3 July 2022 - Pentecost 4 - Galatians 6:1-10

In today’s lesson from his Epistle to the Galatians, St. Paul makes two statements that seem to contradict each other. He writes:

“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.”

So which is it? Are we to bear one another’s burdens? Or does each of us bear his own load? Actually both things are true, each in its own way and in its own context.

Let’s take a look at the context of the first of these statements: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

The larger context includes the section of this epistle that precedes the verses of today’s appointed text. In that preceding section, we reads this:

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other...”

“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control... If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”

Paul here describes the supernatural life that is within those who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. He also describes the actions and behaviors that characterize such spiritual people.

Living by the Spirit is not merely a matter of feeling his presence and enjoying that feeling. It is also a matter of walking by the Spirit.

Another translation draws out the meaning in a more vivid way: “keep in step with the Spirit,” in how you treat other people, and in how you interact with the larger world.

The metaphor of “walking by the Spirit” is significant. As we live out who we have been made to be by the Spirit of Christ, and in imitation of the example of Christ, we are not darting about to the left and to the right, in fit and starts. We are, rather, calmly and deliberately moving ever forward, on the pathway that is laid out before us by God.

So, when today’s text then immediately goes on to address those who are spiritual, this is a reference to Christians who live and walk by the Spirit, as they together fulfill their common Christian vocation, and as they each fulfill the particular earthly vocation that the Lord has given them.

We should also take a close look at the word “transgression,” as it appears in Paul’s statement that “if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.” Other translations render this phrase like this:

“If a man be overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual, restore such one in the spirit of meekness.”

“If a man should be overtaken in some false step, you, the spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of meekness.”

In the context of the metaphor of “walking by the Spirit,” then, a “transgression” involves a misstep, or a veering off, that takes the walker off of the well-worn pathway of the Christian life on which God has placed him, so that he is now stumbling on the loose sand or uneven terrain that are at the side of the correct path.

Someone who is walking on this loose sand or uneven terrain is thereby slipping back into the works of the flesh, and following the ways of the sinful nature. His soul and his salvation are now in danger.

And his fellow travelers, when they see this, cannot be indifferent to this, or ignore this. They cannot let their friend wander off the trail without intervention. They cannot just watch him diverge from the sound and safe path until he becomes permanently lost, without doing anything about it while something can still be done.

Paul says, therefore, that such a man’s fellow travelers, who are still on the pathway, will, under the obligation of Christian love, reach out to their wandering companion. They will pull or lead him back onto the solid surface on which they are still walking, and on which he, too, should be walking.

If he is struggling, they will come to his side, hold him up, and join together in helping him - in his weakness - to bear the weight of whatever is burdening him, or tempting him, so that he can resume walking with them, and continue walking with them.

But as they do assist and encourage him in this way, they should make sure that they are the ones who are influencing him, and should not allow him to influence them, and to pull them off of the path, too.

A person who has drifted into a sinful way of thinking and living can, by his bad example, entice and draw others also into that sin: if they are not careful, and if they do not remain humble under God, and fully reliant on God’s authority and strength.

“If anyone is caught in any transgression” - that is, in any misstep - “you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.” But, “Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

Practically speaking, what does this mean for you, when a family member, or a friend, begins to make bad decisions that are out of harmony with God’s will, and to turn his back on God and on God’s ways?

Will you say nothing, because you don’t want to have an uncomfortable confrontation? Will you cover for that relative or friend, and try to hide his sin from others?

Will you change your convictions regarding the thing he is doing, and decide that it is not wrong after all - even if what he is doing contradicts Biblical teaching - to keep peace between you?

Over the years I have seen examples of all of those reactions. But none of them is the correct reaction.

The law of Christ compels us to do something, and to say something. The law of Christ makes us realize how serious it is when a person turns his back on God’s Word and truth: so that if we care about that person, about his spiritual condition, and about his eternal destiny, we will not keep our eyes or our mouths closed.

Let’s look now at the second statement that we’re trying to figure out today. Paul writes:

“If anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.”

Paul says this in the context of warning Christians who offer help to a weak and stumbling fellow Christian, to make sure that they remain humble, and that they don’t begin to feel superior to the person who needs help, and to whom they are offering help.

