Worthy

Biblical Text: Matthew 22:1-14

The Gospel text is the parable of the Wedding Feast. It immediately follows last week’s text – the wicked tenants. So they are covering some of the same territory, but this one expands on the tenants in two ways. First, it answers what is counted as the wickedness. In the wedding feast is it described as being unworthy. And it is simply dishonoring the King and his son. The second way it expands is the Wedding Feast parable continues to add how the new tenants or the second invitees are both called and treated. And it is this second part that is the most important for the church. This sermon meditates on both the lessons of former Israel for us, and for what is called from us to be worthy. Or maybe the best way to put it is how are we not unworthy? Which is everything to do with the wedding garment.

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All Israel Will Be Saved

Anytime Israel enters the news cycle, things get apocalyptic. And that is usually because of something that is only described with very big words. The short words would be Left Behind or The Late Great Planet Earth. If you have read either one of those works you have dipped your toe in dispensational eschatology of the premillennial variety. Now if I told you that this particular understanding of “what the bible teaches” comes from John Nelson Darby around 1830. It was incorporated into the Scofield Reference Bible in 1907 where it moved from being the peculiar teaching of the small Plymouth Brethren to being the in the air default of American Evangelicals. If I told you that – all true – you wouldn’t believe me. That is how potent an end times story it became. And for me it became so potent because of one particular quirk, it offered Christians what appeared to be a free pass to be “nice” regarding Jews after the holocaust. They are part of an older dispensation is what it offered.

I obviously can’t summarize everything in 700 words. The best I can do is state the Church’s historic teachings and point at where they are based upon.

1. Salvation is through Christ Alone. Nobody has their own dispensation.

Jesus would say “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).” He would also say things like “I am the vine and you are the branches (John 15:5).” Paul would pick that idea up and talk about Gentiles as ingrafted branches and the ability to graft the Jew back in (Romans 11:17-23). Christ has always – even in the Old Testament all the way back to the first promise after the fall in the garden (Genesis 3:15) – been the only way. Romans 9 through 11 is Paul’s pondering of this in regards to his kinsman. And his abiding prayer is “that they might be saved (Romans 10:1).” And the meaning behind saved is come to faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed. Darby’s dispensationalism says you don’t have to preach Christ to Paul’s brothers of the flesh, which is contrary to the gospel Paul preached.

2. The modern nation state of Israel is not The Israel of God.

The idea of Israel is being a “chosen people” (Deuteronomy 7:6). This chosen-ness is to be in Christ by faith. It is not based on anything in us, but in God’s faithfulness to his promises. Paul says in Romans 9 that “not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel…the children of the promise are counted as offspring.” Israel is not Israel by genetic descent, but Israel is Israel by faith. This is how Peter can say the same words in 1 Peter 2:9 that “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession” to the church – Jew and Gentile. The Israel of God is always by faith by God’s sovereign choice in Christ.

3. This does not mean that “The Jews” are without purpose.

The opposite of dispensationalism’s desire to be nice has often been a Christian hatred of “the Jews”. Luther himself was not beyond such, but it should also be said that Luther was basically expressing common ideas. This misses Paul’s warning in Romans 11. “Do not be arrogant toward the (cut off) branches…”. If God can graft in wild branches, how much easier to restore the cultivated ones? It also misses Paul’s prophecy, “a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved.” Paul doesn’t elaborate on that, and given the shifting meanings of Israel the saying is complex, but what most have thought is: a) even unbelieving Israel is a witness to the faithfulness of God in that they are not lost to history in that God preserves a remnant and b) all Israel – Jews and Gentiles who believe – will be saved which very well might include a ingathering at a late date after the fulness of the Gentiles.

What does this mean for our current intrigues? The purpose of the Apocalyptic (Revelation, Daniel and a few other places) is not to establish a timeline or a checklist of events. “You know neither the day nor the hour (Matthew 25:13).” Don’t be searching for Gog and Magog to meet at Megiddo. This is just an image of the nations of the world at war. “There will be wars and rumors of war (Matthew 24:6).” “Why do the nations so furiously wage together? (Psalm 2:1)” Because the nations of this old world have always usurped the power of Christ. Gog is always meeting Magog at some Megiddo. But the end is not yet. Likewise, don’t worry about 3^rd Temples. The 3^rd Temple is already built. It is built of living stones on the cornerstone of Christ. The end has already come in this way. The purpose of the Apocalyptic is to remind you that however big and wild things appear in this old earth, God is steering them for his people. And you have eternity. “But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the Kingdom forever, forever and ever (Daniel 7:18).”

