Better Than a Pharisee

Sixth Sunday after Trinity

July 15, 2012

Better Than a Pharisee

Matthew 5:20-26

Dear friends,

The Pharisees have a bad reputation. We look back at the lot of them and think, “Smug. Arrogant. Proud.” But I wouldn't mind having a Pharisee as my next-door neighbor.

Some of the Pharisees were nice guys. Some earnestly tried to keep the Ten Commandments. Some of them were humble and self-effacing. Some did charity work secretly so that no one would praise them.

But Jesus does praise them.

For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Mt 5:20)

If anyone could enter the kingdom of heaven by keeping the Law and following the rules, it would be these guys, Jesus says. Some of them even had their hearts in the right place; they weren't in it for praise or power, they just wanted to do the right thing.

But then Jesus blows up the rules. He points out the rule to not kill anyone. But the rule goes deeper than homicide. Jesus holds up a mirror to all who get angry and explains that the authorities must punish murder, but He will punish anger, “But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment” (Matthew 5:22).

You've never had the chance or reason to murder someone, so don't get too excited about your homicide rate of zero. On the other hand, you've had plenty of chances and reasons and good reasons to get angry at others. How's your record? If angry thoughts were holes-in-one, Steve Stricker wouldn't stand a chance—you'd win the John Deere Classic every year.

Jesus goes on to say that holding grudges will kill you. A grudge is an angry pot on simmer. It'll boil over occasionally, but you're the only one who gets burned.

Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny. (Matthew 5:25-26)

The underlying foundation of a grudge is that you're right and they're wrong. And sometimes you are correct—they done ya wrong. But sometimes you're looking for a chance to be mad. But either way, what is gained by quiet resentment? Go to the one who has allegedly wronged you and make it right. Don't let emotion or pride get in the way. Do let the facts speak for themselves. Do speak with humility and mercy and leave the results to Jesus.

In the end though, none of this will save you. Being kind to jerks won't save you. Not being grouchy or grudgy won't save you. Never calling someone a fool won't save you. Avoiding sinful thoughts, more or less, won't save you. All these are good things that are results of being saved, but they won't save you. They won't prove that you were worth saving.

So back to Jesus starting point. How do you enter the kingdom of heaven with certainty? By being better than the Pharisees. And who is better than the Pharisees? Only Jesus.

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

Confession De-Planks Eyes

Fourth Sunday after Trinity
July 1, 2012

Confession De-Planks Eyes
Luke 6:42

Why did Jesus heal the physically blind? Part of the reason is to show the world that He can heal spiritual blindness. Only God has the power to fix eyes that don't work; only God has the power to let people who formerly couldn't see Jesus as their Savior, see Jesus as their Savior.

That's what we are from the beginning of our lives—spiritually blind, which means that we can't see Jesus for whom He really is.

But we're not like those who are visually impaired who can still use their other senses of hearing and touch and smell. Many of the spiritually blind can't detect Jesus as their Savior because they think they aren't blind. They imagine a Jesus that they like and they end up living in their own virtual reality.

And they only hurt themselves. They put on their goggles and see the Jesus they want to see. They see a virtual Jesus who never rebukes anyone. They see a virtual Jesus who never criticizes anything.

But those whom Jesus has restored to spiritual sight know that Jesus sharply rebuked those who lived in virtual reality. He called these spiritually blind people hypocrites, white-washed tombs (they looked good on the outside, but were rotten on the inside), snakes, vipers, foolish, and blind (Matthew 23; Luke 11). He said what needed to be said.

But those who are spiritually blind insist that Jesus wasn't calling them hypocrites. They insist that He was talking about judgmental people. But here's the thing: so-called non-judgmental people are judgmental. Let me unpack what this means.

Let's say there are three kinds of people:
(1) people who judge themselves and others,
(2) people who judge others, and
(3) people who refuse to judge anyone and who judge anyone else who does.