If you are tempted to compare yourself to those who do stumble and falter in more obvious ways; and if you - on the basis of that comparison - may begin to take on an aire of haughtiness and spiritual pride, because your failures are not so obvious: Paul warns you that you should not be comparing yourself to others, but that you need to compare yourself, in your own conscience, to what God calls you to do and to be.

Maybe you are more faithful, relatively speaking, than the weak Christian who repeatedly wanders from the pathway. But are you as faithful as you should be to God’s standard for you: God’s perfect standard of selfless service and self-giving love?

When you compare yourself to God’s requirements, and not to other people; and when you examine your own life, and honestly consider how faithful you have been - apart from a consideration of anyone else’s perceived faithfulness - there will be no room for haughtiness and pride, boasting and self-congratulation.

Paul is basically calling each of us to a self-examination, and to a heartfelt repentance, when he says: “Let each one test his own work... For each will have to bear his own load.”

Before God, your neighbor cannot repent of your sins, and believe in Christ, for you. Before God, your neighbor cannot live a sanctified life for you. Before God, your neighbor cannot fulfill the duties of your vocation for you.

So, if there has been a failure in any of these areas, it is your failure. It involves a load of guilt that you alone must bear before God; and a sin for which you must individually take responsibility - without blaming others - as you come to God in humility because of it, and as you repent of it.

It might not be the kind of obvious transgression that is committed by those whose failures are known, so that their Christian friends come to them in love to prop them up, and to help them bear their burdens. Rather, these may be secret sins, in the realm of thoughts and attitudes that others can’t see; but that need to be dealt with nevertheless.

The Christian faith is not a private thing. By the working of the Holy Spirit, we are joined to the body of Christ, and are adopted into the family of God. As living stones who are built together into the living temple of God, we are connected to each other, and we need each other.

But, while the Christian faith is not private, it is very personal. Again, no one else can repent of your sins for you. You must take responsibility for your own misdeeds, and admit your fault without looking around for someone else on whom you can pin the blame for your mistakes.

But even as you make a personal assessment of your flawed and imperfect life, and take a personal interest in your deep need for a Savior, the Savior you need also takes a personal interest in you.

There were many times during his earthly ministry when Jesus broke away from the crowds, and took a personal interest in a particular individual who had a special need. Think of his conversation with the woman at the well, or with Zaccheus in the tree.

Think of his healing of the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda, who had no one to help him get into the water when it was being churned up; or his healing of the beggar who had been blind from birth.

Think of the very personal interest he took in the woman who had been healed of a flow of blood. When she touched the hem of his garment, she wanted to remain anonymous, and hoped that Jesus would not notice her.

She likely though that he would be offended and angry if he knew that a ritually unclean woman had touched him. But he did notice her, and was not angry at her. He was, instead, filled with mercy and compassion for her, and spoke words of peace and comfort to her.

Well, through the very personally-focused connection that Jesus makes with you in your own baptism, you encounter him in a similar way. He takes a personal interest in you, as a hurting and spiritually needy individual.

As you today approach him with repentance for your shortcomings and missteps, he is not repelled from you or offended by you, but he embraces you.

The intimately personal touch that he gives to communicants, when he feeds their bodies and souls with his body and blood, does not make him unclean, but it makes them clean.

It makes you clean. You do not contaminate him. He forgives, heals, and cleanses you.

Indeed, in his sacrificial death on the cross, when he gave his body into death for you, and when he shed his blood for you, he, as your truest and most faithful friend, bore your burdens. He carried all your sins to the cross and atoned for them there.

And he did this not only for you, but for the entire human race. The comfort that Christians know is therefore a comfort that is available to everyone; and the invitation to believe personally in Jesus, for salvation and eternal life, is an invitation that is issued to everyone.

We who by grace are in the fellowship of God’s church, can and do now bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ, only because Christ himself first bore our burdens: all of our deep and damning burdens; the deep and damning burdens of all of us.

He did this in fulfillment of the loving plan of his Father for the redemption of fallen humanity. For us - for you - Jesus in love obeyed his Father.

This did, and does, change everything. This changes you, and your standing with God. This changes your attitude toward others. This changes your attitude toward yourself.

“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.” Amen.

---

10 July 2022 - Pentecost 5 - Leviticus 18:1-5;19:9-18

As a general rule, people like to “fit in” with others, and to conform to the general expectations of the people around them. Sometimes this is relatively innocent and harmless.