I’ve blown past my allotted limit. None of this says anything about what our national foreign policy should be. Which is in the realm of sanctified practical wisdom anyway. What it hopefully has done is remind us of the basics. This world is passing away. Its ruler, Satan, knows his time is short. But all Israel will be saved. Have faith.

Funeral Sermon for John Vaux

Biblical Texts: Deuteronomy 29:29-30:5, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, Matthew 24:36-44

Introduction

One of the questions that I like to ask the gathered family when planning a funeral is “what is your favorite memory of the deceased?” You often hear the things that eulogists will say. But there are also people who might not be willing to get up in a pulpit who will share memories in that more private space.

And the answers that I heard regarding John spoke about his faithfulness as a Father and a Husband. The Husband part might have included stories before the wedding, but stories that pointed to loving care. Stories like pushing a girl he was sweet on with a broken foot up and down hills. Stories like figuring out how on 9/11 to get away from the Pentagon that they had somehow accidentally stumbled toward. Stories of cross country moves and the reality of a fully wired house that makes sure the doors are locked for you in case you might forget. That loving care persists.

People often make fun of Fathers in our day. And one of the ways they do it is by making fun of Dads only having kids to continue being childish. But in a religion that includes the saying “if you do not receive the kingdom like a little child you will never enter there in”, we should be careful with that. That type of fatherly loving care is different. Maybe you liked football and your child likes soccer. As it was explained to me, John “learned to love” that new game. He loved big words, something that I could certainly relate to. But that might be an example of the love moving the other way and his children flexed that vocabulary. And Fatherly care extended to doing new things together. When so much of live just unhealthily shut down in the pandemic, John recognized how it wasn’t good, and hit the road RV’ing. There were lots of such stories of Fatherly direction and shared loved. Teaching to drive with a stick shift of all things. Developing an artistic talent through magical dragons. Boardgames, puzzles and intricate builds from clocks to a Lego millennium falcon. Maybe childlike, but far from childish.

Text

Traditionally, one of those Fatherly loving care things is ensuring a foundation to answer big questions. Moses captures the deep reality of our existence. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God.” And those secret things are usually the “why?” questions. There are things that we just can’t answer from knowledge. But Moses continues, “the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever.” There is the Fatherly loving care. The things that have been revealed to us, are also for our children. And that Fatherly loving care teaches those revealed things.

For Moses that is the centrality of the LORD your God. We all wonder out, like prodigals. But when you hear the voice call, obey it. “Return to the LORD your God, you and your children…with all your heart and with all your soul.” The LORD your God is a Father who lovingly gathers and provides. “He will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed.” That is part of the revealed things. God’s love for us. Love for us as a Father.

Part of the secret things is our time. Not just our time but the world’s time. “As in the days of Noah.” We know the flood is coming. And even if it isn’t THE flood, we know out person day of reckoning is coming. But we do not know that day it will begin to rain. We do not know the day or the hour. These are the secret things.

But in God’s Fatherly care it has been revealed to us that this need not be our destruction. Noah entered the ark. And Luther’s baptismal prayer reminds us “God preserved Noah and his family, 8 souls in all.” That Ark today that has been revealed to us is that baptism. A baptism that John shared.

That ark today that has been revealed to us is what the Apostle Paul write – “having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.” God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ.

That is the foundation to answer big questions. That is the Fatherly loving care of the LORD our God. Christ died for us defeating sin and ultimately death, for death could not hold Jesus. He’s risen.

Our day and hour? The secret things. And those secret things, whatever our age, sneak up on us like a thief. But the loving care of Jesus and the Father is that this has been revealed to us. That “whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.”

We live with God through faith.

We live with those awake or asleep, with what the creed calls the communion of saints.

