AUGUST 2023
AUGUST 2023
6 August 2023 - Trinity 9 - 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
“Now let that be a lesson to you.” When you were young, you probably heard that from your parents, as a response to some blunder that you committed, or that someone else committed, resulting in a bad outcome. They wanted you to avoid this blunder in the future.
In today’s reading from his First Epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul is, in effect, telling you and all who profess to be Christians: “Now let that be a lesson to you.” Literally, he writes:
“Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.”
“Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”
In many places the Bible speaks a message of warning and judgment against the flagrant unbelievers of the world, who do not follow God’s ways, and who do not make any pretense of following God’s ways or of being a part of God’s church. But in today’s text, Paul recounts a time of divine judgment against many who were externally associated with God and with God’s people.
Paul reminds us of certain events of Old Testament history in a way that serves to give a serious warning to many today who have indeed been baptized into the church, and who have partaken of the Lord’s Supper within the church, but whose sins are setting them up for God’s wrath and punishment.
With the use of imagery that immediately calls to mind the sacraments of the New Testament era, Paul describes the trying experiences of the children of Israel, during the Exodus, in this way:
“I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.”
All of the people of Israel who participated in the Exodus were beneficiaries of God’s special deliverance. They were all “baptized” into the freedom and independence of the new nation of Israel. And all of them ate and drank of the miraculous nourishment that God provided to his chosen nation.
Paul adds, by the way, that it was actually Christ - the Second Person of the Holy Trinity in his pre-incarnate state - who was the divine companion of Israel during its 40 years in the wilderness. So, there is much similarity between these ancient Hebrews, and those who are sacramentally associated with Christ and his church today.
Now, even though all of the people of Israel were delivered by God from Egyptian slavery, and even though all of them were brought together to be a new nation under his protection, Paul tells us: “But with most of them God was not well pleased.”
Most of them did not remain true to the new identify that God had given them in their national baptism, as they passed through the Red Sea. Most of them did not continue as grateful and faithful followers of the God who had graciously made provision for them - in the manna that fell from the sky and in the water that flowed from the rock.
Instead, they rebelled against God, both in their hearts and in their outward actions. They defied him and turned away from him. And so he turned away from them, and punished them - often with death. They tested God - indeed, they tested Christ - assuming that they could get away with their wickedness. They were wrong.
They were judged as unbelievers and as haters of God, because in their hearts that’s what they had become: even though they were still outwardly associated with God’s people, and even though they had previously been recipients of God’s favor and blessing.
Paul gives a few examples of what it is that they did to bring God’s wrath down upon themselves. But what Paul says does not pertain only to these people, and it does not merely satisfy a historical curiosity we may have about what happened back then. What he writes, he writes for us, as a warning to us:
“Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.”
“Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.”
What kind of faith-destroying sins did the Hebrews fall into - even though they were, in effect, baptized and communing members of the church? Paul tells us:
“Do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.’”
“Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.”
The idolatry example is a reference to the incident with the golden calf. But we need to take note of the fact that the people thought that the golden calf represented the Lord Jehovah, who had brought them up out of Egypt.
Or at least this is what was suggested to them by Aaron, the misguided brother of Moses. In the Book of Exodus, we read:
“Aaron...built an altar before [the calf]. And Aaron made proclamation and said, ‘Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.’ And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”
For their supposed worship of the Lord on this occasion, the Israelites borrowed some of the Egyptian religious practices with which they had been familiar during their years of slavery. Employing these familiar practices would allow them to feel comfortable in their worship.
They also thought that their worship on this occasion should be fun and entertaining, not reverent and serious. They “rose up to play.”
The Israelites thought this was great. They called it a festival to the Lord. But the Lord didn’t like it at all. He called it idolatry.
Faithful worship is not just a matter of saying that we are worshiping God, regardless of what we are actually doing. God is the one who gets to decide what true worship is.
Faithful worship is a matter of listening devoutly to what God wants to say to us in law and gospel, as his Word comes to us through sermon and song, through readings and rituals. And faithful worship is then a matter of humbly believing what he tells us, and of responding to him with prayers of thanksgiving and petition that his Word has shaped in us, and taught to us.
Faithful worship does not involve “rising up to play,” in fulfillment of a misplaced craving for fun and entertainment in church. Faithful worship does not involve bringing worldly attitudes and worldly behaviors into the worship of the church.
But the list of offenses committed in the wilderness does not end with Paul’s condemnation of the idolatry of the Israelites. Paul also mentions the sexual immorality that many of the Israelite men indulged in, with women of Moab.
These men knew better. Either they had their own wives at home, whom God had given to them as their legitimate companions, to whom they should have remained faithful; or, if they were single, they should have sought out godly wives from among their own people, with whom they could have been honorably married, rather than fornicating with pagan women.
