee went big on fasting, but even paid attention to the little things: he gave a tithe of everything he got. He didn't cut corners with God. And he wanted everyone to know it, perhaps simply (putting the best construction on it) to inspire others to follow in his footsteps of godliness.

But he was trailblazing his way to hell. Notice how Jesus conspicuously doesn't mention the Pharisee in connection to being saved.

“I tell you, this one [the tax collector] went down to his house justified rather than the other [the Pharisee]; because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14)

He was a bad man going to hell because he was so “good”. He trusted his own acts of righteousness instead of God's mercy. Remember to whom Jesus told this story.

He told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else (Luke 18:9)

We trust ourselves. We look around and despise those who aren't as visibly good as us. We are unjust.

Repent! I forgive you for your self-righteousness, thinking that you are better than others, in the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. I forgive you for thinking that you aren't self-righteous, that this doesn't apply to you, in the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

And so we are the bad guys, but in Christ we are forgiven and made good in His sight. He makes us just. We trust in His mercy. We are alive in Him.

And now our fasting is not done to get His extra credit, but to His glory. Our offerings aren't a competition with others or a bribe to God, but instead a careful and cheerful gift back to the Giver of all that we have.

And the greatest gift and good work you have is the promise of Jesus received into your ears from your pastor's mouth, as the Catechism explains: Confession has two parts. The one is that we confess our sins; the other, that we receive absolution or forgiveness from the pastor as from God himself, not doubting but firmly believing that our sins are thus forgiven before God in heaven.

This is us, just like the tax collector. We are the bad guys, but Jesus speaks to us and makes us just and good in His sight.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Alleluia! Amen!