We live with them in love and in that hope Paul preaches, and Moses spoke of, that we still reveal to you today. That God gathers his own in Fatherly love. And that today is the day of grace to hear his voice and follow, with all you heart and with all your soul. Amen

Vineyards and Cornerstones

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Biblical Text: Matthew 21:33-46

This parable of the wicked tenants as it is sometimes called feels very rooted in its specific history so much so that even through the parables were told so that “hearing they might not hear” the Chief Priests discerned Jesus told this about them. It is the summaries, conclusions or maybe so far as application that open up the parable beyond the Jewish temple leadership. In my reading Jesus gives three separate summaries.

“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone”
“The Kingdom of God will be taken away and given to those producing its fruit”
“The one who falls on the stone will be broken to pieces, the one the stone falls on will be crushed”

This sermon looks at each of those in progression and how the help us hear the parable for ourselves. The placing of the cornerstone is pure gospel. “God has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes.” The second is the moral warning to watch. If you think the vineyard is yours to do with as you want, you might be killing the heir. The third thinks about our ultimate positions regarding God: ignoring such that we might trip over, set ourselves against him, or build on the cornerstone.

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Pastoral Anxiety

When I go to a Pastor’s Conference I usually try and share a few things. Not a travelogue; Nobody wants to see your vacation pictures. An attempt to extract some wisdom.

All pastor’s conferences have two expressions. There are the “right hand kingdom” issues. These are the anxieties and efforts to rule, govern and guide the church in the world, to make decisions and address problems. There are also the “left hand kingdom” issues. These are the worship, prayer, study and consolation of the brethren. Depending upon the group you are in, networking can be in the right or the left. Using right and left is theological language for those things which are of power and the law and those things which are of grace. The right, the power-hand (sorry lefties), is the straight ahead law, commands, hierarchies and governance. “Do this, and you will live.” The left, the sinister sneaky hand (sorry lefties), is the one that you don’t see coming. We never expect grace. “Believe this, and you are already good.”

In that right hand kingdom stuff I had three observations. And I don’t mean any of these observations to be positive or negative. Most things in the right hand kingdom simply are. Being humans we are all struggling toward the best outcomes we can imagine. Sometimes there is a lack of imagination, sometimes too much. But we tend to fall in predictable paths. First observation, The Eastern District is probably the poorest one in the LCMS which colors my visions, but man there was a lot of money floating around the PSD. Having money allows for less anxiety and more imagination of what we might do. Lacking money, a certain fatalism sets in. The hopefulness of the PSD was refreshing. Second observation, the political reality of the district is that CA drives everything. The money and the weight of congregations is Southern Cal. The third observation is that the pastors of the PSD clearly see themselves apart from the larger Synod. Not that they would separate, but the anxieties are different. And they believe the anxieties of the rest of Synod are misdirected. There are deeper conversations that could be had around each of those, but that is enough for this space.

Because as much head space that we give to the anxieties and expressions of the right hand kingdom, the church is ultimately about the left. How do we proclaim the grace of Jesus Christ and him crucified for our salvation? One of the biggest anxieties of the conference is the current state of the pastorate. The two expressions of this anxiety being a perceived shortage of pastors and specific to CA congregations a shortage of pastors willing to move to CA. And this is not a small issue for a Lutheran Church body that confesses “so that we may obtain this faith, the ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. (Augsburg Confession Article 5).” The primary study of the conference lead by Dr. Leopoldo Sanchez I felt was spot on. Dr. Sanchez, who I had for a couple of classes back in Seminary, is “Mr. Holy Spirit.” And you could summarize his study as “It is OK to Pray to the Holy Spirit.”

An older book was titled “The Half Remembered God” and the Holy Spirit is often that, half-remembered. But it is the Spirit that works in the life of the church. The Spirit is half-remembered because He is always testifying to Jesus, also because He works through means – Word and Sacrament. We see the effects of the Spirit, like the wind in the trees, but often miss Him. What Dr. Sanchez shares was a summary of his book “Sculptor Spirit”. And in that work he outlines five different models of sanctification, five different biblical ways the Spirit works. And the two that address the expressed anxiety I felt were what he labels renewal and dramatic. Renewal is the fact that “The Holy Spirit works through death and resurrection.” Dramatic is that the life of the church is one in the wilderness. We learn to trust God and prayer as the Spirit leads us through trail and temptation. Wherever we find ourselves, we have been lead there by the Spirit. And it is for our good that we might know God more fully. It is only in God that we find our true rest from all our anxieties.