We shouldn’t think that it is only our generation that is “sexually liberated” - that is, liberated from self-discipline, self-respect, and self-control in sexual matters. There have been plenty of times in human history, when decadent cultures have fallen into a lifestyle of fornication, and of the sexual exploitation of others without any respect for them or commitment to them.
There have been plenty of times in human history, when people thereby called down upon themselves the judgment of a God who forbids adultery and everything associated with adultery. In this incident with the Moabites, 23,000 men found out the hard way what happens when God’s standards are flagrantly violated.
And notice what else is on the list. Many of the Israelites were grumblers - chronic complainers about Moses and his leadership.
That doesn’t seem so bad - at least not when compared to idolatry and sexual immorality. But Paul thought so. And so did God. He punished that with death, as well.
To grumble against God’s servants, as they faithfully teach and apply God’s Word, is to grumble against God himself. To grumble against the church, and against the people in the church who are doing the best they can to serve the Lord - even with their human weaknesses - is to insult the Savior who loves the church as his beloved bride.
These sins of the ancient Hebrews - the false worship, the sexual immorality, and the chronic complaining - were outward evidence of an inner hardness and hypocrisy. All of these things were evidence of hearts that had turned away from the Lord.
Also today, in the church of today, there may be some who externally go through the motions of worship on Sunday, while in their hearts - and in their behavior on the other days of the week - they reject what the church and its Lord actually stand for.
If you think and act as the wicked Israelites thought and acted, then you, like them, are inviting God’s judgment upon yourself - if not in this life, then in the life to come. You cannot take refuge from this divine condemnation in the false security of outward church membership.
You cannot hide from the flames of God’s holy anger, behind a certificate that documents a baptism in which you are now no longer living by daily repentance and faith; or behind a certificate that documents a first communion and a confirmation, with vows of faithfulness that you are now ignoring.
The Israelites who were on the receiving end of God’s punishment were all a part of God’s people, externally. They had been delivered from slavery with the rest, and were being led through the wilderness like the rest.
But in their hearts they had come to desire that which was evil, and not that which was good and pure. And so they were cut off.
You, too, will be cut off, if you also desire evil, and if you set your heart on that which is ungodly and wrong, and not on that which God’s Word gives and teaches.
Is there hope for us, in the midst of temptations that overwhelm us, and in the midst of struggles in which we flounder? Is there hope for us, if we have already sinned against the Lord by a false faith; if we have sinned against the spouse whom the Lord has given us, or against our own body and the body of another; if we have sinned against the Lord’s ministers, and the Lord’s people?
Yes, there is hope! There is a way to be renewed in our baptism, and to be reconfirmed in our confirmation. There is a way to remain as a part of God’s true church - inside and out.
St. Paul says in today’s text: “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” Jesus is our way of escape. Jesus is our hope. He is able to lead you through the temptations that surround you, and to guard your soul from those temptations, as he instructs your conscience and bolsters your faith.
If you have succumbed to the temptations, and fallen into sin, he is able to lift you out, cleanse you, restore you by his forgiveness, and give you a resolve to amend your life going forward. If your heart has been stained and disfigured by sin, he is able to create in you a clean heart, and to renew a right spirit within you.
God was indeed displeased with most of the Israelites during the Exodus. But he was not displeased with all of them. Those who remained with him - not only physically, but also in their hearts and minds - remained under his grace, and were pleasing to him.
These were the ones who honestly repented of their sins when the law was preached to them. These were the ones who believed the Lord’s word of forgiveness and pardon - pictured for them especially in the tabernacle sacrifices that were carried out on their behalf, according to the Lord’s institution.
These were the ones who then sought, with God’s help, to walk in his ways with good works that conform to the Ten Commandments, as fruits of their sincere repentance and of their joyful faith.
Within the fellowship of the church, there are also many - very many - with whom the Lord is still pleased, and in whom he delights utterly. He is not pleased with them because they have no sin.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.
God is pleased with the people with whom he is pleased, because when they do sin, they call out to him in repentance, acknowledging their sin. They turn away from sin. They don’t turn away from God.
And God forgives them, and pardons them, because the blood of Christ, shed for them in the supreme sacrifice of Calvary, has covered over their sins. The righteousness of the risen Christ is credited to them by faith, so that they stand before God as pure and innocent, even as Christ their Savior is pure and innocent.
This is our hope, when we become aware of our hypocrisies, our inconsistencies, and our failures - and when we are brought to conviction in our consciences regarding our flagrant offenses, too. Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and who therefore also takes away our sin. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
When you in faith receive the forgiveness that he brings, the fear of God’s judgment - which your sins deserve - is taken from you. And the peace of Christ - a peace that the world cannot give, but that God’s Son does freely and fully give - is bestowed upon you in its place.
