Three Kingdom Stories

Sermon Proper 12  July 24, 2011

Matthew 13:44-52

Rev.  Jeff Springer

Grace, Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

This morning our Gospel reading contains three parables or kingdom stories and a final comparison between a scribe or teacher who has been trained in the kingdom of heaven and a house holder who brings out treasures old and new. My prayer is that I may unpack these treasures for your benefit this morning.

The last couple of weeks Jesus has been teaching His church in the form of parables the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, mysteries that he has been revealing to the twelve and now to us. The past couple weeks we have had the luxury of Jesus explaining his parables but now it appears He has thrown out to us parables without explanation.  This of course can be troublesome because it opens it up to different interpretations.  We also do not have the benefit of finding further explanation in the other synoptic  Gospels that is Mark and Luke because these gospels do not record it.  These parables are exclusive to Matthew.  This is not, however, a problem with the text or with its inspired author Matthew, but our own flawed limitations.  Still we are not without clues to determine what Jesus meant.

The parable of the hidden treasure the first parable is connected to the parable of the sower and that of the weeds because they both involve a field, which is identified as the world. It is also connected to the parable of the leaven which precedes these parables in that just like the treasure the leaven is hidden in the dough but still causes the dough to rise.

The parable of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price have similar themes.  First at the center of the story is something of great value. Second, both the treasure and the pearl are found because someone is looking for them. Third, the finders sell everything to obtain the purchase price for the valuable items and fourthly, the items are finally purchased.

The next questions to answer are who do the purchasers represent, the subjects of the parable, and what does  the priceless item represent or the object of the parable.  We have a natural inclination because of the old Adam within us to assume that Jesus means for us to be the subject of the parable. Rev. Dr. David Scaer in his research on the Gospel of Matthew has found that without exception the commentaries he has come across interprets it this way. The other assumption is that the object of the parable is Jesus.

Jesus is the hidden treasure in the world. Jesus is the pearl of great price and we are to sell all our possessions to go find him and then to follow him.   Do I really need to preach more law at this point?  Are these parables to be interpreted as law as something you must do?

Yes the cost of discipleship is great.  But even St. Peter kept his fishing boat during the time of his preparation to become an Apostle.  It is easy to import into this text demands of the Sermon on the Mount, you remember cut off your hand if it causes you to sin.  If this were taken literally, which is not the meaning of Jesus, there would not be much left of us except bloody stumps. 

The demands of the Sermon of the Mount, also found in Matthew, were so great that Thomas Aquinas a Roman Catholic medieval scholar stated that these demands were placed upon the clergy and monastics and not the common people. The common people’s job was to keep the ten commandments. 

Aquinas is modifying what Jesus said to lessen the demands that Jesus teaches the Heavenly Father makes.   He presumes to be above the Father in this assessment. This is what happens when one interprets Jesus sermon only as law. In order to try and keep it,  it is modified to make it achievable. Aquinas misses the point that it is not the monastics or the clergy that is the subject of the sermon but Jesus. Jesus is the one who says that He fulfills the law every jot and tittle. This misapplication is a problem that persists to this day.

The other problem with importing from the Sermon on the Mount or the rich young ruler, “sell all your possessions and follow me,”  is that the man in the parable of the hidden treasurer  is trespassing.  He goes out into a field that he does not own and starts digging around and after finding the treasurer he then approaches the field’s owner about buying it. Does he tell the owner of the field about the treasurer? We do not know. If he does not, he is not only a trespasser but a thief.  It certainly appears to be unethical and breaks a few commandments.  Is this what Jesus is advocating for His disciples to find him regardless of the ethics.  Or let us put it in a mission context. Let us say that the object or the treasurer are the unsaved that Jesus would have his church save. Does this mean that Jesus licenses us to use any means to find these people and save them?  

Even though it is closer to the true meaning to say the object or the treasurer and the pearl is the church.  It is also true that Jesus is the subject of the parable. Jesus is the subject of the previous parables and with the proximity of these teachings to one another that Jesus would switch subjects even though He could is rather unlikely.   

Jesus in other parts of Matthew is compared to a thief in the night who brings the kingdom of heaven to earth, when the world least expects it. He is also the thief who binds up the strong man (Satan) and takes all his possessions.  Jesus comes to purchase with His own life that which was lost to Satan in the fall.