A Better Story

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Biblical Text: Matthew 20:1-16

Pay attention to the stories people tell you over and over. They are telling you about themselves. The stories that we as Americans tell over and over right now are toxic. They have erased the old stories. Their only fruits are division, death and lethargy. This sermon is about a better story. It is a story that Jesus tells about the Kingdom, which of course is a story about himself – God. And it is a story full of mischievous life. There is always work in the Kingdom. The pay is unfair, but always right, and better than we deserve. Go work in the vineyard. You won’t regret it. You won’t regret an identity built on this story.

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God Draws Near

“Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.” – Isaiah 55:6

When I think of everything that runs under the banner of religion or spirituality – from rules for life to teachings of grace, from ritual to ecstatic outburst, from relationships to doctrinal definitions, from civic duty to kingdom’s not of this world – there are a lot of polarities that people might think religion is about. And it is not that they are all wrong. Religion in this world does take on a lot of secondary traits. And it is dealing in stereotypes, but most institutional forms of religion end up being more about those “distinctives.” Ecstatic religion? Head on down to the Pentecostal gathering. Relationship driven sanctification awaits at the Wesleyan Methodist Assembly. And if want ritual, you really can’t beat the Orthodox Church. And those are just within Christian religions. The Buddhists seem to be a home for the philosophically inclined. The Muslims will give you the five pillars of the good life. Us Lutherans? Well, we used to be a bit more united: some solid ritual, the pastors will argue to death over doctrine but the laity keep congregations going through steady relations.

Now I don’t want to say all of that is meaningless. It is not. But none of it is the real point of religion. If your religion in not the place where God draws near, you are missing the point.

That assertion is a live wire. So I’m going to cover it a bit. Saying that God draws near is not just confined to ecstatic experience or feeling, although it might include that. Saying that God draws near is not about saying the right words in the right order as if you were conjuring Him, but He has promised to be present in some rituals, like baptism. Saying that God draws near is more about having faith in the promises of God. Without faith we would not recognize His presence. Most people might look at the cross and see another poor revolutionary receiving just rewards. It is faith that sees the innocent Son of God drawn near to save.

When the prophet tells us to seek the Lord while he may be found, that time is the time of grace. And the time of grace is when you hear it proclaimed. Like right now. The Lord has drawn near to you with his grace right now, if you should accept it. And if he has drawn near, Call upon him. Like the boy Samuel hearing his name. It took Eli a couple of times to realize that God has drawn near. “Tell him, speak, for your servant is listening.” Call upon him with all your heart. Call upon him with the biggest request possible. Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence.

The Grace of God is like the sun. There are days that it might feel too strong and overpowering, that we must withdraw. And maybe we move a bit away. Find some shade. But when it is gone, all you can think about is how cold and dark things are. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Because today is the day of grace. The sun comes up every day and follows its course. But the day shall come when the sun does not give its light. And you do not know that time. Call upon Him while he is near. Work while we still have the light, for the darkness comes when no work can be done. Pray, praise and give thanks while the day is here.

Seventy times Seven

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Biblical Text: Matthew 18:21-35

Most of the parables tell us more about God – Father, Son or Spirit – than they do about us. The stuff they tell us about ourselves we already know, like that we are prone to insane double standards. Like, I never have to pay my debts, but you, pay it right now. What the parable of the unmerciful servant tells us is that staggering amount we have been forgiven by God, and how God did that while we were still trying the play the con on him.

The difficult thing that this sermon attempts however briefly to think about is what is demanded of disciples in this world. The radical forgiveness of Jesus is required of us for those within the church. That is Jesus’ answer to Peter, “seventy times seven”. That is the moral lesson of the parable. “Should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had on you?” To fellow disciples we must practice forgiveness. The question then extends to the world? And this is where you cross into the imitation of Christ. We are not the messiah. On the one hand radical forgiveness of the world is not required and may not be wise. On the other this is the model of Christ and it is an open and costly road. Such forgiveness as Christ is an act of faith that the Father repays.

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Hope or Optimism?