You can know that you, personally, are among those who are pleasing to God for Christ’s sake, and are not displeasing to him. You can know this, because in St. John’s Gospel, Jesus makes these promises to you:
“This is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”
The Israelites who remained faithful to their baptism into Moses, through listening to Moses as he preached God’s Word to them, were pleasing to God. The Israelites who remained thankful to God for the manna from heaven, and for the water from the rock, that he miraculously provided for them, were pleasing to God.
Christians today who remain faithful to their baptism into Christ, by daily renouncing their sin and by daily embracing Christ and his mercy, are pleasing to God. Christians today who thankfully eat and drink of the sacramental meal that Jesus provides for us, with a humble desire to be filled with Christ and to be transformed by Christ, are pleasing to God.
“Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.”
“Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” Amen.
13 August 2023 - Trinity 10 - Romans 9:30-10:4
What does it mean to “pursue righteousness”? That’s not a phrase that we hear very often. Does this mean that people today don’t pursue righteousness? Or does this mean that they describe and define this pursuit in different ways, with different terms?
Well, to be righteous, or to have righteousness, means that things are “right” in your life. The Greek word that we translate as “righteous” can be defined as “the state or condition of someone who is as he ought to be.”
The root word that the Greek word for “righteousness” is derived from, is the word for “equity.” If you are righteous, everything is lined up correctly, and everything is in the right place. All is harmonious and good.
All the pieces of the puzzle of your life have been put together in the right way. You are on the right track in how you live and in how you conduct yourself with others.
Different people have different standards for gauging whether they do in fact have such “righteousness” in their lives, or for measuring how much righteousness they have. But however one defines what is good and right, nobody wants his or her life to be wrong: on the wrong path, set up in the wrong way, with wrong relationships, wrong goals, and wrong outcomes.
And yet, people often do feel that their life is wrong, or at least that it is not completely right. And much of this wrongness comes from inside of them.
They think and say things that bring disruption and disorder. They know they shouldn’t think and say these things, but impetuously and impulsively they do so anyway.
Plans go unfulfilled. Goals go unmet. Friendships sour. Other, closer relationships become dry and stale, embittered and boring. What used to feel so right, doesn’t feel right any more. It doesn’t feel like anything any more.
The more people get a sense of what a truly and fully righteous life would be like, the more they realize that they don’t have a righteous life. The effort to be righteous seems to be hobbled from the start.
Wanting righteousness and a righteous life doesn’t make it happen. Wanting it just makes you all the more discouraged when you have to admit that you don’t have it, and when you begin to conclude that you will never have it.
And what are the standards for measuring these things? Many today measure their successes or failures only by the rule of their own aspirations and desires.
Yet even by those norms, they fail. They don’t conform to their own norms. They don’t obey their own rules.
Previous generations, however, who had not been subjected to the cultural brainwashing in secularism and hedonism that have so dominated western civilization for the past few generations, used to measure themselves, and their righteousness, by a different standard: one that was more objective, because it was outside of themselves; and one that was more demanding.
People used to think that God’s definition of a righteous life was the definition that really counted. And so they looked to God’s Word, and in particular to God’s Law, in order to know what is truly right for human beings, rather than wrong; what is truly good, rather than bad; what is truly wholesome and fulfilling, rather than degrading and empty.
And for them, as they listened to the voice of their conscience, they knew as well that being truly righteous had to include being righteous in God’s eyes: being accepted by him, and pleasing to him. They wanted to know not only how they stood with other people, but how they stood with God.
They were right to care about being right with God. And we too should care about this. We must care about this.
The Jewish people in particular, who had been the first recipients of the Ten Commandments and of the Hebrew Scriptures in general, really began to pay attention to God’s Law during the time of their seventy-years-long national captivity in Babylon.
Their temporary exile from the Holy Land was a severe chastisement from the Lord: due to the idolatry that they and their forebears had so often fallen into during the time of their national independence, under the influence of the pagan nations that surrounded them.
But now that all changed. In Babylon they were sincerely humbled by what their idolatry had brought down upon them.
And so, when the Jewish people emerged from this captivity, and were allowed to return to the Holy Land, that old idolatry was gone. There would be no more sacrifices to Baal. There would be no more erecting of statues of pagan deities.
The wickedness of their idolatrous ancestors had deprived them of true righteousness before God. The immoral lifestyles and religious errors of the pagan nations had not taught their ancestors anything about true righteousness.