The first group of people are doing just as Jesus did and tells us to do. The second and third groups are both judgmental. You can see the difference in Jesus' words,

“How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.” (Luke 6:42 NASB)

Jesus begins by speaking to the judgmental crowd, “Don't you see the log that is in your own eye?” He's saying that they are blind. Some judgmental people are that way because they only see the evil in others and they are blind to their own wretchedness. Other judgmental people are that way because of their tolerance. They make themselves blind to evil, particularly the evil that is in them. Seeing evil in others only holds up a mirror to their own filth, so they don't want to look at all. All these spiritually blind people congratulate themselves on their fervor or on their tolerance. They are all hypocrites.

See what Jesus at the end, “Take the log out of your own eye and then help your brother.” How do you do this? By confessing your sin. This means that you judge yourself. Turn your hymnal to page 156. This section can give you a template on how to actually do this every day. Ask yourself the questions. Be honest and confess your wretchedness. Be bold and seek the Lord's forgiveness. It is yours for the sake of Christ and your Baptism in His name.

Christians judge themselves. They also judge others. When anyone tries to say that Jesus said not to do so, politely explain that “Judge not, lest ye be judged” is condemning those who judge others and not themselves and those who refuse to judge anyone, especially themselves.

We have to be clear-eyed about this. Every day must start with confession that de-planks our eyes. This isn't to get us ready for a day of judging others as we drive around in our judgment mobiles with our bull-horns. This is to get us ready for a day without virtual reality goggles on, so that we can see the world and ourselves and our Savior for who and what they really are. The world is wretched; so are we. Our Savior Jesus really did die for me and was punished for my wretchedness and blindness and judgmental and tolerant heart.

Take the plank out of your eyes. The only way is to gouge it out with the cross. It'll hurt. Judging yourself is painful. But it is also refreshing—no more excuses, no more rationalizations, just the truth. I was blind and now I see my Savior who died for me.

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

Exaudi

Easter 7 (Exaudi) May 20, 2012 Jesus Sends Help John 15:26-16:4 Dear friends, See how Jesus is preparing His new pastors for their work! These 40 days of Easter are like finals. Final exam week or final last second preparations before a long trip. These new pastors knew they only had a few days left with their Teacher. 26 “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. Several times Jesus reminds the pastors whom He's sending out into the world that they will go out there in the company of the Holy Spirit, their new best friend. The Holy Spirit is sent to them by the Father and the Son, which means the Spirit is not going rogue. It means that God the Holy Spirit is acting in perfect harmony with the Father and the Son. So these first Christians can be confident about His help. The Holy Spirit helped those first pastors by pointing sinners to the cross. He would give them the words to preach. (We'll see that next Sunday at Pentecost.) He would give them the Sacraments to distribute—these pastors would baptize babies and adults and forgive their sins and give Communion to many souls. This is still what the Church and her pastors do today: faithfully preach, teach, and administer the Sacraments. Interestingly, Jesus tells His Church to testify. He doesn't tell them to get positive results. 10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55) If I could sculpt or paint, I'd wrap these words up in art, because they are beautiful poetry. But they are also beautiful because they tell us that we testify and confess Christ and the results are entirely in His hands. If a church body starts to base its work on the assumption or expectation of results, they'll be moving in the wrong direction. They'll be moving away from God's promise that He'll handle the results and instead, they'll be moving toward their own very good intentions. But very good intentions, assumptions, and expectations without Jesus' promises are dangerous. Here's what Jesus tells His people to expect: 1 “All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. 3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. 4 I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you. I did not tell you this at first because I was with you. The only statistics Jesus told His Church to expect would be martyrs, the Christians who would testify about Christ and be killed because of Him. What kind of results can we expect today? None. But He does promise to make us clean and new every day. He promises to wash away all our selfishness and evil thoughts and words from yesterday. This is what we need and this is the help He sends. In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Feast of the Ascension