For example, I know of a certain woman whose daughters persuaded her, several years ago, to start watching the TV show “What Not To Wear,” in order to get some tips on how to dress according to current fashions. There’s nothing wrong with trying to “fit in” in that way, so that you don’t “stand out” in a crowd as weird or odd.

But at other times, the desire to “fit in” and conform can have harmful ramifications. Those who are baptized into Christ, and who belong to Christ, need to realize that it is often the case in this world, that if they conform to the expectations and wishes of the people around them, then they will not be conforming to God’s will for their lives.

Christians, with their unique, God-given values and standards, will and should “stand out” as different - at least from the point of view of those who do not share those God-given values and standards. If Jesus is the Lord of our lives, and if we follow his lead, we will often be going in a different direction from those who serve other gods.

Being different from others, and embracing an alternative way of thinking and living, is not easy. But it is what God’s people at all times and in all places have always been called to do, for as long as the world in which we live has been hostile to God and his ways.

Today’s Old Testament text, from the Book of Leviticus, presents us with one of many examples of the unique kind of calling that God has given to his people, as they live in this world, and among the other people of this world; but as they are guided by the conviction that their citizenship is in heaven, and that their God and master in the Lord. We read:

“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my precepts; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.’”

In giving his newly liberated people this directive, God, as it were, covers all the bases. First, he warns them against imitating the practices of the Egyptians.

“You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived,” he said. This was a reference to ideas and practices with which the people of Israel were familiar.

Custom and habit are strong forces in our lives. When I look out over the sanctuary every Sunday, nine times out of ten I will see each of you sitting in the same pew you almost always sit in. It’s difficult to break out of the pattern of what is familiar to us.

But sometimes what is familiar is wrong. Sometimes God will tell you that you must stop doing the things that you have always done. You need to break from your destructive habits, and alter your harmful patterns.

You must change the way you think and act, and think and act in a new and different way. And it doesn’t matter if this would mean going against the expectations and the norms of the society in which you live.

God’s law is always best. God’s gospel promises alone can save us from sin, and restore us to fellowship with him. If God’s statues and decrees are in conflict with what is familiar, then we must turn away from what is familiar, and believe and live as God commands.

We must honor God as he deserves to be honored. We must treat other people with the respect and honesty that God says they deserve from us.

God says, “I am the Lord your God.” If we claim to follow him, and to believe in him, we must acknowledge his authority.

We need to recognize his right to be in charge, and to insist that we live in a different way from how the unbelievers live: in our personal morality and public ethics; and in the divinely-revealed religious faith that we confess and practice.

That’s what God did when he told the people of Israel not to follow the ways of Egypt, where they had lived for centuries. And that’s what God does when he impresses upon your conscience that your habitual, popular, and socially acceptable sins must stop.

It doesn’t matter how common those sins are among the people you know. If God says that it is going to be different from now on, then it is going to be different from now on.

In his message to Moses, the Lord also said this: “you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you.”

Custom and habit are indeed strong influences on us. But ironically, things that are perceived to be new and modern also have the ability to influence our actions, and to entice us away from good standards that come to be perceived as old-fashioned and no-longer-relevant.

Every professional advertiser knows that if he markets his client’s product as “new and improved,” his client will get more customers. Our society is restless and fickle, always wanting to have the latest and most modern version of everything: the newest technology, the newest car model, the newest Microsoft Windows operating system.

There is a church several miles from here with a sign that says, “The New Church of Phoenix.” The actual religion of this church is Swedenborgianism. But I’m sure that over the years they have drawn more curious visitors through their doors by calling themselves “The New Church,” than they would have if they had called themselves “The Swedenborgian Church.”

And of course, the so-called “new age” religion that is so popular among so many, is really just the old Hindu religion, repackaged for American religious consumers whose ears are always tickled by something that they think is new, just because it is new to them.

For the people of Israel, the land of Canaan was going to be their new home. The beliefs and practices of the native Canaanites would therefore also have an alluring aura of “newness” about them.

But God warns the Israelites in advance, even before they started bumping up against these new heresies and immoralities, that they were not to allow themselves to be enticed into following the ways of the Canaanites. These new ways would be spiritually deadly ways. They must be avoided.

How often do your worldly friends describe the moral values that you have been taught from God’s Word as “old-fashioned”? The assumption is that if you can be persuaded that your present convictions are old-fashioned, that’s all that is necessary to get you to abandon them.