From now on, they were going to look to the Lord of Israel for that kind of information. God’s Word would be revered. God’s Law would be honored.
That was the key to achieving righteousness in their lives, it was thought. That was the key to knowing what is right by God’s standards, and to leading a righteous life.
But did it work? In today’s reading from his Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul says that it did not. He writes:
“Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law.”
True righteousness is not only a matter of right behavior and right actions. It is also, and chiefly, a matter of right desires in the will, right thoughts in the mind, and a right love - for God and man - in the heart.
Sin, however, is a deep corrupting influence in all of us, which gnaws away at all our good intentions, turning them into not-so-good outcomes. Because of sin - whether people want to admit it or not - we will never, on our own, be right - within ourselves, or with God - in our desires and thoughts.
And we all have this sin inside of us. It is passed down to everyone who descends from Adam, and who has been conceived in the natural way within the human family.
Because of sin, the love of our sinful hearts will always be turned in on ourselves, and be directed back toward ourselves, so that in our fallen condition we will love and serve our own pride, greed, and lust - and not God in his goodness, or our neighbors in their need.
Maybe we can discipline ourselves enough, to refrain from overtly immoral bodily actions - most of the time. But that is not righteousness in the truest and deepest sense.
For sure, that is not the righteousness that counts with God, and that makes us pleasing to God. And so it is not real righteousness, according to the objective rule and norm of real righteousness that God’s Law provides.
To be truly righteous before God, we need a righteousness that is righteous in every respect, inside and out, all the time. We don’t have a righteousness like that.
Yet God does something strange and unexpected. God lets the true and deep righteousness of his divine-human sinless Son Jesus Christ - conceived miraculously of the virgin Mary - count for us. In the gospel, God looks at us through Jesus-colored glasses, so that he doesn’t just see us, but he sees his Son on us and with us.
It might not seem fair for God to count unrighteous people as righteous, but God doesn’t have to be fair. He can be lavish in his undeserved grace. He is God, after all.
And besides, who would complain? It’s not as if some people made themselves righteous before God the hard way, so that they justly resent God allowing others to have this in an easy way.
The hard way - the way of trying to be righteous and to obtain righteousness by human works - has never worked for anybody. So, no one has “standing” to lodge such a complain before God’s tribunal.
And everyone is invited to benefit from God’s rescue of unrighteous humanity from the righteous condemnation of his Law. Everyone - Jew and Gentile alike - is offered a way out, and a way up, through Jesus.
St. Paul speaks in greater detail concerning the error of most of his own beloved people - that is, the Jewish nation - who are trying to use God’s Law as the basis for a self-constructed human righteousness, rather than allowing God to give them his gift of righteousness. Paul writes that
“They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
In his own person, and in his own life, Jesus was righteous. For Jesus, everything was lined up correctly, and everything was in the right place. All was harmonious and good.
All the pieces of the puzzle of his life had been put together in the right way. He was on the right track in how he lived and in how he conducted himself with others. And Jesus fulfilled all righteousness for us, both by what he did, and by what he allowed to be done to him.
He lived righteously - in thought, word, and deed - actively obeying his Father in heaven according to the Ten Commandments, in all of their outward and inner applications. And he died righteously - as the atoning sacrifice for all human sin, and in the place of all sinful men - passively allowing the will of his Father in heaven for human redemption to be accomplished in his suffering.
In his Second Epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul explains that God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” And we become the righteousness of God, and are counted as truly righteous in his sight, by faith.
By faith.
The universality of human sin results in the universality of human disobedience of God’s Law. And in the hearts of all people - both Jews and Gentiles - not only are we disobedient there, too, but the rebellion and wickedness that live there are the worst of all. Jesus says in the Gospel according to St. Mark that
“What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
No one with a heart like this can make himself righteous by the works of the Law. But someone with a heart like this - indeed, all of us, who by nature have hearts like this - can repent of our sins every day; and can believe in Christ, and in the certain promise of his forgiveness, every day.
And by believing - by looking upon Jesus, by trusting in Jesus, by clinging to Jesus - we are righteous. You are righteous.
Elsewhere in his Epistle to the Romans, Paul reminds us that
“Whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed..., even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness...”
In his Epistle to the Ephesians, Paul also explains what happens when God gives us his righteousness in Christ. First, we are saved from the fate of eternal punishment, and separation from God, that unrighteous sinners deserve. We are saved now, because in God’s eyes we are righteous now, since the righteousness of Jesus covers us and cleanses us.
But then, the righteousness that God credits to us - freely and fully - starts to get inside of us. On this side of eternity we never become, in our own persons, as righteous as Jesus is, or as righteous as what we are credited to be in Jesus, by God’s grace. The sinful nature clings to us, to the grave. But we can and do start to become more like Jesus.
