Monthly Archives: February 2024
The Hands, Guilty and Ashamed: Judas – A Lenten Sermon on Matthew 27:3-10
By My Hands, for My Sake
The Hands, Guilty and Ashamed
Judas
Matthew 27:3-10
† I.H.S. †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ show you Jesus died for your sake, because God loves you!
- The Third set of Hands
On Ash Wednesday, we looked at the hands of Adam, in whose hands a piece of fruit created a burden we still bear today. Then last week, we looked at Nicodemus, to afraid to raise his hand to ask questions in a crowd, but who Jesus transformed in such a way, he would rather identify with Jesus’s death that celebrate the greatest feasts and victories of his community.
Tonight, we look at another set of hands, hands so hated, so maligned throughout history, that many would say he was most evil man in history.
In his hands just prior to the crucifixion was a bag, and in the bag 30 silver coins.
Think about Judas’s hands and the role they played. If any could say that Jesus would be killed “by my hands,” it would be Judas, and if anyone… no—we will get to that thought later.
The coins in his hands—though not for long–symbols of our greatest sin, symbols of his temptation, symbols of ours…
- Burdened by Temptation and Sin
What we know of Judas, picked up from this comment and that, isn’t pretty. He was one of the 12, handpicked by Jesus, the treasurer/bookkeeper of the group. Very focused on money and the things of the earth, critical of those he thought were wasting money, like the prostitute who cleaned and anointed Jesus feet with her tears, and with perfume that cost a year’s salary…oh did Judas get upset by that, for by that stage in his life, sin gripped his heart, and corrupted his desires.
Just as it did Adam and Eve’s hearts and souls. Just as Nicodemus knew failure. All betrayed their God, all denied Him, all of us have sinned….
Judas was not the worst sinner, he wasn’t the most guilty of sin, and there are people that feel far more shame for what they’ve done—there are people who know the same hopelessness…..
As I look at Judas, I see again the power that sin can have over an individual—that while they choose to sin the demonic powers at work against don’t give them much choice—they can be in bondage to that sin.
And it doesn’t matter which, greed—like Judas, lust, gluttony, even the desire to gossip, that burning in your gut that tells you have to share that juicy bit of news about this person, that sing, that politician or even that church. Sin is oppressive and because we have sinned, we have an equal share with Adam, Nicodemus, and yes Judas, in the death of Christ.
He died by our hands…but tonight we hear again, it was for our sake.
- What He missed – what we can’t let others miss.
In our reading tonight, Judas goes to the priests and elders—the leaders of the Sadducees and Pharisees. He is tortured by the weight of his guilt and sin…
Hear this part again, from a different translation…
3 Judas, the one who betrayed him, realized that Jesus was doomed. Overcome with remorse, he gave back the thirty silver coins to the high priests, 4 saying, “I’ve sinned. I’ve betrayed an innocent man.” They said, “What do we care? That’s your problem!” 5 Judas threw the silver coins into the Temple and left. Then he went out and hung himself. 6 The high priests picked up the silver pieces, but then didn’t know what to do with them. “It wouldn’t be right to give this—a payment for murder!—as an offering in the Temple.” Matthew 27:3-6 (MSG)
These church leaders recognize their bribe was used to arrange for the murder of Jesus! Yet their attitude to a sinner—overwhelmed by guilt and shame was, “we don’t care! That’s your problem!” The entire temple, the entire reason for it was to assure people of the forgiveness of sins, and the response was… “we don’t care.” While Judas sinned, I think I have a solid case that their sin, was worse…
Judas walks away, without the comfort of knowing not only would Jesus die by his hand, but for his sake. For even Judas’s sin could be forgiven, as Peter would find out.
As you and I find out tonight,
As every person should find out.
Jesus was beaten and crucified for our sake.
To not only forgive our sin, but to break its power over us, freeing us from it terror, freeing us from the pain it causes.
That’s why I talk about our sacraments so much, because people need to know….these burdens don’t have to be carried, this oppression- what Paul described as not being able to do what I know I should and doing what I shouldn’t—and therefore being a wretch… can be dealt with…
As we meet Jesus, and trust that it was for our sake he died.
