SEPTEMBER 2024
SEPTEMBER 2024
1 September 2024 - Trinity 14 - Galatians 6:1-4
Please listen with me to the portion of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians than comes immediately after the portion that was read as today’s lesson. The Apostle writes:
Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load.
So far our text.
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.
The larger context includes the section of this epistle that precedes the verses that we just read. In that preceding section, we read this:
“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another...”
“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. ... If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
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 the Spirit’s 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 St. Paul then immediately goes on to address those who are “spiritual” - as he calls them - 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 also given them.
We should also take a close look at the word “trespass,” as it appears in Paul’s statement that
“If a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.”
Other translations render that 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 “trespass” involves a misstep, or a veering off, that takes the walker off of the well-worn pathway of Christian faith and 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. St. Paul gives us a very comprehensive list of where those missteps could take such a person. 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 a man is overtaken in any trespass” - that is, in any misstep - “you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.” But, consider yourself, lest you also 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 begins 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 - in order to keep peace between you and him?
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:
“For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall 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 Christians who repeatedly wander 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 examine his own work... For each one shall 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 trespass 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. This may be a secret sin, in the realm of thoughts and attitudes that others can’t see; but that needs 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 our heavenly Father.
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 thought 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.
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 burdens; and the deep burdens of all of us.
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.
“Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load.” Amen.
8 September 2024 - Trinity 15 - Matthew 6:24-34
The times in which we live are times of worry and anxiety. We are concerned about our safety. Assaults, murders, and social chaos in general are on the rise in many cities.
We are also worried about the economy. Prices are going up, while the buying power of our money is going down.
Will we and our families have enough to eat? Can we adequately house and clothe ourselves and our loved ones?
Our generation does indeed have some unique problems and concerns, about which we worry. But all people, of all times and places - in their natural condition - are anxious about those things that pose a potential threat to them in this world, but that they personally cannot control.
The words that Jesus speaks about worry and anxiety in today’s Gospel from St. Matthew, are addressed to believers. He speaks to those who know God as their “heavenly Father.”
He reminds us, then, that Christians are not immune from the temptation to worry. For as long as the old nature still clings to us - which will be until the day we die - we will continually be tempted by the uncertainties of our future, to be anxious about our future.
But Jesus says: “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?”
These words pinpoint the source of the sin of worry. It is, fundamentally, an act of unbelief, to define your life in this world, only on the basis of the things of this world. Worry is, ultimately, a violation of the First Commandment, which obligates us to fear, love, and trust in God above all things.
Jesus is not making a big division here between physical things and spiritual things. When we become believers in Christ, we do not become disconnected from our physicality and begin floating up to a higher plane of pure spirituality.
Jesus does not say that the kind of life that is sustained by ordinary food is not a component of who you really are, as God made you. He does not say that your body, which in this world is in need of covering and protection from the elements, is not an important part of who and what you are as a human being.
God created your body. This bodily life is a gift from God.
The things that sustain and protect this life - especially food and clothing - are likewise gifts from him. But Jesus’ point is that life is more than natural food, and that the body is more than natural clothing.
In the saving gospel of his Son, God gives to his people also a new kind of life, that does indeed begin in this lifetime, and that is experienced during this lifetime, but that also extends beyond this lifetime. In another place, Jesus said:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”
And in the gospel of his Son, God makes a sacramental “connection” even with our bodies, so that we would have a resurrection hope, for a future in Christ beyond the grave. Again, Jesus says elsewhere:
“Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.”
We do pray for daily bread, and ask our Father in heaven to give us what we need for our earthly existence. Worrying and fretting on our part will not make God more willing to give us daily bread than he otherwise would be.
Anxiety about these things will not give us a greater confidence that we will receive what we need, than the confidence we would have if we simply trusted God to take care of us according to his good and gracious will.
During our lifetime in this world, while we are trusting God for daily bread, we can indeed be encouraged and inspired by the examples that the Lord gives us in today’s text: concerning God’s care for the birds of the air, and concerning the provision God makes for the lilies of the field.