We start to become more like what we were originally created to be, before sin entered the human race in Eden. We start to become what we are re-created to be now, as new creatures in Christ. And so Paul writes that
“God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ...and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
With the good works that God urges us to perform, and that he enables us to perform, we are not pursuing righteousness through the law: or at least not the kind of righteousness that counts before God, and that brings peace to a troubled heart and pardon to a troubled conscience.
That true and complete righteousness is received by faith, in Christ, who gives it to us as he gives himself to us.
But with the good works that God urges and enables, we do live out in this world - as well as we can, with the Lord’s help and guidance - a grateful life of love to the One who first loved us; and a grateful life of service to others, in the name of the One who served us and gave his life as a ransom for us.
“Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law.”
“For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written: ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’ Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. ... For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Amen.
August 20, 2023 - Trinity 11 - Genesis 4:1-15
Cain, the fratricidal son of Adam and Eve, is treated in Scripture as being among the most heinous of villains. St. John writes in his First Epistle:
“Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.”
In speaking of “ungodly men, who...deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ,” St. Jude writes that
“These speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain...”
Indeed, Cain murdered his own brother Abel, as today’s text from the Book of Genesis recounts. In a hierarchy of the various sins and crimes of which fallen humanity is capable, it is hard to imagine what could be worse than this.
In the catalogue of heroes of faith from the past, which we see in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a comparison between Abel and Cain is made:
“By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts...”
We are told here that Abel had offered to the Lord a “more excellent sacrifice” than what Cain had offered. The Book of Genesis talks about this, too:
“Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.”
Now, neither Abel nor Cain were “atheists” in the literal sense of that term. Cain actually heard God’s voice, and conversed with him.
So, he certainly believed in the existence of God. And in view of the fact that he offered God a sacrifice - albeit an inadequate sacrifice - we can conclude that Cain at some level recognized the greatness and power of God.
And yet, the main difference between Cain’s sacrifice of a portion of the grain he had grown, and Abel’s sacrifice of a lamb from his flock, is that - according to Hebrews - Abel’s sacrifice was offered in faith. The clear implication is that Cain’s sacrifice was not offered in faith.
But how could Cain not have “faith” in a God with whom he actually conversed? The book of Genesis goes on to quote God’s words to Cain:
“So the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.’”
So, Cain was angry with God - which does remind us of a lot of the so-called “atheism” of our time. And he was angry with God because God did not look with favor upon his sacrifice. Why not?
The text tells us that “Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.” One gets the impression that he completed his harvest, and then, once all of his grain was in the barn or in the bin, he scooped out a portion of it and made a sacrifice of it.
The way the text describes Abel’s sacrifice is different. Something different is emphasized. We read in Genesis:
“Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat.”
Abel didn’t wait to see if he would be blessed with a large number of lambs being born, so that he would then pick one and offer it to the Lord. Rather, he offered the first one to God - before he knew for sure that there would be any more.
Abel honored God with the firstborn, trusting that the Lord would take care of him and provide more lambs if that was his will. But Cain had not offered the firstfruits of his crops to the Lord.
The word “firstfruits” is used a lot in the Old Testament, in reference to what people owe God - who is to be first in importance in their lives - as a thankoffering for his blessings. An example is from the Book of Exodus, where the people of Israel are told:
“You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field.”
But the word “firstfruits” does not appear in the account of Cain’s sacrifice. He didn’t offer to the Lord that which had ripened first, and had been harvested first, while trusting in God to provide more as harvest time continued.
Abel’s sacrifice was, however, offered in faith. The body of the firstborn lamb was offered in fire by Abel, with trust in God, and with a confidence that God would take care of him, even before he saw God take care of him through the birth of addition lambs.
For us who know Christ in the New Testament era, we offer God our prayers of thanksgiving, and the living sacrifices of our own bodies - and of all of our lives - also in faith.
When God, in the forgiveness that he declares to us, promises us that our sins will not be held against us in the final judgment, we trust in him. When God promises that he will take care of us and embrace us in love - in this life and in the life to come - we trust him.
We believe God’s promises of justification and resurrection in Christ, and we gratefully rejoice in those promises. And we are comforted and sustained by those promises even now, before we experience their final fulfillment on the Last Day.
God’s Word can be believed. We don’t wait to see whether or not God has lied to us, or whether or not God will change his mind, before we believe him. That’s not faith. That’s sight. But we walk by faith, not by sight.
God is utterly reliable. And he knows a lot more than you do.
The death of his Son for your sins will never be undone. It objectively happened in real human history. And Jesus, whose resurrection achieved for you your victory over death, will never die again.