A fellow pastor made a blanket statement recently, “Optimism is mandatory.” It is one of those statements that I could immediately intuit what he was getting at. He flipped it around and said “you are not authorized to despair” which I found completely without problem. Because when I think about despair it’s opposite is hope. And as a Christian we have hope. What I balked at was the equation of Hope and Optimism. Now I hear you already. There you go pastor, splitting hairs that can’t be split. But at least some part of the preacher gig is based upon words. Upon having an understanding about the shade of meaning words have and how they are used. And to my ears Hope and Optimism had different domains of use.

Optimism to me is based in the gut or in our feelings. At its most pagan it is simply the feeling that fortune favors me right now. It could come from a feeling of karma. “I deserve something good.” It is Norman Vicent Peale’s “The Power of Positive Thinking.” And honestly I don’t want to be too negative on some of these. A positive outlook on life is an endearing American trait. Even if you just call it the Dunning-Kruger effect – irrational confidence – it often works. Fake it until you make it is good advice. Nobody likes hanging around Eeyore. But ultimately Optimism is based only on ourselves. It is the advice of Self-Help. If I only follow this seven-step plan everything will be perfect. And the problem with self help stated as boldly as “Optimism is mandatory” is that it makes it a law. And we can’t keep the law. We do not have a promise from God that everything in this world is going to be peachy. For lots of people commanding optimism would be like the drowning hand meme. Sometimes self-help works, but many times down you go.

Contrary to Optimism which is not based on anything solid, Hope is based on the promises of God and His self-revelation. And the Christian Hope is as the creed defines it, “I believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” This Hope is solid because Jesus is risen. We have already seen the first fruits. We have also been given the Holy Spirit, the deposit of that World to Come. God is not saying to us, “get up” while we are laying dead. God himself shall raise us. Likewise God is not demanding that we build the Kingdom under our own effort. He has already made the Kingdom. We only wait for its full appearance. The entire creation groans waiting for the revelation. When Jesus compares building on the sand and building on the rock, to me this is the difference between optimism and hope. Optimism is the sand. You can build on it for a while, but eventually the water rises higher and the building goes down. Hope is the rock. Even when the water comes up, it is Jesus who can command the wind and the waves to be silent. The prophet can part the sea. We have been provided an ark.

We absolutely need to be told to have Hope. And if we think God isn’t living up to his promises, take it to Him. He might come back at us in a whirlwind. We may be talking words without understanding. But this is also the God who promises “a bruised reed he will not break.” And it is exactly that testing of hope that builds it up. “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. (Rom. 5:3-4)” It does this because the rock like nature of the promises of God are made real in our lives. We have not been abandoned, neither is it all on us. I balked at optimism, because it comes up short. The Christian has hope.

Matthew 18 for Dummies

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Biblical Text: Matthew 18:1-20, (Ezekiel 33:7-9)

I started using the word clouds a long time ago for the image. Originally I thought it was artistic cute: a Word cloud for preaching the Word. But, as I made them I started to realize they did have something to say, and what they had to say too seeing a few. There was always the simple surface fact of the most commonly used words. Like above – Luther and Jesus. I learned and adapted over the years that if “God” was the biggest word, the sermon was probably too generic. I looked for Father or Jesus or Spirit to show up. But there are a variety of shapes that show up. The clouds that are dominated by 2-3 big words and everything else is small are usually the simplest. They tend to be more about proclamation. At the other end are ones like the above. There are lots of words that are large enough to be read, but none that really just pop. Those tend to be less pure proclamation and more teaching or invitation to ponder. The every Sunday preacher has to have a bigger repertoire than the occasional. The lectionary preacher even more so, if he wants to preach the text and not just what is on his mind that week.

Matthew 18 is a deeper text than we normally treat it. Depending upon if our preference is for Young Luther or Old Luther (listen to the sermon), we tend to reduce it to “The Process” for solving disputes in the church, or reduce it to the ridiculousness of even thinking about the law parallel to Jesus’ hyperbole about cutting off body parts. We aren’t going to do that and the Father would not want that, so thinking in sin counting terms must be just wrong. I hope that this sermon was an invitation to think beyond those simplistic reductions. The Christian Life has a simplicity to it, but those are caricatures. That simplicity is the one found on the other side of a complexity.

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