Festival of the Ascension (at St. Paul's, Moline) May 17, 2012 Seeing Unbelief Then; Blind Faith Now Mark 16:14-20 Dear friends, Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen… Then [after the Ascension] the disciples went out and preached everywhere. (Mark 16:14,20) Think of these Apostles. They saw and heard the evidence: the empty tomb, the reports. But they didn't get it. They saw, but they didn't see. Think also of the Mary Magdalene and the Emmaus disciples. Jesus did let them see Him until He wanted them to see and then He was went away. Ascension is when Jesus went away and hid Himself from sight. And this made all the difference. For years the disciples could see Jesus, yet they stumbled around: “Could you explain this again?” “We don't have enough bread.” “You'll never die, Jesus!” But now after Jesus hides Himself, they joyfully trust Him and understand His purpose. He taught them to see Him when they wouldn't able to see Him anymore. He taught them to trust Him and to find Him in His Sacraments and Word. Our faith is also blind. We cannot see Him, but we see Him where He has hidden Himself. He no longer hides Himself in tongue speaking or snake handling or faith healing. Instead He does hide Himself until the end of time in preaching and Baptism: Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. (Mark 16:15-16) But our selfish hearts want to see and see results and see results. This is why some desparately see validation by speaking in tongues. This is an obvious (yet popular) symptom of those who want faith and sight like Doubting Thomas. He refused to believe word of Jesus' victory over death. He wanted to see Him in the flesh. But we Lutherans aren't immune from wanting to see Jesus where He isn't to be found. We are tempted to see Jesus in statistical results. We are tempted to find our health in growing schools and churches with lots of young people. No, dear friends, turn and look at your Savior. See His cross that saves with blood. Bathe in your Baptism every morning as you confess your evil thoughts and ways and turn to die and rise in your dead and risen Savior. And then come and receive His body and blood. He's risen from the grave! He's gone up to heaven! And now He's here! In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rogate