So, when God calls you to repentance for your sins, repent. And when God announces that your sins are pardoned, and that you now have a new life and a living hope by the power of Christ’s resurrection, believe him, and be what he has made you to be by his grace.
Because God is our Creator, and because God in Christ is our Redeemer from sin and death, we owe him our firstfruits. This principle does have a practical application in matters of stewardship and financial support for the work and mission of the church, but it is not just about that.
God’s Word is the first thing to be consulted when we make decisions about what is right and wrong, and when we make judgments about what is good and evil. We turn to what God teaches through his prophets and apostles before we turn to anything else, when we want to be able to discern whether something that diverges from the pathway we’re on, is a positive opportunity, or a deceptive temptation.
When we have been blessed, materially or spiritually, we thank God before we do anything else. And when we enter into a time of trial or temptation, God is the one we call upon, right away, for help and strength.
And that brings us back to today’s text from Genesis. Cain, in his worship, did not honor God as he should have. And God’s displeasure at this did not drive Cain to repentance and amendment, as it should have.
Instead, Cain became angry. He had the reaction of a proud and hardened unbeliever, even as he was actually conversing with God. Cain’s recognition of God’s existence was not accompanied by a recognition of God’s holiness and of God’s rightful sovereignty over Cain.
And, it was not accompanied by a recognition of God’s grace and salvation, through his promise that someday the firstborn Son of a virgin mother would crush Satan for us; and that this Savior, who would be the firstfruits of the resurrection, would cover us with his righteousness.
Cain was not able to know everything that we know, about how God’s plan of redemption would eventually unfold in all of its details. But he was able to know enough to be saved from his sin.
Yet he did not truly believe what he knew. Cain did not resist temptation, but embraced it. He surrendered to sin rather than gaining mastery over it.
And Cain’s sin destroyed his soul, even as it destroyed the mortal life of his pious brother through the homicidal jealousy that consumed Cain, and that Cain refused to bring under control.
There is a close connection between the kind of belief in God that you have, and the way you deal with temptation. If believing in God’s existence, and even engaging in some half-hearted religious practices, is one item among many on the list of things that you care about somewhat or find interesting - as it was for Cain - then destructive temptations, when they come upon you, will likely overwhelm you.
But when you believe in the Lord the way Abel did - fearing, loving, and trusting in God above all things - then temptations, including the temptations that arise from within, can, in faith, be resisted. Jesus continually prepares and strengthens us for this resistance through the ministry of his gospel and sacraments.
And in a time of trial, God’s pledge, through the inspired words of St. Paul, will be recalled and clung to:
“God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
Cain would have had a way of escape, if he had indeed “done well” - that is, if he had repented of his lack of devotion to God; and if, with the Lord’s help, he had resolved to offer God the firstfruits that he deserves from then on.
Cain would have had a way of escape, and would have been “accepted” by the Lord - that is, he would have been forgiven, and given another chance - if he had done this. But he didn’t do well, and so he wasn’t accepted. And the first murder in human history was the result.
Dear friends: As you “do well,” you are “accepted.” Toward the beginning of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus says:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
In John’s Gospel, Jesus says:
“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned.”
And again, in John’s Gospel:
“I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”
“Come, follow Me," the Savior spake, "All in My way abiding;
Deny yourselves, the world forsake, Obey My call and guiding.
Oh, bear the cross, whatever betide, Take my example for your guide.”“I teach you how to shun and flee What harms your soul’s salvation,
Your heart from every guile to free, From sin and its temptation.
I am the Refuge of the soul And lead you to your heavenly goal.Amen.
27 August 2023 - Trinity 12 - Romans 10:5-17
We believe in a God who speaks. He is not a God who invites us to draw near to him through ecstatic experiences or feelings of enlightenment. We do not know God through emotions or mysticism.
Rather, it is God who first draws near to us, by speaking to us. And he wants us to listen to what he says, and to believe what we have listened to.
At certain times in ancient history, God did, in an extraordinary way, speak to people directly. Last week we recalled the time when God spoke directly to Cain, instructing and warning him.
On a few occasions during the earthly ministry of Jesus, the voice of God the Father rang out directly from heaven, such as at the baptism of Jesus, and at his transfiguration. So, this did happen.
But this does not usually happen. God’s ordinary way of speaking to people, is by means of speaking through people.
In the Old Testament era in particular, God spoke through specific men whom he raised up as his prophets. Through their preaching, God warned his people of the consequences of their sins.
He offered to forgive them if they repented and turned away from their transgressions. He instructed them in his ways.