Let’s pray…
Accomplished by His Anguish: God gives Help to the Hopeless! A Lenten sermon on Romans 5:1-11
Accomplished by His Anguish
God Gives Hope to the Hopeless
Romans 5:1-11
† I.H.S. †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you hope, as you consider what Jesus accomplished as He endured the agony and anguish of His sacrifice
- Spirituality- a priority
When I originally thought through this sermon, I came up with a parable of sorts. Of sorts because it isn’t primarily about the kingdom of God, as a good Biblical parable should be.
Instead, it is about our lack of recognizing the need, and staying focused on the presence of God, and without thinking about that presence, and what it means for God to be our God, and for what it means to be His people, we are going to be incomplete, walking through the wilderness, encountering temptation and sin, and the guilt and shame that accompanies it.
So here is the semi-parable. A life without a regular focus on God, without hearing and reading His word and without the sacraments is like the box containing a half-finished project, that is buried in your garage, or your storage closet!
You all know what I mean – that project you started, and you were putting together until you realized you might have looked at the directions first? And then you realized you had to undo what you had done and start from scratch.
We often do that, we walk through our lives knowing God is there, but we forget the reason He is there. And so when life gets a bit complicated, when we are dealing with situations that make us question God, or when temptation and sin rearranges our lives, we often set aside our spiritual health. We think once we get our lives straight, we will find the time to pick up that Bible, or talk with God, or find the time to commune with God and His people. Burying our faith like that long-forgotten project becomes the norm, and let’s be honest – sometimes we live like we did before we knew God.
When we do live life, realizing God’s presence, even in the midst of stress, trauma and grief we know the hope of God’s rescue, for as we heard from Romans,
3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
What a wonder it is, in the midst of problems and trials, to know how dearly God loves us!
- Utterly Helpless?
Often, it is when we run into problems and trials, that we realize our spiritual life has be placed very carefully up on a shelf, and then other things get piled in front of it. Those may be distractions, we hit a busy season in life, or there are wounds caused by others words or actions that we don’t want to deal with, right now.
The problem is the weight of the world, including the weight of our own sin crushes us, when we are ignoring our spiritual health, and the relationship which provides and restores it. That is what Paul talking about when he says,
6 When we were utterly helpless…
Those are strong words, utterly helpless.
But that is what the world does, it breaks us, and what we do to ourselves is often far worse. We basically disassemble ourselves and try to put ourselves back together in a way we think is right, ignoring how God tells us to live.
That is what every sin does, whether it is trying to find a god who isn’t god, who gives us what we think we want, or whether it is murder, adultery or gossip.
And then, having set God aside, we look at our lives and just put the brokenness on the shelf, and then bury it behind other things we don’t know how to fix…. and the broken and incompleteness of life fills up everything….
We need to hear the rest of what Paul writes…
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
There is our hope of salvation, that Jesus comes along, looks at our brokenness, and the love of God for us means that the Father and the Son have to do something about it.
- Our friend
Lent is that time, to open the garage door, to start to uncover all the stuff, and then to let a friend or relative, you know, the one who can fix anything, come in, and complete all the projects, clearing out the junk but getting the most out of your life—a life with Him that will go into eternity.
That is who Jesus is, that friend. Hear the rest of the passage,
For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. 11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
I don’t care how full the “garage” of your life is, how broken it is, how incomplete. This is who God is, the one who loves you, who comes along and fixes and heals, restores, and promises to complete our lives. This is why we talk to Him, listening to how He reveals Himself to us, and how He heals us, as He cleanses us in baptism, heals us as we confess our sins, and nourishes and put us back together, as we eat and drink His body and blood and completes us.
So let’s spend this time, until Easter, giving Him our brokenness, the parts of our lives that are incomplete, and celebrate the love of God for us. AMEN!
The Search for Freedom’s Necessary Question: From What?
Thoughts which draw me closer to Jesus, and to the Cross!
51 God, be merciful to me because you are loving. Because you are always ready to be merciful, wipe out all my wrongs. 2 Wash away all my guilt and make me clean again. Ps 51:1– 2. NCV
We know in how many places it (the church and the smallest unit if it – the family) has been torn already; we know how many predatory fish have worked with might and main to tear it to pieces, allegedly in order to free people from their imprisonment in it. But it would be an empty freedom into which they would sink: the freedom of death, of loneliness, of the darkness that comes when truth is lost. It would be a liberation from the Kingdom of justice, love, and peace—from that new dimension into which the net is drawing us.
