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There is More to Salvation than Justification
Devotional Thought of the Day:
1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:1-2 (NLT)
4 But—“When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, 5 he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. 6 He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. 7 Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.” 8 This is a trustworthy saying, and I want you to insist on these teachings so that all who trust in God will devote themselves to doing good. These teachings are good and beneficial for everyone. Titus 3:4-8 (NLT)
Article VI: Of New Obedience Also they teach that this faith is bound to bring forth good fruits, and that it is necessary to do good works commanded by God, because of God’s will, but that we should not rely on those works to merit justification before God. For remission of sins and justification is apprehended by faith, as also the voice of Christ attests: When ye shall have done all these things, say: We are unprofitable servants. Luke 17:10. The same is also taught by the Fathers. For Ambrose says: It is ordained of God that he who believes in Christ is saved, freely receiving remission of sins, without works, by faith alone. ( The Augsburg Confession: The Chief Articles of the Fatih)
For all of this, I must thank Him, praise Him, serve Him and obey Him. Yes, this is true!
Martin Luther, Luther’s Small Catechism: Developed and Explained, Under: “Part Two: The Creed”.
In these days following Easter, as we move towards Pentecost, the readings in my devotionals, and the assigned readings for church describe a major shift in the lives of those who trust in God. They don’t change; they are changed. They aren’t simply justified by faith, as if that is the end of their salvation, they are also sanctified, set apart in a holy relationship, described as the New Covenant between God and His people.
I think as a church we do a disservice. At the time of the Reformation, Lutheran and some Reformed churches has a balance between Justification and Sanctification. While we were absolute that nothing we do merits our salvation, that there is nothing we do to justify ourselves before God, there was a change that He did to us.
In the green and blue quotes above, from the Augsburg Confession and Luther’s Small Catechism, this change is made clear and absolute. It is necessary to do good works, and We must thank, praise, serve and obey Him. There is no option allowed in those words
Change happens. Change will happen. We are not saved by faith alone as if that is all that salvation is; it is to misrepresent Luther and the rest of the evangelical Catholic reformers to indicate that is so. They knew what would happen to us in the relationship we have with God; the New Covenant spells it out, as clearly as it spells out the assurance of Christ’s work in redeeming us.
So how does this work? How much effort will it take to change? How mandatory is it?
Regarding mandatory, I think Luther and Melanchthon and the words necessary and must make it clear from Lutheran theology. The quote from ROmans 12, Paul pleads with people to let God work this our lives, just to give ourselves into His hands (which is where we belong anyway!) and let the Spirit mold us, working through us.
Paul will also tell Timothy to keep teaching about God’s work transforming us, and the Spirit overwhelming us, for that will result in our devoting ourselves to doing good. That is the key to this, our grasping, not just with our mind but with heart, sou, mind and strength what it means to be in Christ, to have the Spirit dwell within us.
As we pray, as we learn, as God reveals Himself to us, in us, He transforms us. We become His masterpiece, a divine work of art. This is the promise God makes to us in His word.
So it makes no sense to argue about works or to call those who teach what God is doing pietists. Some need to be corrected gently, that they realize the change is made in us, rather than we make the change. Often we aren’t even aware of it, as the sheep in Matthew 25 were unaware when they ministered to Jesus. Love and ministry become more natural, more of what needs to be done. The sacraments become dearer, these active, covenant renewal moments, when the grace of God promised is delivered, whetting our appetite for the feast when all become completely transformed when all are welcomed home into the presence of our Father.
Look to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, look to Him as the Holy Spirit transforms you from glory to glory, Look to Him, know HIs love, hear His promises, and let His word direct your thoughts words and actions. And if you fall, confess it, let His absolving cleanse your heart, and continue to journey with the God, who loves you.
AMEN
This politician is so evil and corrupt, that they ticked God off..
Devotional Thought of the Day:
He did much evil in the LORD’s sight and provoked him to anger. 7 An idol he had made he placed in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to his son Solomon: In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I shall set my name forever. 8 I will no longer make Israel step out of the land I assigned to your ancestors, provided that they are careful to observe all I commanded them, the entire law, the statutes, and the ordinances given by Moses.
9 Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem into doing even greater evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed at the coming of the Israelites. 10 The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention.
Manasseh’s Conversion. 11 bTherefore the LORD brought against them the army commanders of the Assyrian king; they captured Manasseh with hooks, shackled him with chains, and transported him to Babylon.* 12 In his distress, he began to appease the LORD, his God. He humbled himself abjectly before the God of his ancestors, 13 and prayed to him.* The LORD let himself be won over: he heard his prayer and restored him to his kingdom in Jerusalem. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is indeed God. 2 Chronicles 33:6-13 NABRE
We are unjust before God; we have turned away from him in pursuit of our own glorification and so we have become subject to death. But God waives the merited punishment and puts something new in its place: healing; our conversion to a renewed Yes to the truth about ourselves. So that this transformation may take place, he goes before us and takes upon himself the pain of our transformation. The Cross of Christ is the real elucidation of these words: not “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”, but “transform evil by the power of love.…” In the Cross of Christ, and only there, these words open themselves to us and become revelation. In the company of the Cross, they become a new possibility even for our own lives.