And so Jesus is the one who goes into the world and finds the hidden treasure, that is you the elect,  and sells all he has to purchase you.  He leaves behind His Heavenly home and puts aside his power and might empties himself and take on our flesh in order to redeem us. In the same way as the merchant he sells all he has, to purchase the pearl of great price.  In His eyes, you Christian are the pearl of great price. 

Despite the seeming ethical problems with the trespasser,  both transactions are perfectly legal.  Another word for purchase is redemption. Jesus gives all He has his very body and blood His very life to redeem you. These two kingdom stories are about redemption.

The third story the one of the good and bad fish reminds us of our parable of the wheat and weeds where the weeds and in this parable the bad fish are thrown out and exist in the everlasting horror of God’s wrath.  The angels will once again do the sorting of the righteous from the unrighteous. Those by faith receive the call and those by their sin reject the call, Jesus and His gifts and promises. It is a sober reminder that we will hear again in the judgment of the sheep and goats that there will come a final end to evil, that the answer to the Lord’s Prayer petition that the saints pray to deliver us from evil will be fulfilled.

Finally in the last verse we get an inside view of what Jesus means for His Apostles, Teachers and future pastors.  In this case we have a self understanding the Apostle and Evangelist Matthew who sees himself as the scribe. Matthew follows his Master Jesus’ lead by opening up the Old Testament to teach the new.  Throughout His gospel Mathew refers to Jesus as the fulfillment of the law and prophecies of the Old Testament. 

This is what Pastors do today. They preach the scripture opening them up so that the hearers may see Jesus in both the Word and Sacraments.  They are the called house holders who publically bring out treasurers both old and new.  This is why it also important that we and our children also learn the stories of the Old Testament so that we have familiarity and following along with the Pastor as he makes the connections to Jesus in the preaching of the sermon.

The treasure for you to know today is that in God’s kingdom, you are the treasurer and God seeks you out.  He emptied himself, made Himself poor in order to pay the price for your sin. This we proclaim every time we receive the sacrament, we receive His body and blood.  We receive the benefits of this transaction that Christ Jesus made to possess you. 

This is a great and wonderful truth and enables us to dwell securely in the shadow of our Lord’s wings, in His Church on earth.

May the peace that passes all understanding keep your minds and hearts in Christ Jesus.  Amen.

Wheat and Weeds

Sermon Proper 11

Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43

Rev. Jeff Springer

Jesus once again teaches us this morning about the Kingdom of Heaven found now in the believers of church on earth.  Like last Sunday we have a split in the Gospel reading. We have the parable given to the unbelieving crowds and disciples and we have the explanation given to the disciples who would become His authorized sent ones or Apostles. 

The agrarian parable seems to be the sequel to the parable of the sower last week where we heard about the listening problems that can occur because of the temptations and snares of the devil, the world and our flesh.

It is an explanation as to why some fall away after receiving the good news but it also promises eternal life and fruit bearing for those who truly listen and understand by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

The early church perhaps because of persecution or because of the care given to teaching had a much longer period of catechesis then we see in the contemporary church. Sometimes it would take years for an adult to be finally baptized and brought into communicant membership.

When this happened typically His whole family would be baptized, infants on up.  But this extensive catechesis and the pressures of persecution may see many catechumens give up of fall away.  The  parable of the sower explains this.

Whereas the parable of the sower addresses new catechumens this parable of the weeds has in view an established church.  The wheat is sown and it produces a harvest but along with the wheat there is an unwanted element, that of the weeds. 

Jesus is the subject of all the parables. He is the sower in the first parable and He is the householder in the second identified as Son of Man.  He is the one doing the sowing or responsible for it. 

He has been given a people by the Heavenly Father that He plants in the World nurtures and grows and they produce good fruit some hundred, some sixty and some thirty.  In this life they are in the world and they grow and produce their fruits in the world.  We would understand these fruits to be a true confession and service to the neighbor through our God given vocations. It is clear though that Jesus is the cause of the church and He nurtures and protects that church in the World.

There is however another cause or character that made an appearance in the first parable and this is Satan.  He is the one who plants weeds among the wheat plants. The weeds are so close and so intertwined that if you pull out the weed it may take a wheat plant with is while it was growing.

I had firsthand experience growing up on a farm in Indiana.  I would be told by the house holder, my dad, to go out into the field and pull weeds.  And every so often when I pulled the weed it also pulled out the crop plant. I can remember how frustrated at the weed I would be when that happened.  I also got the experience of seeing these weeds seemingly grow up over night.  I really had an appreciation for the demonic nature of weeds.