Defend and protect me against the wiles and deceptions of the evil one and all his power, and against the perversity of his servants, that their pride, hypocrisy and unrighteousness may not obtain over me nor bring harm upon me. Teach me to watch and pray, lest I enter into temptation, and grant me to hear with mine ears and see with mine eyes. For Thine, O Lord, is the glory, Thou only Source of all Grace
At the beginning of the United States of America, freedom was sought. Originally from outrageous taxes, but then a large group of other things were laid out as well. Freedom for religion, freedom of speech, freedom from injustice and others the Bill of Rights well defines what they sought. Over time, more calls for freedom were heard, and acted upon.
In my childhood, the cries for freedom once again were heard across the land, as the freedoms won in the civil war, had not yet become reality for many. Again, these were defined in various documents, such as the Civil Rights Act, and various court decisions.
We’ve learned to cry for freedom well, but we do not awlays engage wisdom and logic, asking the one critical question that needs to be asked.
From what do we want freedom from?
In far too many cases, we want freedoms that have unintended consequences that cause more pain and heartache. Some of these are religious freedoms, or freedom from religion. Free speech is awesome, until it allows for gossip and slander which hurts reputations, and causes damage to relationships. Sexual Freedom was so wanted, yet the damage it has done to marriage – even to those who are faithful once married, is beyond explanation. As a pastor,
As a pastor, I’ve helped many people heal from brokenness caused by the pursuit of freedoms that are ill-advised. For there are some that talk of casting off all bonds, all things that restrict us in any way, that freedom may take its course. They would rip the net God has established in the church, not realizing that it is primarily a safety net, to be there when a fall is immanent. That net draws us closer to Jesus, the course of our healing, the refuge we need, when all seems broken.
For His word is the answer to the Psalmist’s prayer mercy, it is the answer to the cry for our brokenness to be dealt with, for us to be restored. His word is the hope we have, when faced with temptation, when faced with decisions that could result in major trauma, to ourselves and to others.
And as such, it brings about the greatest of freedoms, the freedom from guilt and shame, the freedom to love, the freedom to know that we are the children of God, welcome in His presence, and that we can ask Him to help us with any burden, any situation.
This is the one freedom we cannot give up, the freedom found in our baptism, and reignited every time we commune, eating and drinking the blood of Christ. The freedom from sin and brokenness, won for us as Jesus gave up His freedom, and came and was born of Mary, and loved and died for us.
This is our hope for this Lent, to cause us to think of what we need to be freed from, and to cry out to Lord who makes that freedom possible. AMEN!
Ratzinger, Joseph. Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. Edited by Irene Grassl, Translated by Mary Frances McCarthy and Lothar Krauth, Ignatius Press, 1992, pp. 69–70.
Lœhe, William. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Translated by H. A. Weller, Wartburg Publishing House, 1914, pp. 189–90.
Accomplished by His Anguish: God Will Forget! A Lenten Sermon on Psalm 25:1-10
My Church’s Building – our goal – to see it restored and filled with people who find healing in Christ Jesus, while helping others heal
Accomplished by His Anguish
God WILL FORGET
Psalm 25:1-10
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ cause you to experience peace beyond all understanding!
- The Paradox of Divine Impossibilities
It is said that there is nothing new under the sun. or was that the Son? Both work!
This is especially true for those that think they have finally proven that God doesn’t exist! Usually, they ask me or just ask the air a philosophical question that cannot be answered, at least in their opinion.
One of the classic questions is this, “If God is all powerful, can He make a rock so big that He can’t lift it?”
Or “if Jesus is God, how could He be born, and die?”
Some hit a little closer home, “how could a good God allow suffering, or evil?
Or the one that comes out of the Psalm today, “If God is all-knowing—how can He “not remember the rebellious sins of my youth?” I mean—He knows everything, so how can He not know all the bad things I did back in 1981? That doesn’t seem to make sense. Either He is all knowing, or if He doesn’t know my sins, He’s not knowing—and that would mean He’s not God, right?
So if God has to be all knowing, how can He answer the prayer to forget the sins of the psalmist’s youth, or more importantly—ours?
- Avoiding Disgrace!