21 Here we are talking about personal faith, which accepts the promise as a present reality and believes that the forgiveness of sins is actually being offered, not about a faith which believes in a general way that God exists.
22 Such use of the sacrament comforts devout and troubled minds.
For the last week, I have seen sincere brothers and sisters in Christ aid in the demonizing of politicians that they don’t know, never mind knowing their hearts, never mind knowing the plans God has in store for us all.
Watching the anxiety grow, and the angst, I even see it beginning to fracture families and friendships, as one can’t understand how the other can support “them”. While I pray for those running, I pray even more for those who are following and placing their hopes in the plans and personalities of those running for office.
This was on my heart this morning, as I went into my devotional reading, and came across Manasseh. Not only did he encourage the worship of idols, and demonic “gods”, he even placed in God’s temple a giant Asherah pole – a pagan idol that was simply a huge phallic symbol. He put the idol in the place where God put His name, which people would know that their prayers would be answered and that He would forgive their sins, and bring them to the transformation of repentance.
A slap in God’s face, and worse. This man was evil upon evil. I think even the staunchest opponent of any politician in office today, or running for office, would find their nemesis preferable to Manasseh. Some may argue differently, but the reality is there, God’s testimony is clear – the nation’s evil was greater than nations God condemned and destroyed. God tried to speak to them, and they ignored Him.
This corrupt evil leader would not only repent; he would also lead his entire nation in repentance, in a time of purging all the idolatry from their nation.
He would lead a revival of repentance because God didn’t give up, even as God was completely ticked off, furious beyond recognition. His people, led by a descendant of the David, the man after God’s own heart, did more evil than those God had Israel clear out of the land. God was patient with them, and called them to repentance, and transformed them from evil, into His children once again.
As Pope Benedict wrote when he was a cardinal, God sent Jesus before us to bear the price of that repentance, to bear the punishment that should have been ours. He transformed evil by the power of love, not only giving us an example to follow but making it possible to love that completely. It becomes the hope, the possibility for our lives.
Melancthon writes in the Lutheran confessions that this brings us comfort when our minds are torn between being devout, yet troubled by our sin. For our trust in God, boosted by the sacraments, the acts where God pours out His mercy, love and grace, upon us.
It is those promises, and seeing those promises fulfilled in the life of Manasseh that bring peace in a time when the world and just the United States seems beyond hope God can work in and through such people. God can call them to repentance, and has.
God doesn’t give up, He strives for our very souls and the souls of those in leadership. Trust in Him, find in your baptism, and in communion the real forgiveness of sins, and pray that God would lead our leaders to the same.
So pray for them, pray for us, that all would know the mercy and peace of God.
Peace that is promised, peace that is delivered.
AMEN!
(1) Ratzinger, J. (1992). Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. (I. Grassl, Ed., M. F. McCarthy & L. Krauth, Trans.) (pp. 78–79). San Francisco: Ignatius Press
(2) Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 214). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press..
Luke 13 The Special Attention that Leads to Repentance
The Special Attention that Leads to Repentance
Luke 13:1-9
† I.H.S †
May the grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ make the call you hear to repentance one that you must answer. AMEN!
A Week of Why’s
As I look back over this week, it seems rather convenient that I would preach on the gospel. For in nine different very traumatic situations, no, ten situations, it would be easy to sit back and ask with the gospel, “is this why they suffer?”
Why is a family mourning they son/boyfriend was shot dead?
Why is a sheriff’s station wondering why one had to shoot someone, and why a community that normally is so supportive, could so quickly turn against them?
Why is a family being torn apart,
Why is someone facing a brutal betrayal of a friend?
Why did a 50-year-old mother die, just after burying her child last November?
Why did these things happen? Who is to blame? Was it their evil, or what God wrong to allow what happened? Ten situations, hundreds of questions asked, so few answers to offer in response.
In a way, Jesus response to these traumas seems cold, even harsh.
Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?” Jesus asked. “Is that why they suffered? 3 Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. 4 And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? 5 No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too.”
What first seems heartless Is anything but. For the questions we ask we may never be answered sufficiently, though we might have a thousand theories, not of which will help us grieve, never mind heal. They just spin and spin our mind around.
Jesus asks us to move past the questions we cannot know the answers to, to contemplate, to meditate on something that has a real consequence, something that we don’t want to talk about, but we need to face.
Will we hear a call to repentance, or will perish?
I Won’t’ Perish, Will I?
I think we all need to ask regularly ourselves if Jesus came back today, would we perish?
We have to be careful with that question because it can lead to both self-righteousness and severe guilt. Both those options are deadly.
Self-righteousness that would lead us to false confidence in our holiness leads to perishing because we will grow to assume we can be holy on our own, and don’t need God.
Severe guilt leads us to believe we are beyond hope, that there is not ability to recover from where we at, stuck in sin.
Even so, we still have to ask regularly the question. Would I perish? Do I love my sin and resentment more than I love God? Have I set up false idols to worship, things that I put more trust in than God? Do I even bother with God in my life except for on Sundays and Wednesday nights for an hour or ninety minutes? Is God welcome in every part of my life?