But you know, whether our worries about the future are small or great, and even if we were to rely faithfully on the daily provision of our heavenly Father without ever worrying, the day will come when our life and bodily activity in this world will come to an end. At the time that is appointed for each of us, we will die.
We will cease eating natural food, and we will cease putting natural clothes on our bodies. Our allotted share of daily bread will have been fulfilled, and our life here will be over.
But when that happens, our life with God will not be over - if we have received his divine, supernatural life during this time of grace, while we still live on earth. And that’s why Jesus says to us now, while we are still in this world: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.”
God does give us food for our life here, for as long as our life here lasts. But he also gives us a food of righteousness, which nurtures within us a life that extends beyond this world.
Jesus feeds us with his own body and blood, in his Holy Supper, to which he explicitly attaches the promise of remission of sins. This is the daily bread that he gives for our soul.
And in faith, we receive him who is the Bread of Life, who comes down from heaven to save us from the guilt and divine punishment of sin, and from the corrosive and destructive power of sin.
The Sacrament of the Altar is a supernatural supper. That doesn’t mean it’s not real, or that it’s just a picture of something that is not actually there.
The real body and blood of the Lord are truly offered to us when the blessed bread and wine are offered to us. But the presence of Christ’s body and blood is real in a supernatural and miraculous way, and not in a natural way.
When you commune, you do not eat just a small piece of the body of Christ. You eat the whole body of Christ, which was given into death for you.
You do not drink just a small portion of the blood of Christ. You drink all of the blood of Christ, which was shed for the forgiveness of your sins.
This miracle happens over and over again, whenever and wherever people are partaking of this sacrament - simultaneously, all around the world. Martin Luther speaks to this in one of his treatises:
“When you receive the bread from the altar you are not tearing an arm from the body of the Lord or biting off his nose or a finger; rather, you are receiving the entire body of the Lord; the person who comes after you also receives the same entire body, as does the third and the thousandth after the thousandth one forever and ever.”
“In the same way, when you drink the wine from the chalice you are not drinking a drop of blood from his finger or foot, but you are drinking his entire blood; so, too, does the one who follows you even to the thousand times thousandth one, as the words of Christ clearly say: ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’”
And this miracle unites each of us, not only to the death of our Savior, and to the blessings of his death; but also to his resurrection, and to the blessings of his resurrection.
The Savior who supernaturally comes to us in this supernatural Supper is a living, resurrected Savior. And when he gives himself to us in his now resurrected body and blood, he thereby gives us a pledge and a “down payment” of our own resurrection.
In this sacrament, Jesus gives us food that is more than food, to sustain a life from God - a new, regenerated life - that will remain, when our bodily life comes to an end. And the death of our bodies is itself only temporary, because on the last day we will be called forth from the grave.
In our baptism, Jesus also clothes us with a garment of righteousness - a garment that is more than a garment, and that will never wear out. In his Epistle to the Galatians, St. Paul reminds us: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
This is an image of your justification, which is essentially the same as your forgiveness before God, but as seen from a different direction.
In forgiveness, the sin of which you have repented, and the guilt of you sin, are removed from you by God, for Jesus’ sake, so that he will no longer see that sin, and will not punish you for it.
In justification, the righteousness of Christ is credited and given to you, so that what God does see when he looks upon you - as one who trusts in his Son - is his Son’s goodness and perfection: covering over the scars and flaws of your transgressions.
In regard to your literal clothing, you sometimes wear a certain garment more than once before you wash it. So the first time you wore a new shirt or blouse, it probably didn’t get dirty enough to need to be put into the laundry hamper - or, if you are a guy, to be dropped on the bedroom floor. And so you wore it again, another time, before it was laundered.
But the garment of Christ’s righteousness never gets dirty. It remains ever pure and clean, as Jesus is pure and clean. And it makes you pure and clear before God whenever you wear it, by faith.
