Forgive Your Brother

Biblical Text: Matthew 18:21-35

This sermon is a little bit of a deviation for me. I rarely bring things that I think are speculative into the pulpit. Best to leave them for the study. But this was something that struck me early in the week and just didn’t leave. The text is the parable of the Unforgiving Servant. So there is the simple application of forgiveness. And my speculation doesn’t erase that. It’s not a refrain, but it is a main point. You are always free to forgive. And that is the most Christ like action. But my speculation has to do with a repeated word in the text – brother. Peter’s question is “how many times do I forgive my brother?” Jesus’ summary is “forgive you brother from the heart.” And given the placement in Matthew 18 after the repeat of the Keys of the Kingdom and how to handle sin within the church the question “who is my brother?” came up. And of course that is parallel to the Good Samaritan question “who is my neighbor?” My speculation is that there is a distinction to be made. And a distinction as to what is owed. You owe your neighbor – literally anybody that is in your path – pity and material good. That is what the Good Samaritan does. But you owe your brother – your fellow in the faith – mercy. Forgive your brother. The sermon develops that distinction as well as a description of the path of radical forgiveness.

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Built on the Rock

Biblical Text: Matthew 16:13-20 (21-23)
Full Sermon Draft

This text in my reading is really about one thing, Jesus’ definition of the office of Christ and its work. To understand Christ and his work requires for things.
1) Christ works in and through His church
2) That Church will not fail
3) It will not fail because to it has been given the key of heaven, the forgiveness of sins
4) That forgiveness was won on the cross

This sermon is an exploration of those points and how those point all rest on the rock of confessing Christ and the cross.

Worship Note: We lost a memory card, so this is a recording after the fact. Which means we lost the great music we had in church today. Great Day: LSB 609, 949, 645, 575. Moral? Come to church!

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The Keys of Grace

Biblical Text: Matthew 18:1-20
Full Sermon Draft

Jesus’ predictions of His passion each elicit responses by the disciples. Those response are often quite telling. They highlight some false idea which the disciples are clinging to. But there is something else that swirls around the first two – Jesus offering what the church calls the Keys. What you bind is bound and what you loose is loosed. The first offer of the Keys leads to the passion prediction which Peter responds roughly “not going to happen”. In this second passion prediction Peter doesn’t directly confront Jesus, but in this sermon’s conceit starts succession planning. The sermon of Jesus that follows talks about what the Kingdom of Heaven looks like which is nothing to start succession planning over. Instead of leading with the offer, Jesus ends with the offer of the Keys. His followers will be humble or childlike or little enough to not demand the law or their due with each other. The church instead is based on confession and absolution. The church is based on offering and receiving grace.

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