St Paul in his letter to the church in Corinth talks about this, as part of preparing for communion,
31 But if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this way. 32 Yet when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned along with the world. 1 Corinthians 11:31-32 (NLT)
Most of us would prefer not to do this, to not have to face the unpleasantness in our own lives. It seems much easier to bury it, to ignore it, or more than likely to justify it by pointing to others sins.
It is not the reason others undergo trauma, nor would I ever suggest that God puts us through trauma just to convert us and lead us to change. But Jesus is telling us to take stock of our lives, as these things happen. To really consider where we need Him to change us. To really see the sin that we engage in as the horrible thing that destroys our relationship with God.
Unless we repent… we will perish.
A hard line to hear – even during Lent when we expect it!
The Patience of the Gardener
So how do we repent? How can we be sure we have? Where do we find the strength to do so…
We need to understand this parable of the Owner and the Gardner. We need to realize that the Gardner is God in this passage – that the heart which is patient and wants to give special attention and plenty of fertilizer, to cultivate and cause us to bear fruit.
I love to watch Al or the Chinese congregation members tend the plants on campus. There is a tenderness there, and you could see their mind church as they decide where to dig next, or which rose branch to prune. If they do such a wonderful job, you know God will be doing the something special as He calls us to repentance.
That’s what he does at the altar, as He assures us of grace, as he lovingly nurtures us, as He provides a safe place for us to confess our sins, and hear His promise of forgiveness. It is what he does as we read of the grace and mercy of God, as we see it as we picture Him on the cross, His blood pouring out. This is where he continues to give us special attention, where he nurtures and cultivates our faith in Him.
This is how we come to live a life of repentance, assured of His work nurturing us, pruning us, cultivating us. It is an ongoing process of our faith in Christ. It starts here in Baptism, as God grants us faith and repentance, and keeps on going here at the altar, here as we worship, as we pray, as we study God’s word together as His people.
Because of His work, giving us special attention and yes, plenty of fertilizer, we are assured that we will not perish, that He has called and brought us to repentance, and is transforming us daily.
This is why we live in peace, peace that God promises is beyond understanding, peace He guards us in, our hearts and minds…. AMEN!
The Repentant: King David
The Repentant
King David: Pride and the Altar
1 Chronicles 21:1-19
†In Jesus Name †
May God’s grace not only call you to repentance but give you hope and expectation as you await the joy that awaited Jesus as He journeyed to the cross!
This is not that story
As we hear the stories of the Repentant, the lives God would change so much that all heaven would rejoice, most people who know the Bible would expect me to bring up David at some point.
I won’t disappoint you.
Well, I will, because I am not going to talk about the little affair he had with Bathsheba, and killing her husband. Simply because that sin, while horrible, doesn’t measure up to the sin of counting his soldiers, of counting the people God entrusted to His care.
Wait, are you saying that counting people is a grievous, horrendous sin?
Hmmm. Dane, have you counted how many people are here tonight? If not, maybe you shouldn’t?
There are, and there are not, greater and lesser sins. In this case, the sin was directly disobeying God, which adultery and the murder of Bathsheba’s husband also are. SO in one way, the sins are equal. It is in their impact on others that these sins differ.
One affects two families and children. That is the sin we know about, the story of lust and jealousy. This one has far more serious repercussions. David chooses his punishment even, and even that stands out. His sin, this time, affects 70,000 of the people for whom he was responsible.
70,000.
For disobeying God.
He was tempted by Satan, and he sinned gravely.
Innocent people had to die because of it. Well, they were innocent of the sin David committed.
Just like every sin we commit has consequences that affect others.
Even though we might repent, even though we might ask forgiveness, the impact of our sin’s damage on others is felt. Families are divided, friendship’s shattered, lives crushed, because we chose our way, rather than listen to God’s direction, to the life He clearly describes for us to live, that we might bless others.
Disobedience, which boils down to telling God that we know better than He does, that we should be God.
Distressed by the realization of the impact
David asked forgiveness, but there are days where we ask for forgiveness, and while we want to be forgiven, we think that is enough. We don’t always want reconciliation; we just want to be free from punishment. We don’t always want to be repentant, and we just want to be sorry….
As David looks upon the innocent suffering, as David sees the Angel of Death ready to destroy his people, the reaction is different. He is distressed by his sin, he realizes the consequence, hear His words,
“I am the one who called for the census! I am the one who has sinned and done wrong! But these people are as innocent as sheep—what have they done? O LORD my God, let your anger fall against my family and me, but do not destroy your people.” 1 Chronicles 21:17 (NLT)
This is part of what repentance is, the distress of realizing the depth of our sin, and that sin isn’t victimless. It is what drives us to confess our sins….and beg God to spare the innocent, even as David did.
(after this first half of the sermon, we have a time of silent confession and prayer, and express our hope in God, that is described in the Creed)
The Repentant
King David: Pride and the Altar
1 Chronicles 21:1-19
†In Jesus Name †
May God’s grace not only call you to repentance but give you hope and expectation as you await the joy that awaited Jesus as He journeyed to the cross
The Altar & the Promise
Even as David and leaders are face down, praying that God’s wrath will be limited to those who are guilty, there is a strong lesson in grace, a lesson that is overlooked.