As the psalmist starts this intimate conversation with God he is telling God that he will surrender his life to God—that he completely trusts God! Hear it again,
O LORD, I give my life to you. 2 I trust in you, my God! Do not let me be disgraced, or let my enemies rejoice in my defeat
The more I read this, the more it sounded like a husband trying to get on the good side of his wife, before buying a new guitar…or a child who broke something, and needs to convince dad to fix it…
God—I’m giving you my life…and I trust you…sooooo…. don’t let me be disgraced! Lord, I’m losing over here don’t let my enemies and adversaries see it!
Doesn’t that mean that the psalmist did something that was—well–Disgraceful? Doesn’t it mean he was losing whatever battle he was in? You don’t ask for something like not being disgraced or letting your enemies see your embarrassing loss, unless well, it was happening!
Just like when the psalmist pleads, “Show me the right path!” I mean, how far does a guy have to go down the wrong road until he asks for directions?
Life is still like that. How badly do we have to screw up before we ask for help? How much guilt or shame has to crush us before we look for help?
How many times will we go through Lent, without dealing with the weight of sin it encourages us to let God deal with?
That Is why, finally, the psalmist cries out the plea for God to no longer remember the sins of his youth!
- He will forget – more than that – the proper path!
The ability of God to forget, to no longer remember our sins, whether of our youth or our old age, is found in the rest of verse 7, and in verse 8.
“Remember me in the light of your unfailing love, for you are merciful, O LORD. 8 The LORD is good and does what is right; he shows the proper path to those who go astray.”
While God knows everything, He can choose to overlook and forgive our sins. He’s God, He has that ability and power, and in fact, His love, which will never fail, compels Him to do so!
This is what the Psalmist has learned to count on, what He is sure of, what He needs—the love and compassion/mercy of God, who guides men and women who have gone astray.
I love the picture here! God taking us off the road to hell and putting us on a path leading into the presence of God, our Father! He remembers His love for us, and He sees us, broken, disheveled and lost, and moves all that blocks us from Him.
He then picks us up, battered and now healing, and places us on the path, but it doesn’t end there!
- On the Path
Hear again the last two verses, “9 He leads the humble in doing right, teaching them his way. 10 The LORD leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.
The idea translated lead here is simply to accompany us on the road, to be more than just a guide, to travel with us. He teaches us, He guides with unfailing love, He is faithful in doing this….
This is the God we need to learn to cry out to more, this is the love of our God which we need to help others see and experience!
This is our God! This is the God who we can entrust our lives to, this is the God we depend upon…
Because this is the God who embraced the agony and anguish of the cross, because of the joy set before Him, He endured it all – for us. AMEN!
The Problem of a Competitive Spirit… it is not heavenly!
Thoughts which draw me to Jesus, and to the Cross…
13 Joshua was near Jericho when he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and asked, “Are you a friend or an enemy?”
14 The man answered, “I am neither. I have come as the commander of the LORD’s army.”
Then Joshua bowed facedown on the ground and asked, “Does my master have a command for me, his servant?”
15 The commander of the LORD’s army answered, “Take off your sandals, because the place where you are standing is holy.” So Joshua did. Joshua 5:13-15 NCV
The very word “religion” comes from the Latin “religare” or “religio,” which means “relationship,” or “binding relationship,” or “binding-back relationship.” It is not healthy, holy, or safe to laugh at God’s pole in that relationship, but it is very healthy and even holy to laugh at ourselves. In fact it is unhealthy not to.
Awake! awake, and praise the Lord!
Dismiss your griefs and cares;
A sacred feast He doth afford—
A table here prepares.
Our hungry souls may now be fed,
And taste of heavenly meat;
Christ’s body is our living bread—
His flesh we now may eat.
Whether I like it or not, I am more than a bit competitive! It may not be on a basketball or volleyball court anymore, or in a Tae Kwon Doe dojang, but there is something about engaging with other people with the intent and determination to win that matters to me. I ant to blame the environment, growing up in a sports focused country, where our heroes, once found on battlefields are found in sports stadiums. ( I can argue the competitiveness draws men into and sees them succeed in battle as well.)
These days, competition is found in social media– as people argue about “my” sports teams, or bash “my” political views, or “my” religious views. In the latter two cases, the views don’t even have to be mine – I grieve and want to fight when someone treats either Biden or Trump without respect, or when someone takes a religious leader’s comments out of context or twists them. I see the words, and into battle I go, not interested in discourse as much as showing that I am right. (And by right, do I mean superior?)