Unlike, my father, Jesus instructs His servants which are clearly his Apostles and later pastors not to pull out the weeds but let them grow until the harvest. At that time the wheat will be separated out into separate bundles and the grain will be gathered safely into the barns. The weeds however will be bundled and cast into the fire.  Being burned in the fire the weed seed would be utterly destroyed.

What can we learn from this?  The first thing is that in the church in this world there will be both genuine believers and hypocrites.  Jesus is contrasting sharply mainly His chosen Apostles and the religious Pharisees who pose as those included in the kingdom. 

The difference will be seen it is not invisible here.  The genuine believers will be known by their fruits of faith where as the religious will be identified by fruits of works which is their attempts to self justify themselves. This weedy fruit can be identified by false teaching, false worship, seeking the praise of men and a superficial care for the poor. 

Speaking of works or even fruits of faith can cause us to squirm a little in our pews.  The believer does not look at His works or even His fruits but to Jesus who is the cause of faith and all good works.  Later in Matthew’s description of judgment day the sheep have no idea, they do not remember, serving their Lord.  Simply look upon Jesus and trust in Him and He will work through you.

The second thing is that the Lord instructs His authorized servants, not to pull out the weeds but let them grow with the wheat until harvest. There are some weeds especially when their young that mimic the cash crop. You will not know until the fruit shows that they are weeds. 

This seems difficult to allow or even tolerate evil in the midst of the church. In fact their other passages such as when Jesus says to cast out the leaven of the Pharisees and His instructions to Peter and the disciples that they have the power to not only loose that is forgive but to also bind the unrepentant on earth.  

St. Paul also warns the Corinthian church to cast out the immoral brother.  But all excommunication is designed to put fear in the erring so that they may repent and be restored in the church. Excommunication always has in view restoration.

It is not consistent with Jesus’ other teachings and that of the Apostles for the church to be antinomian or against the law.  Yet God’s servants need to be careful not to judge to quickly that a son of the evil one is in the church. Especially since in our sin we are all evil. The believer is simultaneously sinner and saint and still carries with it one of the causes of sin, our flesh. 

The church and her servants also do not have the power of the sword.  This is the great travesty of the inquisition and the other persecutions that occurred for heresy. I do not believe that Jesus envisioned for His church that it would burn heretics to the stake. Certainly if a law were broken the civil authority has the right to punish and curb evil doers but this authority in not given to the church.

The false teachers and hypocrites will receive their punishment on the last day which is at their death first and later on judgment day where they will be cast with Satan and His angels and all causes of sin into the eternal fire or Hell.

This is good news for the believer for she can look forward to a new life without the causes of sin. At her death and later on the last day she is gathered in for safe keeping. Yes the same angels who escort the sons of Satan to their fiery fate also gather beloved Christians to the bosom of Abraham for safe keeping.

Thirdly, the church will struggle with the causes of sin and even the work of Satan in her midst. This is why it is called the church militant. We have a section in our hymn book devoted to this teaching.   Many people today complain about the strife in the organized church but this is to be expected.  Jesus says he does not bring peace but a sword.

But it is also true that this is where true peace can be found in Christ Jesus.  It is also true that this is where Christ dwells and does His work through the Word and Sacrament Ministry that He renders through His called servants, the Pastors.

However it is Jesus doing the work, it His voice in the reading of the scriptures, it His voice in the preaching of the Word, it is His voice in the words of institution and it His very body and blood that you eat and drink with the bread and wine His death that seals His pledge to redeem your bodies. It is the voice of forgiveness of sins. This is the power that brings sinners to saving faith. This is the voice that creates reconciliation for broken relationships in both the family and in the church.   The suffering the church experiences in this life identifies it with the sufferings of Christ.

In this way the church is blessed Jesus promises earlier in Matthew 5, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” This once again is the Theology of the Cross where through suffering a great good results.

Jesus further promises, “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”  Amen

Funeral Sermon for Jim Livingston

Friday July 15th, 2011
Acts 16:25-34; 1 John 4:7-16

Grace, Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Especially this day, beloved of Jim and our Lord,  Elaine his wife, Denise and Sheryl his daughters, Evelyn his sister, grandchildren, great grandchildren extended family and friends.  Today we give thanks to our Lord that He has delivered Jim from the evils of this World.  On Sunday night around 10:40p.m., Jim breathed his last and at that moment Jim’s soul was escorted by angels to be with the Lord.