You see, that place where the angel stands, the place where God commands the angel of death to stop, where he tells him it is finished, is a special place in Jewish history.
It is the temple mount, the very place in the temp that would be called the Holy of Holies. A place of grace, a place where sin would be atoned for, with the blood, portraying the blood of Jesus, the innocent, holy Son of God, taking on the curse of sin, once and for all. The plague would stop, the power of death would be shattered, and repentance, the transformation that occurs to us because of Jesus, is made sure.
For repentance is not just the feeling of sorrow, it is not even just the distress caused as we look at the effect of our sin, repentance is not just the removal of sin crushed hearts and minds, but it is effected by the blood of Christ, the love of God being poured out upon us.
You will notice that God ordered the stoppage before the repentance was complete, and that’s because of His desire to bring us back, the joy of the father seeing his prodigal son seeing the dust from his son’s feet in the distance.
I can’t make this point enough – our repentance, our realization of how badly sin has crushed us.as that repentance becomes real, as it occurs in even just one of us, the joy of heaven is beyond belief. It is as if the entire company of heaven is looking done in wonder as God takes us and heals us.
A moment of great joy, a moment beyond our comprehension… a moment to find His peace and rest and healing… for like David, and Naaman and Josiah, we’ve become the Repentant.
AMEN!
Not Again! The Problem of Evil….in…
Devotional Thought of the Day:
21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. Romans 7:21-25 (NLT)
But again I said, Who made me? Did not my God, Who is not only good, but goodness itself? Whence then came I to will evil and nill good, so that I am thus justly punished? who set this in me, and ingrated into me this plant of bitterness, seeing I was wholly formed by my most sweet God?
There is no doubt that the world can appear evil at times. All we have to do is look at news, and whether local, national or international, we will hear of evil being done, sometimes even in the name of Jesus.
But the evil that is most ominous, that is the most dangerous is the evil that lies within our hearts. In the quotes above, we see Paul and Augustine reaching a level of transparency, a level of honesty, where the struggle becomes real. Both are writing from the perspective of a believer, a believer deeply in the process of conversion, exhibiting what we call a repentant spirit; they are experiencing a transformation of their nature. Repentance that allows them to face evil straight on, but not the evil external to their life.
It is, quite obviously, a pain=filled journey into the darkness of their souls, one that most of us do not want to participate in, and get anxious when someone else call us to make it. We know we need to repent, but the hold that sin on us is great, or at least the appearance of the sin’s possession of us is great.
We need to encounter that sin, a journey called penitence. For until we do, we cannot see that the darkness, the sin, doesn’t have the grip on us that we think it does. Until we hit the despair that Paul and Augustine encounter, we can’t really how desperate we are to escape sin’s hold on us. Until we admit we are unclean, we can’t truly understand the joy of repentance, of finding the hope that removes the despair, the sin, the guilt and shame.
For there, as we encounter and face our sin, as we would “own” it, and take responsibility for it, we encounter the Cross as well. We find that evil that we once tried to justify, that we once entered into proudly, be taken from us, and laid on Jesus. That which caused us to despair is lifted from us; its hold on us shattered. The damage it has done begins to heal, and we can learn to dwell in peace.
This is repentance; this is the transformation that Ezekiel describes as God taking our stone dead heart and replacing it with one that is alive, and which the Spirit breathes life through, as our lives are cleansed. It is the repentance that Paul describes as a change of our mind , a being clothed with Christ, a change of our schematics, a being conformed to the image of Christ, which we reflect into the darkness of the world.
There is hope for dealing with evil, and it is finding the faith, the courage to cry out, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner” and knowing He has, and does, and will. And in faith and confidence, embracing the peace He calls us to in repentance.
Augustine, S., Bishop of Hippo. (1996). The Confessions of St. Augustine. (E. B. Pusey, Trans.). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
God’s Schematics, the Hope of our New Life in Christ
God’s Schematics
Phil. 3:17-4:1
† I.H.S. †
May the grace of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ convince you of the transformation that is making in your life.
It’s nearly 25 years since professional sports underwent a radical change in America, because of a partial quote. A professional basketball player named Charles Barkley was quoted in 1993, saying, “I’m not a role model, just because I dunk a basketball.”
Like many quotes of the man named as “Sir Charles” (and quite a few other people, it was taken apart by the media. Many thought that he was saying he wasn’t responsible for living a life that others look up to when he was saying that parents should be the role models for their kids.
It didn’t matter, people accused him of not living up to the responsibility he had as a public figure. After all, many of us grew up with sports heroes, or military heroes, or even political heroes. Since then, the short comings of many of the potential heroes of our children have felt no compulsion to be a role model.
Not just athletes, though, just about every vocation you imagine has determined that they are not to be a role model.
I understand.
It’s why I reluctantly preach on the passage today from the epistle reading.
It’s a scary thought to preach this,
17 Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine and learn from those who follow our example.
It is a heavy burden to be a role model, whether it is too a nation, a congregation, or to a child.