God graciously placed that garment on you, for the first time, in your baptism. By a daily repentance of your sins, and by a daily return to Christ in faith, you put it on again, daily, throughout your life in this world.
On the day of your bodily death, there will be no more use for the many natural garments that you had worn throughout your earthly life. Your survivors will probably bring most of them to Goodwill. But the supernatural garment of Christ will remain upon you.
The righteousness of Christ, who forgives your sins, will protect you from the eternal condemnation of the divine law. And the righteousness of Christ will bring you to the bodily resurrection of those who are righteous in Christ.
In eternity, you will shine with the brilliance of Jesus’ righteousness - a righteousness that he gave to you through his Word and sacrament, already in this world. In that respect, the Book of Revelation gives us a marvelous account of St. John’s vision of heaven:
“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, ...and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”
When we in faith seek the food of Christ’s righteousness that lasts forever, and the garment of Christ’s righteousness that will never wear out, we know that God will provide for us also the things that we do still need for this earthly life.
As we trust in God and in his goodness, we will not worry about those things. For as long as we need such daily bread, we will receive it.
But when the day comes when we will no longer need it - the day of our passing from this world into the next - we will not worry then, either. Because God, in this life, has prepared us for the next life. And by his grace we will enter that life.
God has fed us, not only with earthly food, but also with the body and blood of his Son. God has clothed us, not only with literal garments, but also with the righteousness of his Son.
“Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” Amen.
15 September 2024 - Trinity 16 - Ephesians 3:13-21
In New Testament Greek, the word for “father” is “patera,” and the word for “family” is “patria.” You can see, then, that a family is conceptualized, and defined, on the basis of its relationship to the father of that family, whether literal or figurative.
Some translations of today’s text from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians are especially sensitive to this, so that we read in those translations:
“I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is Father over all that is called father In heaven and in earth.”
“I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, Him from whom every fatherhood is named, that is in Heaven and in Earth.”
And a translation that I really like, which picks up on these nuances very well, is this one:
“I bend my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom all paternity in heaven and on earth takes its name.”
The Bible describes several different kinds of “paternities,” or families: with some involving God directly as the Father of that “family”; and others involving people who act as God’s representatives, serving as the father or the father figure.
In the Book of Job, when the Lord questions Job regarding his awareness of how the earth was created, God describes the angels as his “sons.” He asks Job:
“Who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”
In St. Paul’s speech against idolatry at Athens, as quoted in the Book of Acts, he states that all human beings are in a sense children or “offspring” of God, their Creator. According to the apostle,
“[God] has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’”
The people of Israel, in the Old Testament, were in a special way understood to be God’s children, and he was understood to be their Father. In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses warned the Israelites against imitating the sorcery and idolatry of the Canaanites:
“You are the children of the Lord your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God.”
And of course, we as Christians know God as our heavenly Father, through our faith in God’s only-begotten Son Jesus. Jesus instructs us to pray to God as “Our Father who art in heaven.”
And in the Epistle to the Galatians, as St. Paul summarizes the history of our redemption, he reminds us that
“When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’”
But there are also examples in Scripture where certain men are described as having an office of authority that God has given them, through which God wishes to exercise his Fatherly authority in an indirect and mediated way.
The literal father of a literal family represents God’s authority. This means two important things. First, it means that a housefather is owed a special kind of respect from his children, because of the authority of God that is hidden within him.
But it also means that as a housefather exercises his authority within his family, he does so in a loving way that imitates the example of God, and that is shaped by the Word of God. As his children submit to him, he submits to God. Paul writes in his Epistle to the Ephesians:
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother,’ which is the first commandment with promise: ‘that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.’ And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.”
Out of the office or authority of a housefather, other offices of authority developed over time, as guided by the hand of divine providence.
Civil authority - in the various forms that it takes in different political systems - is a specialized form of divinely-given fatherly authority. St. Paul explains this in his Epistle to the Romans:
Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. ... For he is God’s minister to you for good.”