His body remains with us and it will be buried as the Lord Jesus was buried but because of his baptism into Christ he will be raised on the last day where his soul will be once again be united with His body, a body changed and free from sin and the corruption of sin, an immortal body.

How could this be?  How did this happen for Jim?

Two of the readings chosen for this service were also chosen for another significant day in Jim and Elaine’s life, their wedding day.  Had Jim lived to August 15^th they would have been married 47 years. The two readings answer the question for Jim and all of us as to how born sinners, rebellious in nature toward God are saved by him.

The first reading is from 1 John 4:16 which is also on the cover of today’s service folder.  It says, “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”  In our more contemporary translation the word dwelleth is replaced with abide.  Both words depict a close relationship.  In fact they more than imply living together or residing together.

This is the type of relationship that Man first had with God in the Garden of Eden before the fall. Adam abided in the Word until he rejected that word and then was cast from God’s presence but as we hear the context surrounding this saying, we hear God has restored this relationship because He never stopped loving that which he created.  To have God abide in you is to have life.

What is this love?  How did God restore this relationship and save mankind?

Once again the reading tells us. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

God the Father’s solution was to send His Son from heaven to this earth to dwell with man, to give Him to the World.  So intimately did the Son of God dwell with Man that he took on human flesh. This reading by the way is one of the readings for Christmas Eve where we celebrate and give thanks for the incarnate gift of Jesus.

This was the only way God could save mankind by becoming one of them by abiding with them so that He may be the innocent bearer of Man’s sin.  Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World. He never committed a sin. He kept and fulfilled not only the letter of God’s Law but the Spirit of it.

This is something neither Jim or you and I could do and He served the sentence for not keeping the Law. He received God’s wrath for sin through His passion, suffering and death. This is what meant by the evangelist and Apostle John when He says that God the Father sent God the Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 

God’s Love is shown through the sacrifice of His Son and the Son’s willingness to obey His Father.  In God’s court, those who abide in Christ, are seen as Christ before the Judge, innocent!  Jim is declared innocent! The saints are declared innocent! The great accuser Satan has lost his power to accuse the saints who are covered in the blood of the Lamb.

So how do we know we abide in God? This is also answered by our text.  “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”

First we see clearly that this is also a gift.  God not only gives us His Son but he gives to us Spirit.  But how do we get this gift? It is the gift given in Christian baptism.  We hear this promise in St. Peter’s sermon in Act 2:38 and 39, where He says that in baptism the forgiveness of sins is given, and where there is forgiveness of sins there is life eternal.  Along with the forgiveness of sins the Holy Spirit is also given. 

The Holy Spirit is the cause of our faith in Christ.  He keeps the church in the true faith as we spoke in the creed and enables to make the true confession, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world.   When Christians confess they are not speaking of a personal faith that comes from their sin ridden hearts but the faith that is taught by the apostles and found in the churches universal creeds.  Therefore confess what God is saying in His Word.

It is in this context that we can look at the reading regarding the story of the saving of the Philippian jailer and his household.  The jailer was frightened for his life because if the prisoners escaped he would be himself executed and his family would suffer without him and an income. Paul and Silas who were his prisoners, were conducting a church service when the earthquake broke open the jail .  Perhaps the jailer was listening. They assured the jailer that he still had his prisoners, no one escaped. 

The jailer in response turned to them and asked how he could be saved.  Paul answered the question, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved you and your household.”  Even though this is true there was nothing the jailer could do in and of himself to believe.  So the jailer took Paul and Silas to his home and their Paul preached the good news of Jesus Christ and the promise they would receive through baptism including the Holy Spirit. And the result was that the jailer and his whole household was baptized.  It was after this work of God to save the jailer and his household that “he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.” 

Paul makes it clear that faith is not a work that we do but it is a gift from God.  One can learn all he wants about the bible but unless one has the gift of the Holy Spirit given through baptism one cannot believe. 

Jim is baptized and during his life he did accompany Elaine to divine services where he received the gift of absolution, the forgiveness of sins.  Jim heard the Gospel a power unto salvation.  This changed Jim’s heart it made him a new man.  Even though we do not work for our faith, faith works and Jim was faithful to his marriage vows. He was a faithful father bringing along with Elaine his daughters to baptism and he cared for his mother-in-law bringing her into he and Elaine’s house to care for her. At Divine Service alongside Elaine he did his best to confess the faith and say the prayers.