Even more, when what we are to model is a life that encourages them to strive to live a life God would call righteous, to live apart from sin and shame, a life where we love. A life where we even love our enemies.
How many of you are comfortable with people imitating you, when they will be judged by God for what they did, and didn’t do?
How many of you are comfortable with people imitating your faith, and the holiness of your thoughts and words? Knowing that they will be responsible for those thoughts and words before God?
NO wonder people don’t want to be role models…
The Option?
The problem is that we are, and there are two kinds of role models out there.
The first kind Paul weeps over, and that gives you a hint about what the second kind is like.
He talks of their conduct being such that they are enemies of Jesus. That they are on the course to destruction, on the road to hell. What is their crime? What is so evil about them?
Paul says their god; their idol is their appetite, not just as in what is for lunch, but their need to get what they want when they want it. Whether it is food, or power, or sex, or money. They consume, and use what they consume, rather than bless others with it.
He goes on to say that they brag; they are focused on shameful things, disgraceful things. This is a little different than just desire because you can focus on things that are bad, not to enjoy them, but to condemn those who are caught up in them. You get obsessed with evil or the conspiracies. We can actually be obsessed with what we hate, to the extent that our desire to be free from it enslaves us.
The last thing that identifies someone as heading for destruction and hell is that they can only think about life on earth, they live for the moment, to enjoy life to its fullest because they don’t know anything else. They can’t even imagine that life has eternal consequences, and that means that life is a do what feels good, or do what you think is correct. This is the ultimate form of idolatry, as we put ourselves, our feelings, our logic and emotion as the final judge of what is right, and what is wrong.
It is these people that too often become role models because the burden seems to great, and those who should abdicate the responsibility.
The Grace of Transformation
Paul doesn’t leave us in that position; there is another group of people, those who have learned to follow Paul’s example, even as he followed the example of Jesus.
They are people who realize being a good example, being able to encourage others to imitate you, is not because your that good. Rather it is because they need the hope you have found as God works in your life and through your life.
The hope of God coming to us, in our weakest, most sinful state and changing us, I love the word for the how God takes and changes us.
Meta-schematizo
God changes our schematics, our wiring our blueprints. Last week we talked about repentance being a change of mind, this week scripture talks of God changing us at a level that is so deep and so simple. He changes us at a level that changes not just how we act, but how we think, subconsciously, consciously, how we plan and how we react.
This is what we need; we need to be that transformed, and God is working on it. That is why Paul talks of us patterning our lives, living in symmetry with him, even as he lives in symmetry with Christ Jesus. This is what happens at the cross, as we died with Christ, and as we come alive in Him.
God is the potter; we are the clay. He shapes us, transforming us from brokenness to Christlikeness, from concerned only about today, to living our life in expectation of our reunion with Him in heaven. The Holy Spirit brings about these promises in our lives, as both God’s word and sacraments reveal to us His love, His promise, His faithfulness. That is what He does when He changes our schematics, when He brings us to repentance. When He makes us role models for those who will follow us, not because of any other reason than we trust Him to keep His promises.
This is why we are here; this is why we invite people, to see God give us hope, to transform us, to make us like Jesus.
Which is why we worship and praise Him. AMEN!
the Repentant
Naaman’s Sin
2 Kings 5:1019 Part I
†In Jesus Name †
May you hear God’s call to repentance…until you answer it with joyous expectation!
It is one of those things they tell you when you are trained to help people. Expect the backlash, even hatred, when you tell them what they don’t want to hear, but desperately need to hear. It may be the rehabilitation therapist who pushes you or the doctor who orders that invasive test that we only see as uncomfortable and embarrassing.
Lifeguards are told to expect it when saving the life of someone who is drowning. To the point where the technique of knocking the drowning person unconscious is practiced.
Too bad they don’t have a similar technique for prophets and pastors when we are called to do that which is uncomfortable and embarrassing.
Like calling a person to repentance, or calling them to let God heal their hearts, souls, and lives.
Like Naaman in the reading this evening.
A powerful general, in fact, Naaman is the one, the armies of Israel, feared more than any other. This isn’t just the equivalent to ISIS, but the equivalent to Hitler’s best generals. A man feared, honored, respected. Enough so that a King would call for peace so that he could be healed by the God of his enemy.
It’s all set up, healing has been promised, not just a procedure recommended, but after all the trips, after all the investment and travel is made, Naaman’s sinful pride reacts.
10 But Elisha sent a messenger out to him with this message: “Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River. Then your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of your leprosy.” 11 But Naaman became angry and stalked away. “I thought he would certainly come out to meet me!” he said. “I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the LORD his God and heal me! 12 Aren’t the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than any of the rivers of Israel? Why shouldn’t I wash in them and be healed?” So Naaman turned and went away in a rage. 2 Kings 5:10-12 (NLT)
Do you believe this man? He has been promised complete healing, absolutely complete healing, and he rejects it because he doesn’t like what God calls him to do. Instead, he wants to rely on his own wisdom, his own strength and do it himself.
I mean, who does he think he is, to bargain with God?
I mean, it’s not like he’s an even a believer, he’s not even Lutheran. Why does he think he knows better than God? Who does he think he is, to say those other rivers are better than the Jordan? Who is he to get mad at God and storm off? Really???