But so what if your beliefs and values are old fashioned? That’s not the important thing to consider. What you need to consider is whether your beliefs and values are godly, and true.

What the Lord in his Word commands and teaches - about faith and worship, about marriage and family, about life and death - is always godly and true. And this is so, regardless of whether or not the majority of people in 21st-century America agree.

God’s word to Israel, and God’s word to you, is this: In matters of the soul, don’t define and govern your life in terms of trying to “fit in.” Don’t try to fit in with whatever you think is old and familiar; and don’t try to fit in with whatever you think is new and modern.

Instead, remember that the Lord is your God. Remember his laws, his statutes, and his precepts. Walk in them, and live by them. Even if those around you mock you, and make you feel that you are the only person who cares about what God says regarding the way people should believe and live, care anyway.

And remember that you’re not the only person who cares. When the Lord spoke to Moses the words that are quoted in today’s text, it was while he was in the process of establishing a whole new nation of people who would care about God, and what God has to say.

God had earned the right to establish this nation in this way, because he had miraculously delivered these people from an enslavement from which they would never have been able to deliver themselves. God was going to establish them, by his power alone, also in their new home, in the land of promise.

And God has likewise earned the right to establish a fellowship of Christians on the face of the earth, from every nation and tribe, who also care about God and what God says.

God has delivered us from our slavery to the world, the flesh, and the devil: by the life, death, and resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ. And he has transported us into the heavenly promised land of his church: where his Word governs and rules; and where his Word also forgives, restores, and heals.

Now, when you soberly reflect on God’s commandment to you - to believe and live as he teaches; and not as everyone around you believes and lives - you must admit that you have not fully done this.

You have been afraid to “stand out” in the crowd as weird or odd. You have been silent when you should have spoken, and you have spoken when you should have been silent: because you were afraid of the disapproval of people whose opinion was more valuable to you than it should have been.

God has not been glorified in everything you have said and done. Your thoughts and attitudes have not been molded and shaped exclusively by the Word and Spirit of God.

Sometimes you have resisted the Lord’s promptings in your conscience, and have stuck with familiar old sins. Sometimes you have ignored the Lord’s warnings in your conscience, and have pursued fashionable new sins.

Seldom have you really heeded the Lord’s special request that you live in the special way that he has designated for his special people.

And even when you have approached this, you have done so timidly and in weakness. Never have you followed God’s statutes with a completely pure heart, and with completely pure motives.

But Jesus, as he redeemed you from your previous spiritual slavery, and as he purchased your current freedom in God’s grace, was willing to walk his own, lonely pathway in life, in your place. For your sake he did not try to “fit in,” or to conform to the expectations of others.

Jesus did not set himself up as an earthly political dove, who would heal all the sick and feed all the hungry, as some wanted. And he did not set himself up as an earthly political hawk, who would militarily liberate the country from the Roman occupation, as others wanted.

He conformed himself instead to the will of his Father. And in his submission to the plan of God for humanity’s salvation, he ended up despised and rejected by virtually everyone. He was betrayed and abandoned by his nation and its leaders, and by his own friends.

As Jesus hung on the cross, waiting to die, he was, humanly speaking, the most unpopular person on the face of the earth. But from the perspective of heaven, what he was doing and allowing to be done - in his suffering and death - was more important than anything that had ever happened in human history.

And what is also important, is when Christ applies the benefits of his saving work to you, in sermon and in Supper: when his forgiving and restoring Word is spoken over you and into you, and you stand forgiven and restored before God.

And what the Word of Christ also does, is to carry you up and into a new heavenly nation. In Christ you are baptized into a new supernatural society, not of this world.

The royal priesthood of God’s church becomes for you a new and godly peer group. It is a holy community of saints in Christ who are called by God to believe in his promises, and to follow his ways.

The church is not Egypt, where you can “fit in” by continuing to think, say, and do the familiar wrong things of the past. Rather, in Christ, and in the church of Christ, all things are made new, and you become a new creature in Christ.

The church is also not the pagan land of the Canaanites, where you can “fit in” by experimenting with new and trendy varieties of rebellion and self-indulgence. Rather, in Christ, and in the church of Christ, you know and serve a Savior who is the same yesterday, today, and forever: unchanging in holiness; unchanging in love and mercy.

“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my precepts; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.’” Amen.