It is not the amount of faith or the size of it that saves.  It is rather the use of it that gives us confidence when temptation and trial come.  You can stand firmly against that old accuser and ancient serpent Satan and say I am baptized.  I have Christ’s righteousness. I have his inheritance.  Jim is now enjoying his inheritance while we on earth who are baptized wait to join him and he rejoices now along with his entire household that he had believed in God.

This is how it happened. This is how we can say with confidence that Jim’s soul is safely abiding with His Lord.  Since the Lord abides with him he is alive in Christ and He has the promise that as Christ arose he will rise again. That is the promise for all the baptized.  It is all our Lord’s doing. Glory be to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever will be Amen!    

What keeps you from hearing?

Sermon Proper 10

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23

Rev. Jeff Springer

In our text this morning Jesus once again teaches His future teachers and hearers.  It is apparent in our split gospel reading this morning. The first nine verses, the parable,  the audience of the parable is the crowd and in verse 18 through 23 His audience is the twelve or His future Apostles.  It is very important when interpreting the text to know who Jesus is speaking too.

It seems strange that Jesus would use parables to teach the crowd.  How will they learn from it?  It seems that it would prohibit understanding.  The disciples asked the same question and Jesus’ response is found in verses 11-13.  Where he says, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.  For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”

Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah  to make His point further. 

‘ You will indeed hear but never understand,

    and you will indeed see but never perceive.

 For this people’s heart has grown dull,

    and with their ears they can barely hear,

  and their eyes they have closed,

  lest they should see with their eyes

    and hear with their ears

    and understand with their heart

    and turn, and I would heal them.’

Jesus seems to know His audience too well. He knows that even at this point the crowds are not ready to hear the message.  There are things that are keeping them from hearing and this is what He is teaching His apostles. That even though the Word of God is a power, the listener in His sinful state has the ability to resist and not understand.  We cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him, faith is a gift!

Jesus goes on to further teach His apostles, His future teachers and preachers, about the things that impede listening to preaching.  Interestingly Jesus does not address learning styles or personality profiles of the audience.  He does not enlist them to look at demographic studies or marketing information. 

But what Jesus does teach them is to sow the Word of God liberally.  There are no places regardless of their potential to grow where the Word of God may not or should not be preached.  The sower in the parable is spreading seed everywhere over the path,  the rocks and the weedy areas. 

The trend in church growth for many years is to locate churches in places where there is new housing developments are being built. This makes sense if there is not another church located nearby.  But for some this is done because the residents are sufficiently affluent to maintain a church.  And it is true that there is a certain level of financial support a congregation needs to function.

But if we are abandoning more urban areas because the potential for financial support is low perhaps this is something we need to rethink. It may become a mission congregation that requires the support of more affluent congregations.  Where there are people, the Word of God is to be spread.

This is the message for the apostles but what is the message for the hearer?  Well this takes us back to the question, “What keeps you from hearing?”  Jesus makes this very clear.

First, Jesus says, it is the devil.  He is like the birds who snatch the seed off the path.  Certainly, we can attest to the fact that the devil exists because of the perversion of our thoughts while listening to sermon.  What are you thinking about right now?  Are you thinking about what you are going to be doing this afternoon?  Are you thinking about what you did last night?  Maybe you are thinking about that movie you should not have watched?  Whatever it is, leave it up to the devil to lower your attention span and introduce thoughts into your mind that have no business inside God’s holy house.

Second,  Jesus says it is your flesh.  Our sinful flesh looks for the next spiritual high.  As long as everything is going well in the church we are all for it. But when tribulation and persecution come we are so quick to abandon it.  This is like the seed that falls on the rocky soil. We avoid suffering which results in the avoidance of God’s Word which we substitute for something more palatable.

Third, Jesus says it is the world.  This broken world brings with it many thorns.  It is part and parcel of the original curse that man would labor among the thorns. It would be difficult. So we have many cares that steal away our joy at listening to the word. We have the toil of our work whether it be from our employer or a teacher at school.  We may be concerned about our income and the rising expenses of health care and other essentials.  We are concerned with our children’s education where some of the academic priorities exceed the importance of faith being taught. 