What kind of self-righteous sinner is he? The worst of the worst, to turn away angrily from the loving mercy of God our Father…
Yes, he is the worst kind of sinner, the same sort of rebellious sinner as you and I, and the rest of the sinners in the world.
We do the same thing when we ask why we have to repent, or why we have to obey commands which we don’t like. I mean, how many of us really like and eagerly obey the command to love our enemies and pray for those who would persecute us?
Or how many of us understand the mind of God when he tells Peter to repent and be cleansed of your sin, and be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
We don’t, so we argue that our sin isn’t as bad as theirs, or that it’s not that bad of a sin, that we are just doing fine spiritually, that there is nothing to repent of.
You might even get mad at me, when I remind you that there is, or you might not like it when Chris plays that song, that reminds you that you need to have your heart and soul and mind healed.
But you do, he does, I do….
But we need to the Spirit to work in us, to guide our confession and prayer, to lay all this sin before God… and that is what we shall do right now.
(time of confession, followed by reading of the gospel and a sung Creed)
Naaman’s Sin
2 Kings 5:1019 Part II
Peter’s epistle tells us that God is patient, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. We see this in the passage, as first the slave girl to a general comes to him with the hope of a cure. A slave girl, addressing the top general of the land?
Then, as he stormed off angrily, so violently that he was going to miss the healing God has promised, his officers were used by God to call him to repentance. For those of you in the service, does anyone just walk up to the commanding general and tell him he was wrong? They did, they reasoned with him, and he heard the call to hear God, and he listened and obeyed.
And God healed Him. God had mercy on him and transformed him, just as God promised through Elisha.
It cost him nothing to be transformed, the man of God didn’t even want an honorarium.
Something more incredible happened than the healing. Hear Naaman’s words,
“Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. 2 Kings 5:15 (NLT)
That is the gospel that is repentance; that is the transformation that happens when God works in our life when we trust Him. Naaman came to repentance, to the realization that we aren’t God, that God is not to be manipulated, questioned or controlled. Instead, we embrace Him and become calmed by His love.
Naaman tried to honor God, to give him something back, through the prophet. When that happened, he did something odd, he took home some dirt, a trunk or two full. Something that would bring home the memory, and help him be humble, to help him remember that God is in charge. Seems like an odd thing to bring home, doesn’t it?
We need such reminders, both of our need to be humble, and of the grace of God, which brings us to wholeness. We need to celebrate the joy of repentance, of restoration, of reconciliation. This is why we remember our baptism, why we celebrate the Lord’s supper, why we gather together. To be reminded of His presence, and the joy of God’s work in our lives.
Can you imagine Naaman’s words upon arriving home? Hey Honey, I’m home, and you will never guess, not only am I healed, I brought home some…dirt! For the God of Israel is the true God, the God who cares for His people!
And something else, the blessing of the prophet, who said, Go in peace.
And now, as one of the repentant, he did
Amen.
Hope for Today, Tomorrow and ….
Devotional Thought of the Day:
But there is one thing, my dear friends, that you must never forget: that with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not being slow in carrying out his promises, as some people think he is; rather is he being patient with you, wanting nobody to be lost and everybody to be brought to repentance. 10 The Day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then with a roar the sky will vanish, the elements will catch fire and melt away, the earth and all that it contains will be burned up. 11 Since everything is coming to an end like this, what holy and saintly lives you should be living 12 while you wait for the Day of God to come, and try to hasten its coming: on that Day the sky will dissolve in flames and the elements melt in the heat. 13 What we are waiting for, relying on his promises, is the new heavens and new earth, where uprightness will be at home. 2 Peter 3:8-13 (NJB)
You have asked me for a word of hope: what I have to offer you has a name: Jesus Christ.
64 For a terrified conscience cannot pit our works or our love against the wrath of God, but it finds peace only when it takes hold of Christ, the mediator, and believes the promises given for his sake. Those who dream that the heart can find peace without faith in Christ do not understand what the forgiveness of sins is nor how it comes to us.
65 Peter (1 Pet. 2:6) quotes the words from Isaiah (28:16), “He who believes in him will not be put to shame.” Hypocrites therefore must be put to shame, for they trust in their own works and not in Christ to receive the forgiveness of sins. Peter also says in Acts 10:43, “To him all the prophets bear witness that every one who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. (1)
I’ve seen a lot of people looking for hope recently, for something to believe, something to trust in that will make a difference. Some are looking for it from this candidate, others from that candidate. One man is pushing a translation of the Bible as his hope, that nothing else matters but knowing it is the true Bible. Another is pushing for the return to a morality that he was taught in his youth. Some look for hope to a bottle, or a pill, or some kind of love or pleasure. One church leader is even spouting off that the hope for the church is that church people need to have more children!
Such looking is what the quote in blue is talking about when it uses the term “terrified conscience”, or to use something more common to us today, being paralyzed by anxiety. Whether we admit to knowing about the wrath our actions earn, we know they aren’t right. They don’t satisfy; they cause us to live in emptiness, even if we can quiet the guilt and shame we feel. And the places we look for hope, or at least an escape from anxiety, require more and more of our focus, more and more of our dedication. Theses things, which a theologian would call an idol, a false god, enslave us.
