Hidden in Plain Sight

Biblical Text: Matthew 11:25-30

The lectionary had us spend three weeks on the Missionary Discourse, Jesus sending out the apostles. But the gospel according to Matthew never really gets around, unlike Luke, to telling us the response of the Disciples. What we do have is Matthew Chapter 11 which really is the varied response of people to the preaching and teaching of Jesus in the Galilean ministry. The easy gospel is at the end of the lesson, but the real question is what is the context of that statement. And the context is everything that happens is in the will of the Father. Everything that happens is through the Work of the Son. Everything that happens is due to the inspiration of the Spirit. The yoke is easy and the burden light, because God has revealed himself and his love for us. The hard part of that revelation is that it is hidden in plain sight. It is wrapped not in power and glory, but the cross. The demonstration is the resurrection, but that is proclaimed for belief. We have the testimony of the Apostles in the Scripture. We can see it all, but only by faith. Which means the reception or response is variable.

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Are You The One?

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Biblical Text: Matthew 11:2-15

The second and third Sundays in Advent are always John the Baptist Sundays. The third one in year A – Matthew’s year – is one of my favorite texts to preach from. Why you ask? Because I think it is a text that gets emotionally to the core of what many Christians feel, but we are usually scared to read it that way. We are too protective of the saintliness of biblical characters. And beyond getting to the core of what we feel, Jesus’ answers are profound in two ways. Jesus does give us the promise, but that promise comes in the very specific form of the crucified one. We get no other messiah. The text is a challenge to the hearers, both to the faithful like John who might not understand, and the crowds who might be pondering the message.

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Does the Image Still Bear Truth?

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Biblical Text: Matthew 11:11-19

This was our reformation celebration. I love preaching on what is the alternate Gospel Text for the day. It offers for me an image of both the law and the gospel in John the Baptist and Jesus.

We all have compressed images of truth. The sermon looks at some of our I think. Some compressed images linger after we’ve forgotten what they mean. Others are “eternal gospels”. They speak to all times and places. The reformation has an image. Luther with a hammer nailing his theses to the door. The question that the day brings to us is if this is an eternal image, or a temporal one.

I happen to think Luther is a dramatic icon of the gospel, akin to the icon Jesus paints in the text for himself. I think Luther is an eternal truth. But the question is really to you. Do you still get the truth of the image. Are you willing to dance? Or has it become a dead image.

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A God Who Chooses

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Biblical Text: Matthew 11:25-30

This is my attempt to preach the doctrine of election which is way outside of the American Overton Window. Which is deeply odd and might explain our historical moment better than anything. For most of American history, the doctrine of election was born in the morrow of Americans. From the Shot heard round the world, through manifest destiny to the early progressive movement, Americans knew in their bones what being chosen was about. As Lincoln himself said “an almost chosen people”. But today, we insist not on a God who chooses, but we are free will maximalists. Which is how we’ve arrived at this deeply troubled day. Because it just ain’t so. The most important things in life aren’t our choices. This sermon, reflecting on Jesus’ words both about the Father’s good pleasure and the easy yoke, is my best attempt to proclaim election, and how it works itself out in time. The biggest step being that God chooses you in this hearing. You can’t choose Him, but he has chosen you. All you can do is opt-out of his grace.

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The Specific Gospel

Biblical Text: Matt 11:12-19 (Matt 11:1-19)
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It is Reformation Day. The Lectionary gives us an alternative gospel text and I tend to take it. There are a bunch of reasons. The sermon puts forward a couple of reason. But the deepest reason is simply I like it. And I like it because it captures a gritty and real moment. Jesus, John the Baptist, the crowds and a confrontation of a sort. What did you think the Kingdom was? What are you going to do now?

Individuals of every age might have to answer “who do you say that I am,” but not every age gets confronted with a dramatic prophetic call. That is what John the Baptist was. That is what Luther was. Whose works and wisdom do you trust? Your own, or God’s? What this sermon is, is my pathetic attempt at proclaiming what a new Luther or a new Baptist would be saying to this generation. “To what shall I compare this generation?” My simple answer is that we lose that gospel because we dismiss its specific nature. We dismiss the specific law of the people of God defined in the Decalogue. And we glide over the body of Christ, the form of the gospel. We believe that god loves us, but we do so in a generic way such that the god who loves us is not Jesus Christ, at least not the one of scriptures, but one that looks more like ourselves. A recovery of the gospel today would be about its specific-ness and peculiarity – Jesus Christ, friend of sinners. It would be a recognition of the body in Word and Sacrament in our midst.

Worship note: I left in a little more music than normal. I left in stanza one of our opening hymn, Salvation Unto Us has Come (LSB 555). Our choir sounded great this morning in liturgical duty. I didn’t leave their Introit, but you can hear them in the gradual (between the First lesson and the epistle), and in the verse with the Alleluia before the gospel. A Mighty Fortress is Our God, LSB 657, was our closing hymn. We tend to sing the Bach arrangement, but most of the LCMS uses a LSB 656. A Mighty Fortress ends up being “the reformation hymn” but if you asked pastors they would probably give you Salvation Unto Us has Come. It captures the teaching of the Reformation clearly. A Mighty Fortress is a great hymn, but its popularity stems not so much from its teaching but from a later political-theological rallying cry.

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From the Days of John Until Now

Biblical Text: Matthew 11:12-19
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There are two lectionary gospel texts for Reformation Sunday. This is the alternate text. It is actually my favorite because I think it reminds us of something necessary. The nature of the Kingdom here is not one of apparent power and victory. The Kingdom is comes in weakness. It is often veiled. It is violated, and violent men seize her. Yet the victory is won. Christ is risen, and there is always an angel with that eternal gospel. You might have to go to the wilderness to hear it, but the Word remains.

Recording note: I’ve left in the Hymn of the Day which was Lutheran Service Book #555 – Salvation Unto Us Has Come. A Mighty Fortress is often considered The Reformation hymn, but my money is on this one. We sang the odd verse which tell the full story of grace. I also left in the concluding short Hymn, God’s Word is Our Great Heritage, LSB 582. I think if Luther was around to say what the purpose of the Reformation was, 500 years later removed from the arguments of the day he would say what this hymn does. We have been given and entrusted with the Word. We betray the Kingdom if we forget this.

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Fake and Real

Biblical Text: Matthew 11:25-30, Romans 7:14-25
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I guess this is the cliche/classic “what I did on my vacation” sermon. It centers around the contrast between father and son and the son’s surprising statement that re-centers the entire experience between fake and real, between (pseudo-) law and grace.

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