This flows into the deceitfulness of riches.  Mamon or money is the number one competitor with God in where we place our trust.  We are so aware  of this that even our currency attempts to redirect us with the words, “In God we Trust!”  But no comfort is truly found in riches, it is a lie and the pursuit of riches at the expense of all else one will find themselves empty and without hope.

The devil , the world and our flesh make up the unholy Trinity that keeps us from hearing.  It is the meaning to the third commandment that calls on hearers not to despise God’s preaching or His Word. Yet when listening problems with a lack of understanding happens this is what precisely occurs. God’s preaching and His Word are both despised.

Yet when it is heard and understood then it is a blessing.  Jesus said to the twelve, “But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.  Truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. (Mt 13:16-17)”

The crowd was blind and deaf to Jesus because they lacked the faith to believe that He is the Son of God.  Yes they saw Him as a teacher and perhaps at best a prophet but God himself? No! And so they would not or could not believe it.

But you have been given the Spirit of God in Christ in your baptism. Your eyes have been opened to see that Jesus truly is the Son of God who came to take away the sins of the World. And you continue to hear God’s Word that kills the sinner inside.  Just like the seed that dies in the ground and then sprouts and grows and eventually bears fruit.  It is the listening to God’s Word and His preaching that does this. 

So when you have trouble listening to a sermon, don’t be too quick to blame the preacher or sower but examine yourself.  What is keeping you from hearing? It is the devil, the world or your flesh and recognize them and put these thoughts to death in your heart.  In turning, Jesus will heal you.

Jesus with His death on the cross has conquered the devil, the world and our flesh.  This gives the authority to pray “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” This evil is not just some impotent, inanimate, impersonal substance but it is the Evil One, who steals the Word from our hearts, who tempts us with suffering and coaxes the world to follow him. 

Our Lord has overcome the Evil One and it is by this faith we may pray confidently and resist the snares and traps he sets. Our Lord has chosen you to receive this gift of faith so that you may hear and understand. This is grace and grace alone. No merit on your part has caused this but our Lord and His love for you.    

Let’s give God’s Word every chance we can. After all, it is “the power of God unto salvation.” It does not return void. Its account of God redeeming us through his life, death, and resurrection works wonders on us.  “For to the one who has, more will be given.”   May your heart be filled with the Spirit of Christ.

Liberated from the burden of sin!

Sermon Proper 9

Third Sunday after Pentecost July 3^rd, 2011

Matthew 11:25-30

Rev. Jeff Springer

Grace and Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Tomorrow our nation will celebrate its Independence from Great Britain. This declaration meant a liberation from the laws and taxes of Great Britain that were creating a burden for the colonists who were not represented in Britain’s legislature.    Two hundred years later, with our own representative government,  we have astronomical budget deficits that many feel will burden us with more taxes and regulations.  Perhaps we are right back where we started. Perhaps we are not as free as we think.

This is true of the wise.  The wise that Jesus speaks of in his prayer are not necessarily the educated but the proud and the arrogant.  The wise when it comes to faith believe they have a better idea.  They are not content with Jesus words.  They are not content with what Jesus institutes. They are not content with how the message is delivered. They have a better way.  They presume to teach God and make Him their pupil.  They are what Dr. Luther calls wiseacres and many can be found both in leadership positions and even the pews of the church.

Wiseacres are busy bodies working to improve on God’s established church. They wring their hands as the concern themselves with the growth or lack of growth in the church.  They render baptism, confession and absolution, and the Lord’s Supper, real preaching, all things Christ instituted, and the liturgy as obsolete and ineffective. We need to get with the times. We need to jazz up the worship otherwise no one will listen, no one will come. 

These wiseacres therefore create for themselves a heavy yoke a heavy burden as they take on the responsibilities of the church.  Perhaps this stems from the false belief that ever since Jesus rose and ascended into Heaven that He deserted His church or He really doesn’t have time head His church because He is stuck at the right hand of God or perhaps He is too busy building mansions or the worst one, He did His part now it’s time that you do yours.

The Devil is the first and ultimate wiseacre for he proposed an alternative to God’s Word to Adam and Eve. They were tempted with knowledge apart from God’s Word were they not?  Luther preached in his last sermon before he died.