Into my world comes Joshua, and the story of his meeting Jesus – the commander of the Lord’s Armies. I so understand Joshua’s comment – “you are on my side, right!?” For if the COmmander is on the other side, then I am in the wrong, and I do not like that! The Commanders reply take Joshua by surprise, and turns Joshua’s world upside down. A lesson I need to learn- and relearn, and apply, and start again.
Peter Kreeft, the great philosopher/apologist, makes the same kind of point with his comments about religion. (Which I lvoed and filed away for those who “hate religion” but love “relationships.”) He reminds me that I need to laugh at myself! That I am the part of the relationship that has the capacity to be in total flux, We get blown about , stressed out, get narcisstic (me?) The grace of God, what Kreeft refers to His pole – is stable, and tied to it through our religion/the relationship we are bound into, keeps us safe, and if we thought about it, dwelling in His peace!
This is where the Luther Hymn finds its meaning, defining a place ofr us, where we know the strength of our being bound to God. It is in the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, the place where we meet God, and He shows us His love, as we remember Jesus, broken and His blood poured out–for us. FOR US ALL!
We don’t have to compete at the altar to be the most loved, or to receive the greatest reward, or to even have a spot! Indeed, our desire grows to be to see all at that altar. Our enemy is no longer our adversary, but the demonic that would deny the gospel being shared with someone we will come to love. Imagine the joy found in the broken relationship healing at the altar, and then completely healed before the throne. The one we compete with singing God’s praises next to us, the voices being one. This is heaven, this place at the altar, where we feast with God, together!
That’s a vision that will be so incredibly awesome we will laugh and cry, with joy! May God help us to see it! AMEN!
Kreeft, Peter. Ha!: A Christian Philosophy of Humor (p. 68). St. Augustine’s Press. Kindle Edition.
Luther, Martin, and John Hunt. 1853. The Spiritual Songs of Martin Luther: From the German. Translated by Thomas Clark. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co.
They Need Jesus, not just words about Jesus! (A Sacramental Discussion)
Thoughts which draw me closer to Jesus, and to the Cross,
10 There has never been another prophet in Israel like Moses. The LORD knew Moses face to face 11 and sent him to do signs and miracles in Egypt—to the king, to all his officers, and to the whole land of Egypt. 12 Moses had great power, and he did great and wonderful things for all the Israelites to see. Exodus 34:10-12 NCV
That’s essentially the same joke as the one about the theologian who died and was given the choice by God between going to Heaven or going to a theology lecture about Heaven, and he chose the lecture.
Constricted by our finitude, driven by restlessness, and induced by unfulfilled longings we go about our lives in frantic search of our true home, true love, and true identity. We cling to ideas, people, experiences, relationships, or professional identities that we hoped would fill the gaping hole within us. The cycle of restlessness, reaction, and rapaciousness is the breeding ground of human suffering. The creation narrative exposes this daunting yet redeemable reality.
Yesterday in reading Peter Kreeft’s excellent apologetic treatise, I came across the line in blue above.
Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be a joke unless it bore some resemblance to truth. Unfortunately, I think this vocational risk for academic theologians has infected the clergy and leadership of the church. We hear more about the church, and more about apologetics, and more about the nature of God than we do being introduced to God and interacting with Him. I am as guilty of it as any, but while we should be hearing Him, while we should be know God, as Moses did, face to face, we talk about Him.
And then we wonder why our churches are lifeless, why they are more and more empty, why our lessons and sermons fall on deaf ears, why pastors will spend saturday afternoons surfing the internet to find a sermon that might make a difference! (I’ve seen it, some weeks I will have 400 hits on searches find a sermon from 6 or 9 years ago! I think about Nolasco’s words about the people searching, and I don’t believe they will find that which fills the holes that cause such mental, psychological and spiritual anguish if all we do is tell them about the doctrines of Christ.
They will just move on to try and find some hope, somewhere else. They will find some other substitute to cling too, some other remedy, or more likely, something to deaden the pain.
Our Lord isn’t dead. We don’t have to talk about Him as if He was!
They need to know Him, they need to experience His love! They need to walk with Him on the side of the lake, or through the streets surrounding Union Station in KC (if you read this in the future, there was a gun battle there yesterday) They need to realize His presence in courtrooms, and rehab facilities.