And in the church, where the Word of God reigns supreme in matters of doctrine and practice, God calls specific men to be the instruments through which his Word is preached and taught, and through whom his people are overseen and shepherded.
St. Paul writes to Titus that he should “set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you.” Paul goes on to tell Titus that “a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God,” and that he must be “self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.”
In the New Testament, the terms “elder” and “bishop” were used to describe what we today refer to as a “pastor.” And pastors are indeed spiritual fathers to us, as they carry out their ministry as representatives of God the Father in heaven, and in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ.
St. Paul describes himself in his First Epistle to the Corinthians as a servant of Christ and a steward of the mysteries of God. He also reminds the Corinthians: “I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
Jesus is the divine Lord of the church. When the Scriptures - his Scriptures - clearly teach something, then we know that it is Jesus’ will for the church to believe, to practice, and to apply that revealed truth.
But Jesus is the Lord of the church also in areas of church life where the Bible may not give specific directions about what to do or what not to do. When decisions needs to be made about such matters, it is God’s will that the spiritually mature men of the church would fulfill this duty in his name.
With respect to public preaching in the church and decision-making for the church, St. Paul writes in his First Epistle to Timothy: “I do not permit a woman to teach, or to have authority over a man.”
In his First Epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul establishes the context for this pattern of order when he writes that “the head of woman is man,” that “the head of every man is Christ,” and that “the head of Christ is God.”
The Book of Acts gives us two examples of congregational meetings, or their equivalent, among the Christians in Jerusalem.
When it was necessary to choose a replacement for Judas, so that there would once again be twelve apostles, the group that was called together to discuss this was addressed by Peter as “Men and brethren.”
And later, when it was necessary to hold an election for deacons in the church - who would assist the apostles by carrying out certain duties that were not directly a part of their pastoral work - Peter once again addressed the gathering that was called together for this in male terms, as “brethren.”
As the mature men of a congregation exercise this kind of paternal authority within and for the church, they will seek to discern, prayerfully and conscientiously, what the will of Christ most likely is, in the practical matters that are under discussion.
They will work toward a decision that supports and advances the mission that Christ has given to his church in general, and to their congregation in particular.
They will study and learn. They will consult with others, and will take into account the information that is shared and the suggestions that are made.
But after these discussions and deliberations, when the time comes to make a decision, they - as congregational fathers and leaders, in God’s name and with God’s help - will make that decision. They will fulfill this duty. They will bear this burden.
And they, together with the whole congregation, will bend their knees “to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom all paternity in heaven and on earth takes its name.”
All of these various kinds of fatherhoods, or positions of authority, are either fulfilled by God the Father himself, or are delegated by him to his representatives. And God expects those who do represent him in these various arenas of service, to think and act as he thinks and acts.
God is not motivated by petty pride, and neither should be the men who serve and represent him. God is motivated by a desire to do what is best for those who are under his care, and so should be the men to whom he has entrusted the responsibility to watch over, to govern, and to protect others.
The Book of Jeremiah is one of many places in Scripture where we read things like this: “Praise the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for His mercy endures forever.”
Because of human sin, however, those who are called to represent God, in fatherly offices where they are supposed to imitate God’s way of thinking and acting, are often not as good and merciful as they should be, within those offices. They are sometimes proud and arrogant, selfish and lazy, corrupt and abusive, harsh and impatient.
Literal fathers in a family, spiritual fathers in a congregation, and father figures in other settings, will never properly fulfill their obligations to those who are under their authority, unless they continually remember that they themselves are under God’s authority, and that they are accountable to God for how they represent him.
Their personal sins do not negate the legitimacy of the authority that they have from God. But those sins do make it difficult for people to get along with them and to respect them. Those sins also mark these men as in need of a sincere and humble repentance before God, and as needing to apologize to any people they have offended.
We who are in positions of paternal authority and service so often do need God’s forgiveness, and we so often need the forgiveness of those who depended on us but whom we failed. We so often need a do-over, a re-start, and another chance to do better: with God’s help; and with a renewed commitment to honor God more deeply, and to obey God more fully.