---

17 July 2022 - Pentecost 6 - Luke 10:38-42

Today’s text from St. Luke’s Gospel, which tells the story of Jesus as a guest in the home of Martha and Mary, teaches at least two important points. The first point - which is, we might say, a subplot of the story - is one that might not be as obvious to us.

It is this: That Jesus welcomed and encouraged a woman, Mary, to sit at his feet to receive religious instruction from him. We might say, “Well, of course he would be okay with that!”

But Jesus was actually going against the tradition of the rabbis of his day, in teaching theology to a woman. It was thought then that women were not really capable of learning theology, and that they had no reason to know it anyway.

Their fathers, husbands, and brothers could and should study the Torah, and the deeper explanations of the great teachers of Israel. But women had other things to worry about: like maintaining a kosher kitchen according to the regulations of the Mosaic Law.

They didn’t need to debate, or reflect on, the deeper meaning of those regulations. They just needed to obey them as written, and let their fathers, husbands, and brothers do the debating and the reflecting.

If you’ve ever seen the Barbra Streisand movie “Yentl,” from 1983, you’ve seen how this tradition of not teaching the Torah to girls or women remained alive in conservative Jewish communities, not only in the first century, but also in the early twentieth century.

But Jesus broke with this tradition. He knew that God’s Word is for all of God’s people, men and women alike. He personally wanted to impart God’s Word to all people, men and women alike.

The fact that women have always been treated as spiritual equals in the Christian church - sharing the same baptism as Christian men, and receiving the same Lord’s Supper that their Christian brothers receive - is a direct result of the example and teaching of Jesus on this point.

I would add - as an aside - that when Jesus restricted the apostolic office to men, this was not because he was pragmatically conforming to first-century Jewish cultural expectations regarding the roles and relationships of men and women, to avoid conflict or suspicion.

Jesus was willing to violate the cultural norms regarding the interactions of men and women with which he disagreed, and that he knew were contrary to the loving will of God for all of his children.

The fact that he did not place women into the office of pastoral oversight - which he established in and with the commissioning of the apostles - shows that Jesus knew that this particular restriction has its basis in God’s enduring order of creation, and not just in the cultural attitudes of first-century Judaism.

But, while Mary was not appointed to be among Jesus’ apostles, she was welcome to listen to him, and to learn from him. And you, too, are all invited to learn from your Savior.

When Jesus later told his apostles that the message of repentance and forgiveness of sins was to be preached to all nations, this meant that he wanted the message of repentance and forgiveness of sins to be preached to you.

The reach of his Word extends to all. In this respect, within the church of Jesus Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female.

This also means, of course, that the sins of women are condemned by God just as severely as the sins of men are. God does not have a patronizing attitude toward women - as the rabbis of Jesus’ day often had.

Men and women are equally accountable for their transgressions and misdeeds. Women are warned, admonished, and judged on account of their failures, just as much as men are. But women are also taught - you are also taught - at the feet of Jesus.

Mary was taught the gospel of divine forgiveness and salvation from sin, at the feet of her house guest: together with any of the male disciples of Jesus who happened to be there, and together with her own brother Lazarus, who were probably also learning from him on this occasion.

Also today, women and men alike are taught this gospel, at those feet that still bear the marks the nails of the cross, on which all the sins of all men and women were paid for, and atoned for.

God does not just allow this to happen. He commands that this happen!

This is not a grudging concession. He really wants all people - all men, and all women - to hear his words, to believe his words, and to receive eternal life through his words.

And, he directs us to prioritize this. That is the major plot of today’s account.

There is nothing more important than sitting at the feet of Christ. Other things are important in their own way, in their own time and place. But nothing else is more important in an absolute sense, than hearing and believing the gospel. It is the “one thing” that is ultimately “necessary.”

And as a corollary to this - for those who are properly prepared in accordance with the Word of God - there is also nothing more important than receiving and embracing the body and blood of Christ that he speaks into the bread and wine of his Supper, for the forgiveness of sins.

In today’s story, Martha did not understand this - at least not until Jesus explained it to her. She complained that her sister Mary was taking time away from all the domestic preparations that she felt needed to be done, in order for Jesus to be shown a proper level of hospitality.

Martha went up to Jesus and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Jesus made himself very clear. He was not going to tell Mary that she may no longer sit at his feet and listen to his teaching. He no doubt would have wished that Martha, too, would have joined her!