They need to experience their reality redeemed, and reconciled with how God exists in their life.
They need Jesus…and so do you and I.
That is where word and Sacrament ministry – that is the sharing of God’s word in scripture, and the sacraments being the conduits of God’s merciful blessings are all about. The word of God, the gospel that tells you that is was always His plan to be in relationship with us, and detail what that looks like (what is called the law) and ho He creates and restores in (the promises of the gospel) The sacraments bring us into that relationship – that union/unity with Jesus. Each in its own way, not only assuring us of our forgiveness, but welcoming us into the presence of God, That is what baptism, confession and absolution, and the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper promises and delivers!
The chance to experience what Moses did and better, the opportunity to have God dwell in us, and us in God.
This is what matters, this is what our family needs, our churches, our communities, our countries… our world.
Lord, help us draw people to You, where they will find life.
Kreeft, Peter. Ha!: A Christian Philosophy of Humor (p. 57). St. Augustine’s Press. Kindle Edition.
Nolasco, Rolf, Jr. 2011. The Contemplative Counselor: A Way of Being. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
Come and See His Glory, EVERYONE! Psalm 50:1-6
Come and See His Glory
EVERYONE!
Psalm 50:1-6
† I.H.S. †
May the grace and peace of God our Father and our Lord Jesus instill in you a desire to see God, and to help others hear His invitation to them as well!
- The Summoning
The invitation looked a little ostentatious, being gold trimmed and written on the finest of paper. My first reaction was being overwhelmed, not sure if I should believe I got the interview, wondering maybe if Bob was playing a practical joke on me!
But I looked at it a second time – this invitation to a glorious feast, and studied it, and it was real!
And then I realized the invitation, really a summoning was not just to me, or my family. It was for everyone here, and many, many more people.
You heard it this morning, “The LORD, the Mighty One, is God, and he has spoken; he has summoned all humanity from where the sun rises to where it sets.”
I wonder if they will all show in time, on Ash Wednesday? That would be so cool!
Seriously, this summoning is so powerful – to all people, across all time – all humanity from beginning to its eventual end… all called tp God…
- The Way He Comes?
At first glance, being summoned to meet God sounds like being summoned to the Vice-Principal’s office in High School. Or worse, walking down the hall, and hearing the VP call out your name and yell at you to get in the office.
I won’t say if I know this terrifying situation first hand, or not…. But I know quite a few people that did experience it…
Here how the Psalmist describes God coming to meet us where He summons us. (I wish I had a deep booming voice to narrate this with!)
2 From Mount Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines in glorious radiance. 3 Our God approaches, and he is not silent. Fire devours everything in his way, and a great storm rages around him. 4 He calls on the heavens above and earth below to witness the judgment of his people.
If Peter, James, and John hit the ground terrified when God the Father spoke to them at Jesus’ transfiguration, what would they do in this scene?
This sounds scary, and for a reason.
Seeing God in all His glory scared the Israelis’ when they were at Mount Sinai. To hear the voice of God not be silent, but to thunder with more of a crash than the loud mic drop ever done at Concordia, or the loudest the organ can play.
Much louder, more terrifying as God says, “come here! NOW!”
Then we see the fire devouring everything, and the great storm blowing and flooding and washing it all away! And as we hear this terrifying description, part of it goes, “they deserve it,!” and the other half recognizes that the “they” includes the we.
We deserve to be cast into the lake of fine, we deserve the wrath of God that is found in a storm beyond anything ever seen.
And so this picture of God coming and calling might scare us, it certainly will scare anyone who rejects God in this life,
As He comes – hear what the Psalmist writes in verse 4 again, “. 4 He calls on the heavens above and earth below to witness the judgment of his people.
If it wasn’t for one word in that sentence, it would terrify me….
HIS
- The Judgment – truly Glorious
HIS
“To witness the judgement of HIS people.”
Those three little letters make all the difference in the world.
Though we deserve to be punished for our sin, our Judge is also our advocate, and He will judge us.
The passage even tells us how…
“Bring my faithful people to me— those who made a covenant with me by giving sacrifices.” 6 Then let the heavens proclaim his justice, for God himself will be the judge.