An excellent sermon on the subject of prayer from Weedon’s Blog by Pastor William Weedon. Read this portion of Scripture first: John 16:23–30. Prayer. We all know we should pray. The problem is that we don’t tend to do it very often. And when we do pray, it is usually when our back is up against a wall, and we don’t know what else to do. Then, I suspect, we feel a little bit guilty. We come to God mostly when we’re in trouble, and we know that we should be praying all the time, every day. In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks to his disciples and to us about prayer. He is well aware of the problem, the reluctance we· have in praying. The problem is not one of technique. It will not be solved by the countless resolutions we have made to have that daily quiet time with God – resolutions we routinely break. Jesus’ words reveal the source of the problem with prayer to be a problem of relationship, a problem of faith, of trust. Prayer, you see, arises out of relationship of trust, out of knowing God as our Father and ourselves as his dearly loved children. When we live in that relationship, prayer blossoms of its own accord. We chatter on endlessly to God then, just as children run on when they are with their parents. With their parents. We have a problem of not seeing that we are always with the Father. He is always with us. We forget that, and that is one reason why our prayer life falters. I don’t know how many times I have read the Scripture where Jesus says: “Even the hairs of your head are numbered.” I know that I used to think that meant God, way up in heaven, far away, knew in his divine knowing even the number of my hairs – like some distant computer bank simply chocked full of information about us down here on earth. I think I was missing the point. The point Jesus was trying to get across is that the Father is not far away. The Father walks with us and we walk with him. He is so close to us that He counts our hairs. He is that near! Prayer is talking to God the way a little one talks to mother or father. Such prayer bubbles up of its own accord when we remember that we are always walking in His sight, that He never leaves us, never forsakes us. Jesus wanted his disciples to understand that. Remember that the words that he speaks in today’s Gospel were spoken on the night of his betrayal. He is not going to be with the disciples in the same way that he had been with them before. The cross and the empty tomb, the death and resurrection of Jesus, will bring a change in the manner of His presence. He will no longer be with them in the same way. But the Father’s presence which Jesus had sought to show them, to teach them, that will not change. The Father will be by them, with them, even through the dark days and hours ahead, and He’s just waiting for them to realize it and talk to him. You see, Jesus did many wonderful things in the presence of the disciples. Miracles. Teachings that astounded and awed them. But only one thing that Jesus did moved the disciples to ask: “Teach us to do that too. Like you do.” That one thing was prayer. “Lord, teach us to pray.” Jesus prayed like no one had ever prayed before. Jesus spoke to the Father in the complete assurance of the Father’s acceptance and love. Jesus spoke to the Father not as to some absent deity, but as to a lovingly present parent. “Teach us to do that too.” Jesus spent three years teaching them. He spoke to the Father constantly. In the middle of a conversation with them, he would lift his eyes and speak to the Father and then turn right back and speak to the disciples. He took prayer out from the temple and onto the streets; out from the synagogues and into the homes. He showed them that prayer wasn’t religious – in the sense of being something that was confined only to certain areas of our life. Prayer was a conversation with the Father that goes on wherever you happen to be. It doesn’t need a special time or a special place. All times and all places are prayer times and prayer places because the Father walks with you wherever you may go. Think of what that means for us! Prayer is talking to God as his much loved child in the middle of your work day, as you’re driving the car, as you’re washing the dishes, as you’re plowing your fields, as you’re eating your meals, and as you’re lying down to sleep at night or waking up in the morning. Prayer is such speaking to the Father when you realize He is with you wherever you go and whatever you are doing. Prayer is the confession that you live in the presence of the Father. And Jesus says that all talk to the Father is made in Jesus’, name. “Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full.” The joy that is in the name of Jesus is that we have a confident access to His Father as our Father. He is the Only Begotten Son of the Father. He invites us into His relationship with the Father, calls us His brothers, His sisters. Makes us coheirs with Him – all that is His, He gives to us. His Father He makes our Father. His home He makes our home. His Kingdom, He makes our kingdom. That is what Baptism is all about. When we make our prayer then, in the name of Jesus, we are acknowledging that we have a Father in heaven who loves us and who regards us as his very own children all for the sake of Jesus Christ. Jesus came forth from the Father a single Son, an only Child. He returns with joy to the Father, and through cross and resurrection brings with Him many sisters and brothers, a whole family. When our prayer is anchored in the name of Jesus we speak to the Father with absolute confidence and boldness. We know that He loves us, that He hears us, that He answers us for sure. Our sureness is based solidly on the fact that Jesus has brought us into this relationship with His Father and has told us to make ourselves at home. The Church as the children of the family is marked by her family rituals. We talk to our Father together at certain times and at certain times we talk to our Father alone. The catechism teaches us to remember that we are God’s children by reciting the name that made us God’s children in our Baptism and by retracing the sign of the holy cross by which we were redeemed and then to talk to Him when we get up in the morning and receive a new day of grace from His loving hand: to thank Him for keeping us safely through the night and to ask that He would keep us also through the day that our life may please Him. The catechism teaches us to remember that we are God’s beloved children and to talk to Him whenever we receive the gift of food and drink from his hand, when we sit at table and when we rise from the table, saying thank you! The catechism teaches us to remember that we are God’s beloved children by reciting the name that made us His children and by retracing the sign of the holy cross by which we were redeemed and to talk to Him at night, when we are ready to lay down our bodies and rest: then we ask for his forgiveness for all the times we have failed to live as His children during the day just past and we ask for His loving protection through the night. That is the basic framework of each day. By framing the day with prayer and punctuating it with prayer at the moments when we receive God’s gifts, the Catechism would teach us to live our lives in the presence of a loving heavenly Father, confident of the Father’s love because of the salvation won for us by Jesus Christ. Fullness of joy will be ours indeed when we remember who we are: children of the heavenly Father, who take God up on His invitation to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear Father. Amen. (http://cyberbrethren.com/2009/05/17/a-sermon-on-prayer-for-rogate-sunday/)