This doesn’t mean that Jesus did not expect to be fed eventually. When his teaching session was over, there would have been time then for Martha and Mary to prepare a meal: maybe not a meal that would be as elaborate as Martha wanted, but a nice and adequate meal.

When the Word of God, and hearing and receiving the Word of God, take first place in your life, those things that take second or third place may be somewhat diminished from what they would have been - by virtue of the fact that your relationship with God and with his church is the priority.

So, you might not make as much money in your job, if Sunday mornings are consistently set aside as a “no work” time of your week.

And your new car may not be as luxurious, your new dress may not be as glamorous, and your family vacation may not be as exotic, if your church offerings - to support the public preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments - have reduced the total amount of money you have to spend on discretionary items such as these.

But God’s Word, and the sacrifices of time and treasure you make to preserve it in your life, are not burdens on you. That would be like saying that the air that you breathe is a burden with respect to your physical life.

God’s Word is a necessity. It takes a back seat to no other relationship, no other responsibility, no other activity.

This is not just an arbitrary thing, handed down from on high for no particular reason. Such a prioritizing of the one thing that is necessary arises from the very nature of saving faith and eternal salvation.

The necessity of God’s Word being heard and believed is directly connected to the divine source of the freedom from sin and death that we have in Christ, and only in Christ. Jesus says:

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

He says this to men and women. He says this to lifelong Christians, with a relatively mature understanding of the Scriptures. And he says this to new converts, who are just starting out on the adventure of faith, and who are only beginning to learn about God and his ways.

In today’s text, Martha’s main complaint about her sister was that Mary was letting her do all the serving. “My sister has left me to serve alone,” Martha said in exasperation.

Martha was so concerned about serving Jesus - that is, giving him food and drink, and delivering other domestic comforts to him - that she was oblivious to his desire to serve her. In his teaching, he wanted to serve her with the bread of life and the water of life. He wanted to give himself to her, mystically, in his Word.

That’s what Jesus wants to do for you, too. He wants to serve you in the same way.

And so, in the midst of all your busyness - and even in the midst of all the work and serving that you want to do for him - just stop for a minute. Stop and listen to him.

Listen and believe. Believe and receive. Let him serve you, before you think about your need to serve him.

Now, when the Lord’s gifts have been honored and received, and when his teaching has entered unto our hearts and minds through the ministry of Word and Sacrament that he makes available to us, the rest of life does then come into play.

There is time then for innocent recreations, for fun with family and friends, and for the fulfillment of our obligations to other people and for our various duties.

Mary and Martha should have fed Jesus - and any of his disciples who were with him as guests in their home - once Jesus had finished feeding them with heavenly manna.

Energized by the love of Christ that we have tasted, you and I should likewise feed the hungry and cloth the naked in our midst - and in the larger family of humanity - remembering that, as we show such kindness to one of the least of our Lord’s brothers, we are showing this kindness to him.

There are genuine needs among our own Christian friends: for material and emotional support in a time of want; for encouragement in a time of trial or disappointment; for companionship in a time of fear or loneliness. These are true human needs, that have to be met in true human ways.

It is incumbent upon us to notice these needs, and to give of ourselves to satisfy them according to our ability. We are to be like Martha, who wanted to serve Christ, and meet his needs. But, we are to be like Martha, only after we have first been like Mary!

The good portion that we receive when we receive Christ and his gifts in the means of grace - gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation - will not be taken away from us. These divine blessings will not be taken away from us during our remaining time on earth, in whatever trials we face, or in whatever troubles we endure.

These divine blessings will not be taken from us in those moments when we pass from earthly life to heavenly life, but will sustain us in our weakness, and comfort us in our fears. And these divine blessings - this portion that we have chosen, in consequence of our Lord’s choosing us in his grace - will remain with us for eternity, when we in our resurrection bodies sit at the glorified feet of our Savior forever, absorbing his love forever.

A woman named Martha welcomed Jesus into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving.

And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” Amen.

---

31 July 2022 - Pentecost 8 - Luke 12:13-21

As he often does, Jesus today - from the pages of St. Luke’s Gospel - tells us a parable. It is, as he himself describes it, a parable about covetousness. A covetous person is someone who finds his security and contentment in the abundance of his possessions.