And those who bristle under the fathers and father figures whom God has placed over them, or who do not show proper respect for them even when they are fulfilling their duties conscientiously, are actually rebelling against God, who set up these arrangements for their good.
Certainly we do not have a duty to follow their lead even when they would lead us into sin. We must always obey God rather than men, if such a choice is placed before us.
And our conscience is not bound to every opinion that those men may have. But in general, for the sake of peace and good order, and especially when a matter of conscience is not involved, we have a duty to love and honor those who have authority over us.
When we have not done so - in the civil sphere, in our families, and in the family of God - we, too, have sinned against the majesty of God’s fatherly authority: which is hidden under their human weaknesses, within their fatherly office. We, too, are then in need of God’s forgiveness, and are in need of God’s help to do better in the future.
Jesus, according to his divine nature, is the eternal Son of the Father. So, even within the eternal existence of God, according to the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the relationships of the divine Persons are ordered in this way.
And Jesus, according to his human nature, and in his state of humiliation while on earth, functioned very much under the authority of his Father in heaven. In St. John’s Gospel, Jesus said:
“I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”
Again, he said:
“Of Myself I can do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.”
Our divine-human Lord and Savior certainly does have authority over us. But he, in turn, was also under the authority of his Father in heaven in all that he did.
God’s plan for the redemption of the human race, which the Father sent his Son into the world to fulfill, was a wonderful and marvelous plan: filled with grace and love for all of us. And Jesus fulfilled that plan perfectly.
The most important things that Jesus came into the world to do, was to die, to atone for our sins before God; and to rise again, to bring about our reconciliation with God and our forgiveness by God. Jesus himself says, in St. John’s Gospel:
“My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life, that I may take it again. ... I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”
The Prophet Isaiah referred to the coming Messiah as “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” As the faithful and obedient everlasting Father of his church, Jesus has procured for us, and in his gospel now distributes to us, an everlasting salvation.
For all of our failures to be the kind of fathers and fatherly leaders that God the Father has called us to be, Jesus forgives us. For all of our failures to respect and honor the fathers and fatherly leaders whom God the Father has placed over us, Jesus forgives us.
Jesus forgives, and Jesus restores. When we mess up the harmonious ordering of things that God has set up for us, Jesus puts it right again.
When we have confused and contradicted the channels of authority that God has established for us, Jesus brings the correction and the recalibration that we need.
Jesus changes our hearts, as his Spirit works in all of us the humility that we need to be faithful: faithful in obedience to him; and faithful in service to one another, according to our various vocations.
And as the Holy Spirit works, we pray that the will of our heavenly Father will be done in his world and in his church. We pray that God’s gospel will be preached to the joy and edifying of his people; and that God’s people will flourish and thrive, through all the temporal and eternal blessings that he gives them.
“I bend my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom all paternity in heaven and on earth takes its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Amen.
22 September 2024 - Trinity 17 - Ephesians 4:1-16
Many years ago, in another time and place, I visited a delinquent member of the congregation I was then serving, and tried to encourage this person to come to church. The response was pretty bizarre.
“I already know all that. I learned the catechism when I was confirmed, and I still remember what I learned.”
This person actually thought that the religious knowledge that had supposedly been gained in her confirmation classes - held about 45 or 50 years earlier - was sufficient, and therefore that attending church at this point in life was unnecessary.
We should all be able to recognize this way of thinking as ridiculous. It betrays so many misunderstandings about Christian faith, and about why Christians go to church, that I cannot even begin to list them all.
But do we know how to explain to our friends why we do go to church? If they at the present time have no inclination to go, can we explain why they should want to come with us to the Lord’s house?
Today’s appointed text from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians gives us one of the reasons why we gather together in the name of the Lord, under the ministry of the pastor and teacher whom the Lord has appointed for us.
According to Paul, within and for his church, Christ “gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.”
That’s a long sentence! Let’s dissect it, and learn from it.