To be sure, God’s words, even when they came to people through a human voice, still had great power: the power to crush and to heal, to kill and to make alive. When God was probing a man’s conscience through the divine words that a prophet was speaking to him, that man knew that this was God speaking, God warning, God judging, God condemning - and God calling him to repentance.
And also, when God, through the mouth of a prophet, spoke a word of pardon and reconciliation, a humble and penitent man would be able to know that this, too, was the voice of the Lord.
A very vivid example of this involved the prophet Nathan and King David. The Lord sent Nathan to rebuke David for his betrayal and murder of Uriah, and for his adultery with Uriah’s wife. The stern judgment that God spoke to David through the words of Nathan brought a deep conviction to the king’s heart.
David also knew that he deserved death for his sins - since his sins were also capital crimes according to the Mosaic Law. We pick up the account there, from the Second Book of Samuel:
“So David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ And Nathan said to David, ‘The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.’”
This was a very personal absolution, spoken to a very remorseful sinner. It was not an absolution, or an announcement of forgiveness, that came from Nathan. It was an absolution that came from God, through Nathan.
In the New Testament era, the God who had spoken through his prophets in earlier times, still spoke through people to other people. Jesus was a unique example of this.
Jesus was, of course, God in his own person, yet clothed in human flesh. Still, his words were always God’s words, since he was always God.
But during the time of his earthly ministry, when Jesus had assumed the form of a servant, his divine preaching did not flow directly from his glorious divine nature. His preaching was mediated through his approachable human nature.
Jesus’ sermons did not come across like booming messages from God the Father, reverberating through the heavens. They came across like the sermons of a humble rabbi: because, according to his humanity, and in his state of humiliation, that’s exactly what Jesus was.
But again, because his words were God’s words in every sense, they were powerful words. Jesus’ message got into people, and changed people. On an occasion that was reported in John’s Gospel, when many of the superficial hangers-on of Jesus had abandoned him, Jesus asked his apostles:
“Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
And speaking of the apostles: They, like the prophets of the Old Testament, were also especially chosen to be mouthpieces of God’s revelation. Jesus gave them a special guarantee regarding the accuracy of what they would proclaim, when he told them that the Holy Spirit “will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
They were eyewitnesses to the life and ministry of Jesus, and in particular to the resurrection of Jesus. For the church and for the world, they bore witness of what they had seen and heard.
The words of Jesus lived in their words, as they recounted what they had heard. And through their recounting, those who heard them heard Jesus.
Paul was an unusual apostle, not among the original twelve, but he was also chosen and sent by Jesus, and in an extraordinary manner was instructed by Jesus, to be his special envoy to the gentile world. And Paul said, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians:
“These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches.”
So, we believe in a God who speaks. And that means that we listen to what he says, when he does in fact speak to us.
The prophets and apostles, through whom God spoke in the past, are no longer with us today. But what they spoke - what God spoke through them - is still with us, preserved for us in permanent, written form.
Indeed, the written Scriptures are themselves a means chosen by God through which he continues to speak. St. Paul wrote to Timothy that the Holy Scriptures are able to make one wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. And this is because
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
God’s special revelation of doctrine binding on the conscience did come to an end with the coming of Christ - to whom the apostles bore witness - since the life, death, and resurrection of Christ was the fulfillment and culmination of his Father’s saving plan for the redemption of the world. We read in the opening lines of the Epistle to the Hebrews:
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son.”
What remains now is for the apostolic message of this completed redemption to be announced and declared to all people all over the globe: so that they can hear what God is saying to them, and so that they can believe what they hear for their eternal salvation.
Again, St. Paul writes in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians that
“God...has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”
God’s authoritative revelation of these truths has been completed. But, while God is no longer speaking new truth, he is still speaking. Through men whom he calls and sends still today, God himself still announces, and applies, the unchanging and ever vibrant old truth of what St. Jude describes as “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”
And so this is where the things that St. Paul writes, in today’s lesson from his Epistle to the Romans, come in. Paul quotes from the Prophet Joel: “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” And then he continues:
“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!’”
We do not have prophets and apostles today, but we do have preachers and teachers, in the tradition of the prophets and apostles, who repeat for the people of our time the doctrine that they taught, and who proclaim - in God’s name - God’s words, God’s truth, God’s warnings, and God’s promises.
God sends them to us, as he, through his church, calls them to be his ambassadors and spokesmen among us. God speaks to us through them.
And it is through that speaking of an established divine message that you and I are enabled to respond to God by calling upon him in faith - so that we, too, can claim for ourselves the promise of Joel and of Paul: “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
As Paul also says in today’s text: “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
This is the reason why people come to church. When God’s people gather around the public ministry of Christ, it is so that they can hear Christ.