The main figure in today’s parable is a prosperous farmer, who was blessed with a particularly bountiful crop. There is no hint in the parable that he was a dishonest man, or that he had done anything morally wrong in his acquisition of his riches.

He was simply a hard-working farmer. And as a result of his hard work - in combination with good seed, good weather, and good soil - his lands yielded a great harvest. It was so great, in fact, that his barns were not large enough to accommodate it.

The man’s spiritual problem did not lay in the fact that he was successful in his labors, or that his lands had yielded a bountiful harvest. Rather, the rich farmer’s spiritual problem lay in the attitude and attachments of his heart toward his bountiful harvest.

“The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’”

Security and contentment. That’s what we all want. Nobody enjoys feeling vulnerable or at risk. Everybody wants to have stability in their lives. We want to be able to relax and not to worry about the future.

That’s what the rich farmer wanted, too. We certainly can’t fault him for that. But we can fault him - and Jesus in his parable does fault him - for where and how he tried to find security and contentment.

The farmer was seeking security and contentment only in terms of life in this world. There are a lot of people like this, especially in our materialistic age.

They assume that this world is all there is. Therefore they live only for the things of this world, and they seek security and contentment only in regard to the affairs of this world.

And, the farmer in Jesus’ story thought that his level of security and contentment would be increased if the abundance of his possessions increased. So, when he took in a particularly large crop, he imagined that now he would be able to be more secure and more content than ever before.

The farmer already had barns. These barns were no doubt large enough to store all the food that he would ever really need to have in the course of a typical year.

But when he harvested a crop that was so large that all of it could not fit in these barns, he did not then think about giving the extra food to the poor, or selling it on the market so that he could donate the income to his synagogue or to some other worthy cause.

No. His first thought was to build larger barns, so that he could save it all up for himself. And notice how big and farsighted his plans were!

As he looked forward to the completion of his new barns, and to the storage of his crops inside those barns, he even planned out how he would comfort himself in his prosperity. He planned to say to his soul: “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”

“Many years.” Do you have plans for your security and contentment that reach forward into your future for “many years?” Have you, through hard work and honest effort, saved up the resources that you expect to need, to be protected from future troubles and worries?

Have you erected your equivalent of larger barns? - maybe in the form of making wise investments, or building up a large bank account? I’m not asking you if you have done anything illegal or overtly wrong in preparing for your future. That’s not the point.

But you and I should consider how much faith and confidence we have placed in the plans we have made, and in the resources we have accumulated. To what extent do we find our security and contentment in these provisions?

We might also consider how many unnoticed or unused opportunities to share our bounty with the needy we have let go by, as we have done all this accumulating. Likewise, have we been as generous as we could have been in supporting our church and its work, with the thought - regarding what we have held back - “I might need this for myself”?

Nobody wants to be worried about an uncertain future. Nobody wants to be vulnerable or afraid. We all want to have a feeling of security and contentment.

But where do we find this security and contentment? What is it based on? How durable and permanent is it?

When we hear of a car accident in which someone we know was instantly killed, or when an acquaintance of ours has a heart attack or a stroke that causes him immediately to collapse and die, we are confronted by something that can be very jarring and very frightening: namely, that the security and contentment we are all tempted to try to achieve through the accumulation of earthly possessions, is an illusion.

These things may seem to be very real and stable, as we build up our investment portfolio, or sock away our savings. The “many years” that we have in mind when we confidently make our financial preparations, may seem like a very long time into the future.

As we look forward to those many years, if we have planned for them adequately, we probably expect to have few if any worries. But eternity can break into those plans at any moment!

At any moment, as you speak words of comfort to your own soul about the security and contentment that you have achieved for yourself, God can say to you: “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”

“Whose will they be?” Depending on how our wills are written, the answer to that question will differ for each of us. But one thing is certain. Those possessions, those finances, and those resources, will not be ours. You will not take them with you to where you are going.

And if you have placed all of your hope for security and contentment on those things, then your security and contentment - such as it is - will in that moment disappear, and be replaced by despair and hopelessness.

The familiar props of this world, in which so much confidence had been placed, will collapse when your soul is required of you. And you will crumble, and be left with nothing.

Jesus gives a warning to each of us at the end of his parable: “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

The rich farmer in the story was mistaken in two significant ways. First, he was laying up treasure for himself. He was trying to draw as much material wealth to himself as possible, in the false belief that this would increase his security and contentment. And second, he was laying up earthly treasure and only earthly treasure.