Even before He Judges us, even as He summons us, God is declaring that we trust and depend on Him – that is what it means that wea re faithful in this passage. Not that we are perfect, but that we know He is our only hope to deal with the broken mess sin has made of this world, and of our lives.
This is why Jesus came- to do this! This is what Moses and Elijah, and all the Old Testament pointed to, this point where God would gather His people and declare them faithful.
That is why there is a covenant, based in a sacrifice, that ties us to God. A covenant that says – you will be my people, and I will be your God.
A covenant whose sacrifice happened, not at the temple, but on a cross. Whose broken body and pour out blood we commune with, even as we see bread and wine. This is what we celebrate when we receive the Body and blood—this incredible sacrifice, this incredible blessing, this incredible summoning into the presence of God.
The cross is the guarantee of this judgment of God, that we are judged, not as guilty sinners, but as His beloved children.
No wonder Peter, James and John were told to listen to Jesus!
They didn’t, of course, not until after the resurrection, and for some, the ascension. And even then they had ups and downs. They always returned to the word, and to the sacraments, to remember what Jesus taught them about the Father, and the cross. That’s what the Holy Spirit does – God helping us with the reality we need to know..
That we are HIS. Amen!
How Do We Apply This Bible Passage Today?
Thoughts which drive me to the cross…and therefore to Jesus!
17 Do not be unfair to a foreigner or an orphan. Don’t take a widow’s coat to make sure she pays you back. 18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the LORD your God saved you from there. That is why I am commanding you to do this.
19 When you are gathering your harvest in the field and leave behind a bundle of grain, don’t go back and get it. Leave it there for foreigners, orphans, and widows so that the LORD your God can bless everything you do. 20 When you beat your olive trees to knock the olives off, don’t beat the trees a second time. Leave what is left for foreigners, orphans, and widows. 21 When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, don’t pick the vines a second time. Leave what is left for foreigners, orphans, and widows. 22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt; that is why I am commanding you to do this. Deut. 24:17-22 NCV
One of the great words in our language is, at the same time, one of the emptiest and most debased—the word love. One can hardly speak the word nowadays, it has become so banal, so degraded. And yet, no language can actually dispense with such a word. For if we stopped speaking about love, we would stop speaking about men. We would also stop speaking about God, about him who holds heaven and earth together. In consequence, we find ourselves in a strange situation: we have no choice but to speak of love if we are not to betray God and man, but it is almost impossible to do so because our language has already betrayed love so often. In such a situation, our help must come from without. God speaks to us of love; “Holy Scripture”, which is God’s word cast in human words, raises the word, as it were, out of the dust, purifies it, and restores it to us purified
3 With regard to the time, it is certain that most people in our churches use the sacraments, absolution and the Lord’s Supper, many times a year. Our clergy instruct the people about the worth and fruits of the sacraments in such a way as to invite them to use the sacraments often. On this subject our theologians have written many things which our opponents, if they are but honest, will undoubtedly approve and praise.
Any time I look at the books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, I know I have to be careful. Simply put, while the Law of Moses is not binding on those in the New Covenant, that doesn’t mean we can simply disregard it, dismiss it, and say it doesn’t apply to us.
One of the ways to deal with it then, is to look for the “spirit of the Law” rather than just the “letter of the law.” Even then, we face the temptation to make our understanding binding on those around us. You must do this, you must do that! You can’t do this… and oh my gosh – you did that! And we move quickly from talking to a person, to labelling the person “them” and talking about “them” even when they are standing right there. We try and separate from “them” as if breaking our law is somehow worse than blasphemy.
I think a better way is to look at how they Law of Moses would have us love.
Of course, then we get into the problem Pope Benedict XVI (when he was a cardinal) wrote about, the idea that we stripped the meaning of the word love away from it, cheapening it by talking about loving a cheeseburger or an piece of fruit, or confusing it with a thousand other ways that strip from it the dedicated, the devotion, the sacrifice that all goes into loving someone, loving our family, loving our neighbor, loving God.
What Deuteronomy is describing here can be seen as a loving act. Leaving behind for those who have less our excess, heck, it might even be more than our excess–if our work wasn’t focused. But in this world, where most of us don’t farm, but work in places, how are we willing to “leave behind” for others. How do we love like this, without turning it into a law that our minds can qualify and measure?
