Trinity 13

Luke 10:21-37 - Trinity Thirteen - September 14, 2014
Jesus Is The Neighbor We Need

Jesus thanks his Father that he has hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes.   This here requires two things to be clarified.  First of all, who are the wise and prudent and who are the babes?  And second of all, what are “these things” that are hidden to some and revealed to others? 

The wise and prudent are those who know the law, but who don’t know what it is for.  They think that the law is intended to help them become righteous on their own.  They are foolish.  The babes, or the little infants, on the other hand, are those who know that they are sinners.  They are those who are helpless to fulfill what the law requires, because the law demands that they love from pure hearts.  We do not love as God requires.  We cannot.  We have neither the will nor the way, because we are poor miserable sinners who have been lost and condemned since before we were infant babes.  We know the law.  The law works wrath.  It is good that we know this.  For what is hidden from the self-righteous wise and prudent is revealed to us who have been born from above by water and the Spirit.  And so in simple faith we receive what Christ freely gives, as little children who desire true spiritual milk. 

Trinity 12

Mark 7:31-37 - Trinity Twelve - September 7, 2014
Ears to Hear and Tongues to Confess

“Sing aloud to God our strength; make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob. Alleluia.” 

We call him the God of Jacob.  This means that he is the God who wants us to rely solely upon his word.  That is always how he has revealed himself – through his word.  He does not reveal himself through our personal experiences.  In fact, our personal experiences deceive us.  They distract us.  They make us expect one thing when we should expect another.         Often we feel strong.  We feel close to God.  But we need to be brought low.  We need to be made weak.  God is our strength.  And we find his strength when we recognize how weak we are and cling to his word alone.  There true joy is found.            Often we feel forsaken.  We feel like God is too displeased or fed-up with us to continue to strive within us.  When this is how we feel, we need to repent, as David did, and as we sing: “Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.”  We are weak, but he is strong.  His strength is found in his mercy – where he is faithful to forgive us our sin and to increase our faith in him. 

Trinity 11

Luke 18:9-14 - Trinity Eleven - August 31, 2014
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

A couple springs ago on the Saturday evening before high school graduation, I was fiddling around in my garage with the garage door open.  There evidently was some sort of graduation party nearby because there were cars parked up and down the block and plenty of teenage voices to be heard.  It brought back fond memories of not so many years ago when I was walking in the same shoes.  But I was a little bit embarrassed as they passed my house by the thought that perhaps I also once talked, so-to-speak, in the same shoes.  A whole conversation which I could hear begin a block away and carry on for a block in the opposite direction consisted of two boys and two girls taking polite turns speaking sentence after sentence.  I must have heard about 30 or 40 complete sentences … and every single one – I kid you not – began with the word I.  They weren’t talking filthy or rude or starting fights.  Like I said, they weren’t even interrupting one another.  Everything was very civil.  But despite their best behavior, a certain egotism was plainly revealed. 

Trinity 10

Jeremiah 8:4-12 (Luke 19:41-48) - Trinity Ten - August 24, 2014
Hanging on Jesus’ Words

You shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord: When men fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return? Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return. I have paid attention and listened, but they have not spoken rightly; no man relents of his evil, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle. Even the stork in the heavens knows her times, and the turtledove, swallow, and crane keep the time of their coming, but my people know not the judgment of the Lord. How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie. The wise men shall be put to shame; they shall be dismayed and taken; behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord, so what wisdom is in them? Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to conquerors, because from the least to the greatest everyone is greedy for unjust gain; from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.  They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the Lord.”

The prophet Jeremiah records God’s frustration with his people.  It’s a frustration with sin, and of course with the unbelief that’s at the root of sin.  Sin is unlike anything else.  The natural inclination in our sinful hearts is not simply an unfortunate tendency to make the wrong choice here and there.  It is, in fact, rebellion against God.  He created earth and all that fills it to be good.  The sin that spoils what God made good begins in our own hearts.  By nature we are enemies of God.  By nature, we deserve his wrath. 

By nature.  But how natural really is sin?  Isn’t it rather a corruption of nature? 

Trinity 9

1 Corinthians 10:1-13 - Trinity Nine - August 17, 2014
Written for Our Learning

The Apostle Paul does not want us to be ignorant.  No teacher wants his students to be ignorant.  He wants them to know what he knows.  Consider his subject matter.  He wants us to know the Bible.  The Bible that he used as his textbook when writing to the Christians in Corinth was of course the Old Testament prophets, along with the New Testament Gospels that by this time had already circulated throughout the growing Church, wherever the Apostles had gone.  The Gospels are the history of the life of Christ, the Son of God.  The Old Testament is the history of the life of God’s chosen people, the children of Israel.  The events of the Old Testament are not just historical events that have some religious or moral lesson to them.  They are more.  They are the accounts of what God did through and for his people in order to teach them of their future redemption in Christ.  And they continue to teach us.  

Trinity 6

Matthew 5:20-26 - Trinity Six - July 27, 2014
Exceedingly Righteous in Christ

If I were to ask someone whether he knew he were going to heaven or not, and that person replied by saying something like, “I sure hope so,” what would that amount to other than “I don’t know for sure”?  Such a response would be an indication that that person is not going to heaven, because it would be an indication that he puts his faith in something other than Christ – something uncertain.  Faith trusts in what is certain, because it trusts in what God has done to save us.  That’s why God teaches us to trust his word.  Faith is confidence.  But this is not because faith is some great work of ours.  It is not our own capacity to believe that makes faith certain.  No.  It is God’s word.  There are many elements of doubt in our faith, because we are but flesh, and therefore susceptible to the devil’s wiles.  But there is no element of doubt in the promises of God.  So that is what we cling to.  God’s word stands sure no matter what storms of doubt might be swirling inside of us. 

One who is not certain of his salvation is uncertain for one very simple reason. 

Trinity 7

Romans 6:19-23 - Trinity VII - July 14, 2014
The Wages of Sin & the Free Gift of God

Romans 6 is a wonderful chapter of Scripture.  After having established in the clearest words possible the doctrine of justification in the preceding three chapters, St. Paul here in chapter 6, addresses the new life that the Christian lives here on earth.   This is an important thing to do, and for two main reasons.  First of all, because it pleases God that we live holy lives to the praise and honor of His holy Name.  That’s what He called us to do.  He called us to live in righteousness, not to die in soul-destroying sin.  We should consider the new life of the Christian for a second reason too: because if we are to stand on the doctrine that we are justified by grace alone through faith apart from any works we do, we had better learn how to defend ourselves against those who falsely accuse us of forbidding good works.  We don’t.  We uphold good works.  We teach that they are necessary. But we put them in their proper place, as fruits that necessarily flow from true faith.