The treasure that was so important to him was treasure that would have only temporary value. Confederate money did have value in the southern states for a limited time in history - during the four years of the Civil War. But after Lee’s surrender to Grant it instantly became worthless.

In this world, the material treasure that we build up may indeed - for a time - provide some benefits for a comfortable earthly life. That can be good, as far as it goes.

But in the eternal scheme of things, it doesn’t go very far. In the next world this material treasure will have no value at all.

The treasure that will have value in eternity is the treasure of the gospel: that is, the living and life-giving message of our living and life-giving Savior, with all that this message bestows and gives. In his Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul says that this gospel, miraculously, “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”

True security and contentment, which starts in this life and continues on into the next, is to be had in Jesus Christ. Jesus says, as quoted in John’s Gospel:

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”

The material possessions that we have, if we have acquired them by honest means, are nothing to be ashamed of. But we must not put our trust in them or love them.

Rather, we are to put our trust in God. And we are to love our neighbor - and in love we are to share from our abundance with those neighbors, all around the world, who are in need.

As quoted in the Book of Acts, St. Paul says: “we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

In the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul also says: “I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need...”

And, of course, the work of God’s church, in this world, is never done, for as long as there is at least one deluded soul on this earth who thinks that he has found his security and contentment in material possessions, and not in the grace of Christ.

Therefore, out of the abundance of what God has given you, you can be a partner in the ministry of those who preach the gospel and administer the sacraments in the Lord’s name, in your community and around the globe. St. John says in his Third Epistle:

“You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name... Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.”

The truth of which he speaks is the truth of God, which is preached and believed all around the world. It is the truth concerning the atonement that God’s Son made for your sins on the cross, and the truth concerning the forgiveness that he now lavishes on you in his Word.

This truth is a genuine treasure that enriches all areas of your life. Even if you are materially poor, if you know the everlasting security and heavenly contentment that Christ gives, then you are rich toward God in Christ.

At his altar, here in this sanctuary today, Jesus will be offering to you, his disciples, yet another installment of this treasure. The blessed bread and wine are like a treasure chest, which encloses the Lord’s own body and blood.

These earthly elements are not empty signs. They are not an empty vessel. Rather, through the power of his Word this bread and wine are filled with the priceless treasure of Christ himself, the forgiver of your sins and the giver of your salvation.

When you have Christ, you have everything that really matters. And when you have Christ, you can face all things without fear. The worst that this sinful world can do to you cannot rob you of this treasure.

And so, if your earthly life is unexpectedly brought to an end, it will not be an occasion for fear and hopelessness. It will, instead, be your peaceful passage into the full enjoyment of your mystical union with your Savior.

And when that time of passage does someday come - when your soul is required of you by your Creator - all the genuine treasure you acquired during this lifetime, by faith in the gospel, goes with you. And it stays with you forever.

A little later in today’s service, we will sing a hymn that begins with these lines:

Farewell I gladly bid thee, False, evil world, farewell.
Thy life is vain and sinful, With thee I would not dwell.

This has nothing to do with the fact that today is my last Sunday at Redeemer. I am not bidding you farewell with such words!

But one last time, I will be joining you in turning away from the empty promises and false allurements of the fallen world, as Christ helps us; and as we are led by the Spirit of Christ to find in Christ the true treasure: a treasure that sustains us in this life, and prepares us for the next life; and that accompanies us into the next life.

It is likely that God will call the souls of at least some of you to himself before we have an opportunity to see each other again in this world. But if we are not fools; and if we do not put our trust in temporary, material things, but are instead rich toward God through faith in God’s Son, we will see each other again.

We will together enjoy the riches of God’s grace in heaven again, even as we have shared in the riches of his life and love, his pardon and peace, his wisdom and guidance, and his care and comfort, in the fellowship of this congregation for so many years.

And so, in conclusion, I will quote a different section of this hymn that cannot be misunderstood, with the confidence that this prayer is the prayer of each of us and of all of us together: as we together find our true security and contentment in the wondrous gift of Jesus Christ, and in his unlimited and unending love for his saints:

Lord, write my name, I pray Thee, Now in the Book of Life,
And with all true believers Take me where joys are rife.
There let me bloom and flourish, Thy perfect freedom prove,
And tell, as I adore Thee, How faithful was Thy love. Amen.