As I struggled with the passages, and trying to figure out how to not step over the line from doing that which demonstrates love, to either legalism or apathy, I couldn’t work it out. For I believe we need to love our neighbor, and assisting those around us should be done…
As I read the 5 or 6 selections set out for me each day, I often go through these thoughts, and usually 2 or 3, sometimes even 4 all resonate with each other, and I either journal the thoughts, or walk off content. Sometimes is like today though, and I get to the last reading with no clue how it will resolve.
And today it did, as my reading from the Apology of the Augsburg Confession – a theological discourse of the finest nature, provided a simple, pastoral answer to my question of how to apply to my life the lesson from Deuteronomy, and to restore the love of God.
The answer is found in regularly experience the love of God, a love that is found in confessing sins and knowing they are forever forgiven separated from me, and as the Lord Supper, the body and blood of Jesus present in the visible bread and wine, brings me into God’s presence, and He into mine, in a way that is precious and the kind of love that this passage advises – to love without thought, without considering consequence – to just give, and provide for, to show a devotion and love that is beyond expectation.
As we experience this, as we think through it, as we, dare I say it, enjoy it–God does things to us that we don’t see, we instinctively love. as we become more and more like Jesus, as the Spirit transforms us.
This is who we are to be, to share in the glory of God, to reflect it into the world, and the law simply is a description of how we live…
Ratzinger, Joseph. 1992. Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. Edited by Irene Grassl. Translated by Mary Frances McCarthy and Lothar Krauth. San Francisco: Ignatius Press. Feb 10
“The Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article XII Confession”, Tappert, Theodore G., ed. 1959. The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press. p.180
What Good are our Broken Lives? More than you know!
Thoughts which call me closer to Jesus, and to the Cross..
43 “A good tree does not produce bad fruit, nor does a bad tree produce good fruit. 44 Each tree is known by its own fruit. People don’t gather figs from thornbushes, and they don’t get grapes from bushes. 45 Good people bring good things out of the good they stored in their hearts. But evil people bring evil things out of the evil they stored in their hearts. People speak the things that are in their hearts. Luke 6:43-45 NCV
LORD Jesus Christ, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter my sinful heart; yet, Thou deignest to recognize my great poverty and need. Therefore, I fervently desire Thy presence, to nourish, comfort, and strengthen my poor soul. Speak Thy word to my soul and it shall be well with me. Amen.
‘Remember, man, that thou are dust, and unto dust you shall return. There are implications to be found in this. If man had been fashioned from something that could evaporate, then there would be nothing for him to return to. But a man, even while he is living in the flesh, can return to his constituent element: He does this the moment he is ready to be what God has made him. Dust may not be romantic, but there could be nothing more real..”
When I read the words of Jesus, like those in red above, I feel diseased, depressed, for I look at some of the ways in which I live, and I don’t see good fruit. If I see any fruit it is at best too sour, to overripe, and usually too rotten–if it exists at all. I am not sure I count myself as evil, but if the judgement has too choices, good or evil…. well the preponderance of evidence is not always favorable.
And think about that, guilt and shame builds. I see myself as wretched and as a failure, (Please don’t argue – this is how I and many others feel with such a passage being read or meditated upon. ANd there is hope to come!)
So Loehe’s prayer is simple – and archaic, but the words are encouraging – and often mirror where I eventually come to, the prayer that God doesn’t belong in one such as me–but He doesn’t care what I think and know. He knows me enough to know I needed the cross, I needed HIs presence, and as I encounter it, and the love He has for a sinner like me–oh how I want it even more.
And then comes Zeller and Hanson, reminding me of the blessing of Ash Wednesday – the idea that we can return to the dust we were before our creation, and God can recreate us, by the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead. We can exchange that dust and ash for beauty, we become His new masterpiece, we become His…again.
The guilt and shame is removed, and for a moment we glimpse of the God who is ours, whom we are united too in baptism, who we commune with in the Eucharist, who we rise with from death and dust to a new and everlasting life.
Hevenly Father, let us know the weight of our sin, if only for an instant, that we may realize our need for Jesus, and for the healing which You so eagerly work in our lives. We oray this in Jesus name, amen!
Lœhe, William. 1914. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Translated by H. A. Weller. Chicago: Wartburg Publishing House.
Hubert con Zeller, “The choice of God”, quoted inJohn Hanson, Coached byJosemaria Escriva, (Scepter,NY, 2024), 54