We need to cast them off, to realize how much of a dead end they are. To toss them aside, realizing they are hindrances. The Lutheran Confessions are right when they call for the humbling of those trusting in their idols, depending on what they run to to relieve anxiety. Being relieved of the falsehood of our idolatry is never easy, sacred cows don’t want to be ground up into hamburger. (Note: I am serious here because I do believe there is a demonic influence that would make such attachments and addictions painful to remove)
But that is what repentance is, the literal change of our mind/heart/soul. It is God freeing us from such idolatry, it is God entering into our life and doing what we cannot do, as Christ our mediator brings us to repentance; He brings us into a relationship where His righteousness and holiness is our identity, as our sins are removed from us. That doesn’t make life easier now, for being righteous and holy are contrary to the world as we perceive it.
But there will be a day where our righteousness will be at home when we can see God face to face, as forgiven, holy people who belong in His presence.
This all because of Jesus, and His coming to us, living in us, dying for us, rising from the grave, ascending into heaven, where He intercedes for us now…..as the Father is patient with us.
This is why the Pope points to Jesus as our hope.
This is why Lutherans talks about trusting, about having faith in Jesus…
Lord, have mercy on us sinners and help us to know the hope we have in you.
(1) Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 191). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
A Lenten Sermon: With This Gift I Acknowledge…
(you can find the audio for this sermon on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQLSG0ngxU8 )
With this Gift I Acknowledge
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
† I.H.S. †
May you become so aware of the grace, mercy and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ that you respond to God with your entire life!
When????
As we enter Lent, a lot of the readings we will hear are about the journey to the promised land, and they often take place in what I call the “in-between time.
The “in-between” time starts with the rescue of Egypt, where the Red Sea split and they crossed through that sea until the time they crossed the Jordan river, and they headed west into the Holy Land.
That’s the in-between time, the time between the crossing, between the rescue and the delivery.
Often we compare that time to the time we live in now. In such a comparison the land of the promise becomes the equivalent of heaven. We’ve been told we’ve been saved, but we haven’t arrived yet. We follow that pattern, then we are in the journey toward the promise land. We can take the same comparison and compare the season of lent to the time wandering around in the wilderness. And the promised land becomes the celebration of Easter.
It lines up nice and neatly, and there are some interesting parallels. Such a study helps us build up the anticipation of heaven, and the glory and rejoicing we will see when we all get to heaven.
As I was preparing this series, some of my thoughts went along that journey, as the idea written about in the old song came to mind. “Sing the wondrous love of Jesus, sing of His mercy and His grace, in His mansion, bright and blessed, He’ll prepare for us a place.”
What a day of rejoicing that will be, the chorus says, but an odd thought struck me.
Are we expecting to rejoice only then? What about now? The song doesn’t say wait till then to sing of the wondrous love of Jesus, wait till then to know His mercy and His grace.
Then I looked at this passage and the idea that when we get “there” when we enter the land, we are to prepare an offering.
“With this gift, I acknowledge to the Lord God that I have entered the land He swore to our ancestors He would give us…”
And so we think of heaven… for isn’t that the promised land?
And we aren’t there yet, I mean all you have to do is look around and see that is so…we haven’t entered the promised land, right?
Wrong.
We have entered into what was promised; our problem is that we can’t see it yet. Which is why we have to understand what Paul means when he says, “Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth, for you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.”
That sounds more like we have entered the promised land… except that life doesn’t look so heavenly… does it? How can we be in the Holy Land, the Promised Land, when it doesn’t sometimes seem like we’ve left behind struggling with God in the wilderness?
We Cried out to the Lord
If we are going to make a parallel to the wilderness journey that is described in Deuteronomy, we need to figure out what verse 7 is talking about.
“we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors. He heard our cries and saw our hardship, toil, and oppression.”
Where these words find their place in our lives, is when we were in bondage, not to Egypt, but to sin. Where our hardship and struggle were the futility that comes in life that is self-centered and only worried about its own happiness, its own contentment.
I will be the first to admit that there are days where we act like Israel, doubting God and wanting to return to the lives unrestricted by God, but enslaved to “our” own desires.
But does that mean that we are back in Egypt? Does that mean we are living on manna and quail and wandering around like Jacob/Israel?
The question comes down to this my friends. Are we living in the Kingdom of God, in the promised land, or are we living in the wilderness, cared for and waiting for the promises of God to come true in our lives?
For the land God promised us isn’t primary geographical. Rather, it is the land where God clearly rules, where He is Lord and King, providing for His people. It is the place where His people find rest and refuge, a sanctuary of peace and a place where His love evident.
A place where Deuteronomy describes as the place which in our special possession, the place where our inheritance, what God has promised His people has become a reality.
You see, that’s what bothers me about the passage being only a parallel to our journey to heaven.
For in Christ, we already are citizens of His kingdom and heirs of His promises, He has already delivered us. We just have to understand this and trust Him on it, knowing our reality is in heaven, in Christ.