“For our wisdom and understanding in divine things is the eye which the devil opened for us in paradise, when Adam and Eve, too, wanted to be wise in the devil’s name. God himself taught them and gave them his Word, which they were to adhere to, if they wanted to be really wise. Then came the devil and made improvements; he closed the eyes with which they had previously seen God and not seen the devil. This is the plague which still continues to cling to us—that we want to be wise and understanding in the devil’s name.” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 51)

From this perspective we are all born wiseacres and the plague that continues to adhere to us is our sin that looks for wisdom and understanding apart from God’s Word and in the Devil’s name.  This puts us in shackles.  It steals away our liberty.  We are fooled into thinking we are free but we are not. It’s kind of like the Matrix movies where the human race thinks they are living out their lives but in reality they are entombed in watery coffins.

To illustrate this point further, I had another Pastor tell me of an instance where a member said he was exercising his Christian freedom by taking His son to his baseball league game instead of coming to church on Sundays. The Pastor said, “If you are truly free then you would be just as willing to miss a baseball game for the church service.”  

This is truly a heavy burden, for the devil’s religion is one of setting up an idol or false God that demands our works, our worship. The Devil said to Jesus in the wilderness fall down and worship and I will give this World back that you created. But Jesus refused and instead went the way of His Father’s will to the cross. Jesus did what Adam did not do. He abided in the Word of the Father.  He was the Son or the Man that God wanted and intended from the beginning. A relationship of love and trust between God and Man. This is found in Jesus. 

Jesus gives thanks to the Father that these things are hidden from the wise and understanding or the proud and arrogant, not because He is vindictive or mean but because he wants to show that faith is not something we work for but it is something we are given. That He gives to you.

Luther wrote in his explanation of the third article of the creed.  “I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him. But it is the Holy Spirit who calls me by the Gospel and enlightens me with His gifts.” These are the very gifts of forgiveness that He instituted in baptism, confession and absolution and the Lord’s Supper.

Since they are gifts anyone can receive them, everyone from smallest infant to the oldest adult. All the gifts convey forgiveness of sins but each sacrament has its particular purpose and application.  Baptism is the gift that brings one into the Kingdom and gives the Holy Spirit to the baptized that they may believe what they are taught in the faith.  Absolution whether corporate or private announces God’s grace and conveys Christ’s forgiveness to penitent sinners so they may hear it.  The Lord’s Supper requires faith in the words “given and shed for you” and unbelief results in judgment so the teaching of the faith precedes the reception.   This is a glorious gift and assurance that Jesus comes down from heaven to give Himself to His bride the church.

This is the mystery revealed, revelation of the Father by the Son of the Father and Son’s work to save and redeem that which they created.  Our Lord has graciously revealed this to you in this place. He has chosen you to hear it and to receive it.  You who have a better idea who resist His word and are therefore burdened He gives this ridiculously free gift to you!

You are then ready to hear His words when He says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Is Jesus giving you a yoke?  Yes he is, but it is not a burden.  He is exchanging your yoke of burdensome sin for His yoke of good news and righteousness. With the receiving of the good news we find peace and rest. 

Instead of the demand for works and sacrifices in worship that require our effort, Jesus says learn from me, and you find that I am gentle and lowly in heart, just as He is revealed by the prophet Zechariah.  God does not come on a warhorse but on the foal of a donkey. For the truly burdened and broken he comes to them with gentleness to the wise and the proud He sternly warns that they are still in their sins.

The yoke of good news that Jesus gives to us enables us to face persecution.  It enables us to weather the assaults of those from within the church and without.  Luther preached,  “’Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden’  [Matt. 11:28], and it is as though he were saying: Just stick to me, hold on to my Word and let everything else go. If you are burned and beheaded for it, then have patience, I will make it so sweet for you that you easily would be able to bear it. It has also been written of St. Agnes  that when she was led to prison to be killed, it was to her as if she were going to a dance. Where did she get this? Ah, only from this Christ, from believing this saying, ‘Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.’ That is to say: If things go badly, I will give you the courage even to laugh about it; and if even though you walk on fiery coals, the torment shall nevertheless not be so severe and the devil shall nevertheless not be so bad, and you will rather feel that you are walking on roses.”

This is an amazing promise our Lord makes and should give us courage to take up our crosses and to stand for God’s Word.  “Come to me, come to the Altar, all who are burdened and I will exchange your yoke of sin for my light one of forgiveness and righteousness. He can do this for the Father has given Him all authority to do so. Amen.