Public worship is the primary place where God speaks to us. First, he speaks to us through the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures. When the appointed lessons for the day are read, you need to know that God is speaking. And he is speaking to you.
This is not merely someone’s opinion, with which you have the right to disagree. Instead, God’s Spirit is probing, testing, and correcting your opinions.
Your Lord is calling you to account before him. He is also calming your troubled mind, and healing your wounded soul.
He is shining a light on the pathway of your life, showing you the way to go. He is transforming your mind, reshaping your attitudes, revising your priorities, and refocusing your values.
In special sacramental ways, God also speaks to us through the apostolic Scriptures, as the pertinent texts of Scripture are recited over the earthly elements that Jesus designated for Holy Baptism and for the Holy Supper of his body and blood.
When the pastor says in baptism, according to Jesus’ command, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” it is not really the pastor who is saying this. God is saying this, through the pastor. We confess in the Large Catechism that
“To be baptized in God’s name is to be baptized not by human beings but by God himself. Although it is performed by human hands, it is nevertheless truly God’s own act.”
In Baptism - which is constituted by the spoken words of baptism - God the Father is adopting the person being baptized into his heavenly family. He is forgiving his sins through the death and resurrection of his Son. And he is filling him with a new spiritual life through the regenerating work of his Spirit.
The Trinitarian name, as God speaks it upon us, gives us a Trinitarian salvation. And whenever the words of baptism are devoutly recalled and reverently re-spoken, all these blessings are renewed, because God is speaking once again.
God, in the person of his incarnate Son, is also the one who is speaking in the consecration of the Lord’s Supper. We confess in the Formula of Concord that
“the true and almighty words of Jesus Christ, which he spoke in the first institution of the Supper, were not only effective in the first Supper; they remain so. ... For wherever what Christ instituted is observed and his words are spoken over the bread and cup, and wherever the consecrated bread and cup are distributed, Christ himself exercises his power through the spoken words, which are still his Word...”
When God speaks - and in this case, when God’s Son speaks - we need to listen. What Jesus says is so, is so. What Jesus tells us he is giving us, he is giving us.
And the blessing that Jesus says is attached to his gift, is attached to his gift. So, a communicant who has examined himself, and admits his need for forgiveness, receives forgiveness - because that’s what Jesus says.
Indeed, one of the earmarks of a proper Lutheran worship service, is that God’s Word permeates everything. God is speaking through the prayers that we say, the canticles that we chant, and the hymns that we sing.
And if the sermon is sound, and correctly unfolds and applies the text of Holy Scripture, then we can know that God is speaking to us through the sermon, too: admonishing us, instructing us, forgiving us, encouraging us.
Those who say that they believe in God, but who also say that they don’t need to go to church in order to have a relationship with God, are basically admitting that the God in whom they believe is not the God who speaks.
Perhaps they think that the God in whom they believe somehow oozes spirituality and morality into them through hunting or fishing, sports or leisure, staying in bed or going out to play. But such a God is only an idol.
In his First Epistle to the Corinthians Paul actually writes about gods who do not speak. He reminds the Corinthians of the time before their conversion: “You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led.”
Those who believe in dumb idols today need to hear what the true God wants to tell them, through a pastor who preaches his Word, and through a congregation that sings his Word. They need to be here, in church.
If the reason they are not here, is because no one ever invited them, or introduced them to the God who speaks - by speaking God’s basic message of law and gospel to them - then that is a problem you can solve.
God can speak through you to your spiritually impoverished friends. And through you, God can draw them to where even more of his words will be heard.
Many, however, who should know better, stay away from church for other reasons. Maybe it is because they are too lazy, or too proud, or too afraid, to go to the place where the God who speaks, will speak to them.
Maybe they don’t want to hear what they know God will say to them about pet sins that they don’t want to give up. But they need to hear it.
Maybe they don’t know that God has a message of pardon and peace for them, which will liberate them from their guilt or their despair. But they need to know it.
Pray for the people you know who are in a situation like this, who are enshrouded in this kind of darkness, and who are enmeshed in this kind of confusion. And when God gives you an opening with them, to speak for him, do so, because God will be speaking through you.
The God who speaks does truly speak to you, here in this place. When you need to be jarred into an awareness of how your sins are offending God, and hurting you and others, God will speak to you about that. He will call you to repentance. And you will listen.
When you are troubled or spiritually afflicted, doubting or afraid, God will speak to you about that. He will speak powerful and comforting words of faith and hope to you. And you will listen.
And when you admit your many failures, and regret your many missteps, God will speak to you about that - and in response to that. He will speak powerful and cleansing words of forgiveness and restoration to you. And you will listen.
God speaks, and we listen. We listen, and we believe. We believe, and we live. Amen.