Which is why we can bring before him the gifts that acknowledge that we have been delivered. The gifts that acknowledge we dwell in Christ. The gifts that acknowledge we have been killed off with Christ in our baptism, and brought to life because of His resurrection.
That is why Paul will also tell the church in Romans 12 to present our bodies as living sacrifices, which is the appropriate worship, the reason worship, declaring what God has done.
The passage in Deuteronomy ends with this, “
It’s time to party!
11 Afterward, you may go and celebrate because of all the good things the Lord your God has given to you and your household. Remember to include the Levites and the foreigners living among you in the celebration.
My friends, Jesus has given us life, the abundant life that begins in the waters of baptism, and matures as we see the Father face to face. We aren’t waiting on that to come about some day. We are His children, now.
So it is time to celebrate, to know His love… and to include all who would come in the celebration, so that they too may understand and celebrate His love. It will take faith; it will as Paul said mean focusing on the reality of heaven, of dwelling, not among clouds, but in the very presence of our loving God. AMEN?
Do We Have to Talk about…SIN?
the devotional thought of the day:
12 I am surrounded by many troubles— too many to count! My sins have caught up with me, and I can no longer see; they are more than the hairs of my head, and I have lost my courage. 13 Save me, LORD! Help me now!
Psalm 40:12-13 (TEV)
993 In our meditation, the Passion of Christ comes out of its cold historical frame and stops being a pious consideration, presenting itself before our eyes, as terrible, brutal, savage, bloody… yet full of Love. And we feel that sin cannot be regarded as just a trivial error: to sin is to crucify the Son of God, to tear his hands and feet with hammer blows, and to make his heart break.
29 We eliminate from contrition those useless and endless discussions as to when we are sorry because we love God and when because we fear punishment. We say that contrition is the genuine terror of a conscience that feels God’s wrath against sin and is sorry that it has sinned. This contrition takes place when the Word of God denounces sin. For the sum of the proclamation of the Gospel is to denounce sin, to offer the forgiveness of sins and righteousness for Christ’s sake, to grant the Holy Spirit and eternal life, and to lead us as regenerated men to do good. (2)
There is in Christianity two “normal” responses to sin.
The first is to diminish it, to justify it or simply ignore it. We see this all the time in society, especially with sins of desire, that is lust, greed, unrighteous anger. Oh, it’s normal we say. Or, we’re just all sinners, you can’t judge those who sin differently than you. Or, God made me this way, and I can’t help being unfaithful. There is even a theological argument, that if we preach against our sin, we have to be mindful that we are capable of nothing else.
That’s all bullshit. Dangerous because it denies the need for repentance, for transformation by indicating it is not necessary. It even denies the need for guilt or shame and covers it up as it celebrates the evil we have done.
The second is to deny repentance because it is impossible. Because their sin is so wicked, that we can only crush sinners, so their sin doesn’t affect us, or our children or our community. We stand there, with stones in our hands, trying to ignore Jesus’ calling out to us, asking us to be repentant of our sin, as well as comforting those we are trying to crush.
Though it seems to be the opposite side of the crap, this response is just as full of cow dung as the other.
Sin damages, it crushes, it breaks and shatters life. That is the reason God calls us out of a life of sin, out of a life of brokenness. And to deny that is to condemn ourselves to a life that is empty, alone, and dead. We may try to dull the pain with more sin, more “pleasure”, more logic, more condescending judgment of others, but the sin remains, something more dangerous than cancer or heart disease or diabetes. For those things destroy the body, but sin destroys the soul.
To deny the need or the possibility of repentance is perhaps the worst sin of all. For then we have placed ourselves in the position of God. We have become our own idol, and our brokenness is complete.
I love St Josemaria’s bluntness, echoing David’s. We have to realize that sin requires a sacrifice, and that Christ died because of it. Yes, that little white lie, or that juicy piece of gossip about that politician that we eagerly forward, that thought about someone else’s spouse or that jealousy. You and I sent Jesus to the cross because we chose to sin.
That thought should terrify us as much as any….
A child psychologist once told me that the most effective punishment was not just punishing my son when he was bad, but punishing things and people he loves. Putting his favorite stuffed animal on time out (or his computer) or both. I didn’t believe him at first, but he was right. Think about the Hymn “O sacred head now wounded,” that sin would have no power over us, except that it makes us realize the pain Christ endures for our sin.
And while it terrifies us to know what Christ endured because of our lack of love, because of our lack of self-control, in the very same act we find a love that heals, forgives, ends the brokenness and the anxiety of being found alone and without God.
That is why the quote in blue from the Lutheran confessions completes our thoughts. For preaching the gospel is simple – we need Christ because we are sinners, He is there because He loves us and desires to help. And the gospel isn’t complete without the Holy Spirit at work, transforming us (A synonym for repentance) and guiding us to do good works. These things, the call to repentance, the transformation that is repentance and the life of the repentant are indivisible. It is God at work in us, with us, through us.
And it is what we need.
Which is why we have to, it is an absolute must, to talk about sin and the grace which overwhelms and heals the effect of that sin.
Cry out, Lord have mercy! And know He does…
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 4014-4017). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (pp. 185–186). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