First, Paul tells us that the ministers who bring the Word of Christ to his people are to be seen as gifts of Christ to his church. The apostles and prophets were, of course, sent directly by the Lord. He supernaturally placed his words into their minds and onto their lips.
They were infallible in their doctrine. The Scriptures were written by such men, by divine inspiration.
But St. Paul also includes ordinary “evangelists” - whom we might refer to as missionaries today - and ordinary “pastors and teachers,” in his list of those ministers who have been given to the church by the ascended Lord.
These men proclaim the same message that the apostles and prophets proclaimed. But they do so on the basis of the written Scriptures that the apostles and prophets have left to the church, and not on the basis of any direct revelations or divine guarantees of infallibility.
Unlike the ministry of the apostles and prophets, the ministry of modern missionaries, and of the ordinary “pastors and teachers” of our time, is therefore always subject to testing by the church, in the light of these Biblical norms. But when they pass that test, then what they say is to be accepted as God’s own truth, as if an apostle or prophet were saying it.
When a vacant congregation goes through the process of calling a pastor, it may seem as if they are going out and looking for a new preacher and spiritual leader. But St. Paul says that this is not what is really happening - at least not at the deepest level.
What is really happening is that Jesus, the Lord of his church, is using the church’s calling process as the mechanism through which he is giving a pastor and teacher to a congregation.
So, when the members of a church ignore the ministry of their pastor by staying away from public worship, or when they fail to take advantage of the opportunities they have to receive spiritual instruction from their called teacher, they are, I’m afraid to say, showing disdain for the Lord’s gift, and therefore for the Lord himself.
Delinquent members of a church may think that they already know as much about God’s Word as they need to know. But that can never be true.
If God has given you a pastor and teacher, it must be because he thinks you need one. And if he thinks you need one, you need one!
The pastors whom the Lord has given to us, “minister” to us, or “serve” us, in a way that is similar to how a waiter in a restaurant “ministers” to, or “serves,” diners: by delivering food to them. Of course, the food that a pastor serves to the church is spiritual food.
A called public teacher of the church gives the “bread of life” to his parishioners, when he gives Christ to them: that is, when he preaches the Biblical gospel, administers the sacraments that Jesus has instituted, and offers evangelical counsel in private settings.
In all of this, Christ himself is at work: forgiving their sins, justifying them by faith, and strengthening that faith and making it fruitful.
The fact that you had a literal meal yesterday does not mean that you do not need to have another meal today. The fact that you learned your catechism 10, 20, or 30 years ago does not mean that do not need to hear God’s Word again today.
If you still stumble and fail, you need the Lord’s pardon on an ongoing basis. If you still become fearful and discouraged, or sometimes lose your way in life, you need the comfort and guidance of God’s Word on an ongoing basis.
In St. John’s Gospel, Jesus uses the “bread of life” metaphor to describe himself, in order to illustrate our need for continual sustenance from him. In the ancient world - and often in our time - bread was and is a daily staple. It is not a special delicacy that is consumed maybe once or twice per year.
And that’s why we come to church more than once or twice per year. That’s why we listen with reverent attention to our pastor’s preaching and teaching, and why we partake in faith of the sacrament of our Lord’s body and blood, which our pastor administers to us for the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus is the bread of life. His message of hope and life refreshes our soul and strengthens us for our journey.
Returning to today’s text: St. Paul continues his discussion of why Jesus gives ministers to his church, by explaining that it is so that “we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.”
A child-like faith - characterized by a humble trust in God’s promises - is commendable. But a childish faith is not commendable.
Too often, though, people are satisfied with a childish faith: an immature and undeveloped faith; a faith that has never become deeper and broader than the rudimentary kind of knowledge that is received in children’s catechism classes.
Of course, when someone lacks interest in growing in his faith, and in deepening his spiritual knowledge, that is an indication that this person doesn’t think the Christian faith is really all that important, or relevant to real life.