Feast of the Resurrection

Feast of the Resurrection Easter Sunday Morning April 8, 2012 Don't Be Afraid! He Is Risen! Matthew 28 + Mark 16 + Luke 24 + John 20 Dear friends, The details had started trickling out. Like most breaking news stories, the news that the tomb is empty at first produced only a few confusing details. The evangelists—literally, the good messengers—Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—put eyes on the tomb where Jesus' dead body had lately rested. With their words, we see through the eyes of the women at the tomb. Mark and Luke named them, Matthew named the Marys, John just Mary Magdalene. But the angelic message is the same: “Don't be afraid! He's not here! He's risen!” From a distance of almost 2,000 years we watch this historic day unfold. We hear the first Easter sermon preached by the angelic pastors. It was a short and to the point. Again: “Don't be afraid! He's not here! He's risen!” He's risen means that Jesus the son of Mary is truly the Son of God. He's risen means that the punishment for our sin endured by Jesus the Crucified, Dead, and Buried has been accepted by His Father. He's risen means that His Father becomes our Father in heaven. He's risen means that Death's tombstone itself has been shoved aside—it means that Death stops being our doom and instead is now our door to life with God that lasts forever! During these last 40 days, as we moved closer and closer to the occupied cross, the empty tomb was never far from our minds. And during the next 50 days, as the empty tomb is slowly pushed out of our minds by the cares of this world, stay close to the occupied cross. By remembering the cross, you remember the tomb. Cross and tomb, one with Jesus and one without, cannot be separated from the other. The cross is the payment; the tomb is the receipt of payment. You can't buy a house without money; you can't own the house without the deed. Otherwise, you're homeless and simply squatting in someone else's house. If the cross was empty or the tomb full, we would be squatters, without a home to our name, and definitely afraid and scared that we would be discovered and evicted from our temporary illusion of shelter. But Jesus finds us first and tells us that He owns us. His name is now our name—Christians. So Mary, Salome, Mary, Peter, John, Luke, Mark, and Matthew and all of you Christians, don't be afraid! He's risen just like He promised! His home is now yours! In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Laetare

Fourth Sunday in Lent (Laetare)
March 18, 2012

Jesus Wants Us to Need Him
John 6:1-15

Why do so many believers and unbelievers think that Jesus doesn't care about them? More often than not it's because they confuse what they want with what they need in order to live.

Jesus knows what you need. Through parents, jobs, and neighbors, He gives you bread for your body, as in “Give us this day our daily bread.” Bread means food, of course, but also everything else we need, such as clothing, homes, money, family, friends, and so on.

Jesus is the ultimate cause of those good things, especially food. And to believers of earlier times, hearing about extra food in February or March before the planting and harvesting seasons focused the eyes and stomachs of believers on Jesus.

And having this Scripture read just a few weeks before His journey to the cross reminds us that Jesus is the Bread of Life. Jesus has this conversation with the crowds the day after His 5,000-man miracle:

So they asked him, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”

Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
“Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.”

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:30-35)

Jesus used His divine power to feed all those people. He still uses miracles today. Perhaps He doesn't miracle what we want into our lives. But He certainly does use miracles to give us what we need in order to live.

We often don't live as though we are the result of a miracle. This is because we are sinners who constantly live with extra. This danger shows up in how we talk about getting things. The most obvious problem is when I say that I'm starving. I'm not starving. The people who are starving don't go around saying that they're starving because they're too hungry to talk. The more subtle problem is that when we talk about needing things, it is almost always the case that we don't need it in order to live. We want it.

There is a problem with our language. How you talk affects what you think and how you think affects how you talk. If you're constantly confusing wants and needs as you talk, you're going to start thinking that way, too.

The thinking and talking of the fully satisfied 5,000 was all mixed up. These people had spent their lives working or trading or farming to get food. And now Jesus had performed a miracle. Why? To show who He is. But why this miracle at this time? To allow the people to hear the Word of God!

Do you remember what Jesus said at the beginning of our Lent? “Man does not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Jesus wants us to need Him. This means that we see how utterly starving we are for Him, the Bread of Life. He has chosen us and by faith we come to Him and He gives us what we need, body and soul.

Remember this in your table prayers. There's bread, and then there's Bread.

Let us pray.

The eyes of all look to You, O Lord,
and You give them their food at the proper time.
You open Your hand, and satisfy the desire of all living things.

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