And the reason why a person would have this kind of nonchalant attitude, is because he has only a shallow and superficial understanding of what the Christian faith is really all about! He doesn’t know how profoundly relevant the Christian faith and worldview are, to all aspects of his life, and to all the decisions that he needs to make in life.
Our Small Catechism is a wonderful tool. it lays down, and continually reinforces, a solid foundation of basic Biblical knowledge in our minds and hearts.
But as with any foundation, it is meant to be built on. A firmer and taller structure of spiritual insight and wisdom, and of doctrinal clarity, is to be erected on it. As we go forth into the adult world, we need to have an adult faith.
We need to be able to give a reason for the hope that is within us, when our faith in God as creator and sustainer of the universe is challenged in the university classroom, by the dehumanizing influence of evolutionary dogma.
We need to know how to respond thoughtfully, and how to defend what is good and pure, when our moral standards are challenged in movies and music, and by the dehumanizing influence of the decadent popular culture.
The Christian faith is not something juvenile and simplistic, that people eventually grow out of. It is something that God’s people continually grow into, for a lifetime.
And so, we come to church, throughout our lifetime, to learn more deeply of Christ and his ways, and to be formed in our faith by God’s Word. We receive the ministry of Word and Sacrament that Christ makes available to us through our pastors, so that we can grow up spiritually.
And the more we learn, the more we want to learn. It’s a little bit like eating potato chips. You can’t eat just one. The first one you eat creates a desire to eat more.
But unlike potato chips, the Word of God is not spiritual junk food. It contains the wholesome, spiritual nourishment your soul needs.
You therefore never have to feel guilty over snacking on God’s Word, in a moment of quiet Bible reading and reflection at home. And you can never overindulge when you come to the Lord’s house on the Lord’s Day, to partake there of the full banquet of the means of grace.
And finally, St. Paul ties these thoughts together, when he expresses the wish and the expectation that Christians who receive what Christ gives them, and who are themselves now “speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ.”
It is important to know the “truth”: that is, to learn and believe what God has revealed about himself, about the world, about us, and about us in relation to him and the world.
It is important to have a clear-eyed and clear-headed grasp on reality, regarding human sin and human rebellion - your sin and rebellion. And it is important to learn and believe what God has revealed about mercy and forgiveness - his mercy and forgiveness in Christ, for you.
This truth, when learned, is to be believed with all your heart - as the Holy Spirit instills such a faith in you. And this truth, when learned, is also to be spoken to others. But it is to be spoken always in love.
And that’s another crucial aspect of what it means to become mature in our faith. As we grow in faith, we become more like Christ in what we know; and we also become more like Christ is how we live, and in how we come across to others.
With the Lord’s help, we can - in love - warn our neighbor of God’s righteous judgment against his sin, without coming across as self-righteous. With the Lord’s help, we can - in love - invite our neighbor to put his trust in the mercy of Christ, God’s only-begotten Son, without coming across as arrogant.
When we speak law and gospel to those we know, it is not because we want to prove that we are right in our religious beliefs, and that they are wrong. It is because we care about them: about their life in this world, and about their eternal destiny.
It is because we want to share with them the joy and hope of everlasting life that God has allowed us to have, and because we want them to join us on the journey of faith that God has laid out for his redeemed people.
Love without truth is mere sentimentality. Truth without love is mere intellectualism.
Our baptism does not call us to either of these caricatures of the Christian life. But it does call us to be - and by the working of God’s Spirit, it causes us to be - members of the one body of Christ, in time and in eternity.
We do indeed travel together through life as a fellowship of faith, and as a community of healing and hope.
The church and its ordained pastors can be thought of as a band of pilgrims, with their guide; as a spiritual family, with its spiritual father; as a gathering of disciples eager to learn, with their teacher; or as a vulnerable flock of sheep, with its protecting shepherd.
The common theme in these Biblical images of the church, is that we, as members of the Lord’s body, are together: growing together, praying together, receiving God’s pardon together, and living in God’s reconciliation and peace together.
And so - to quote from today’s Epistle one more time -
“I...beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” Amen.