14th Sunday of Holy Trinity: Mark 7:14-23

Sept 2, 2012; 14^th Sunday of Holy Trinity; Texts: Ps 119:129-136; Deut. 4:1-2, 6-8; Eph. 6:10-20; Mark 7:14-23; Title: The lawless fruit and the lawful fruit that is not by law; Pastor Tim Beck 

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

 Did you hear what Jesus said? Where’s the good news? He says watch out! It isn’t easy to find the way. The gate is narrow and the way hard. Few go there, few seek there.   True, the Gate is as broad as God’s infinite love and wide open, but from our view it looks narrow as tomb, slippery with blood on a wooden beam. What makes it worse is there are false teachers, wolves in sheep’s clothes, searching for you, to eat you. Jesus tells us this because we need to be warned, to watch out. Wolves are not sheep, even if wearing designer wool overcoats.  In last week’s reading Jesus pointed out some wolves, well dressed in piety and good works. Do you remember last week’s word “corban” and the hypocrisy of scribes? Jesus warns us against those who blaze a broad path away from the narrow gate in the name of God. His words are shocking. The scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the men of the Sanhedrin are the spiritual rulers of Israel. They serve in the temple, direct the synagogues and teach the faith in Israel; but they are wolves. Their fruit looks so good… always talking about God, telling us to go to church, telling us to offer sacrifices, to obey the commands and a bit more, the traditions. They carefully tithe even 10% of their garden herbs, and tithing is a good thing and a good example. We want to live next to that kind of person. They make good neighbors, unless you build without a permit. They’d surely turn you in, but never break into your home. Even if you have suspicions about things like “corban,” it’s not hard to justify them. We want what they want. They want to be honored.

          Believing these folks are wolves is difficult, especially when some of them acknowledge Jesus’ name.  Jesus points out some will prophesy in His Name, cast out demons and do mighty works in His Name, but bear bad fruit. It makes you wonder, what is good fruit? What’s it look like if not speaking for Jesus, casting out demons, doing miracles? That doesn’t sound wolfish. How can we avoid bad fruit, and not fall in a compost pile of rotten apples, including the one Eve and Adam ate?   How can we bear good fruit?  Jesus’ claim is hard, that some who do outwardly good and spiritual things reject the Father’s will. Despite looking good, they are lawless. The Scribes are workers of lawlessness! But they dedicate their entire lives to work on the law, and among the best of them, even try to obey it. When you see the high morality of the scribes, and if you overlook “corban,” Jesus sounds nuts. No wonder they crucified Him, that immoral, lying, lunatic, they said. When they crucified Jesus under a pretext of lawfulness, the hungry wolf is unmasked. That’s one fruit of lawlessness. They crucified God’s Son. That’s a universal mark of lawlessness, rejecting Him who is the narrow gate. Another mark is that they want to live by the law to please God. They made the law their master. But doing so, they had to modify the law a little. While I guess I still want my neighbor to be a scribe, that’s another mark, what they did with the law through the traditions. Like building department officials handing out red tags to every un-permitted project but exempting their own; like elected officials who swear to uphold the constitution then pass contradictory laws saying “for the good of the people;” the scribes made rules to rule the Son of man on the Sabbath, and every other day of the week. Even when they kept their own rules, it was still lawlessness. So too is everyone from scholar to dummy who hears the Word of God and then says, “This is what I say it means…”  Playing with the Word of God is cross-dressing in sheep’s clothing. It is bad fruit despite pious language and even good intentions. So examine yourself. Skin the sheep fleece of God-talk and ask “what in corban is really going on?”   We ask ourselves, our church and our Synod such questions, because the closer to home it is, the harder to see stitches in the fleece.  For example, can you believe God will condemn a scribe if his or her personality is warm, friendly, persuasive and generous?  For example, can you believe God will condemn unbelief, especially if it comes in a winsome or productive package? For example, do you want to impress God by obedience, do you play around with the law, do you take grace with a “ho hum”?  Let us confess our sins to God the Father.

          Do note Jesus was the prophet, exorcist, miracle worker par excellence.  Such works in themselves are not bad any more than obeying God’s law is wrong. Christians are to obey the law, although we are not under the law; and while the law is everywhere, the fundamental issue is not about it, but about faith. What is good fruit? What is the opposite of the lawlessness of the scribes? Does it not include a right use of the law and faith that the gospel is true? As for the law, what is its proper fruit? Is it not the word “repentance?”  Is good fruit a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart the Lord will not despise? Compare the Pharisee who prayed, “I thank God that I am not like other men” to the tax collector who beat his chest praying, “Lord, have mercy!” Only the tax collector went home justified by God.  That way is a hard way. It is hard on us, or at least it feels hard on us.  Repentance is the path to the gate showing what’s inside so that we confess. It’s like a jeep trip over boulders re-arranging the insides. The law shakes us, not to make us obey harder, but quite the opposite. It breaks us so that we look to Jesus for mercy. The humble and contrite heart the Lord will not despise. That person is prepared for the narrow gate, wide as God the Father’s love.

          Here is where our text carries us to the gospel, to words where we hear good news, but only after one more pang, like a jolting heart attack. “Whoever does the will of my Father will enter the kingdom of heaven.”  Did that phrase pain you? If we take it as just another command it will kill us. Jesus already made plain who actually does the will of the Father. What is the will of the Father?” The law asks, “Who obeys the first commandment? Who loves God with all his   heart, mind, and strength?”  There is only one; there is the Son, the un-begotten, eternal Son of the Father made man. There is only one who loves the Father purely, truly. He is the Gate, the narrow gate wide as the Father’s infinite love. He is huge despite our nearsightedness that sees Him narrow as the beam of a cross. Sinners can’t enter heaven by the law. We’ll end up playing with the law so that        it doesn’t kill us… but that’s its job. It is the Son who is the gate, He who fulfilled the law for us, and calls us to the Father. Jesus didn’t add or subtract from God’s word to get to the Father, nor does He want you to seek Him outside His gift of word and sacraments. You don’t need to flagellate yourself for wicked desires that spring out of nowhere. You are bid to confess them and be absolved. You don’t need to intensely babble in tongues, save 25 souls weekly, or give to the church beyond your means. That’s a human command. You don’t have to prove your love for God by a rigid prayer life or some other self-appointed discipline.  Jesus obeyed the law for you. Therefore God the Father declares you righteous for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ. For you Jesus Christ suffered the curse of our disobedience to the law. He did it all to give the credit of His all to you and me. He tells us what the acceptable will of the Father is: whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. The irony is scribes cannot enter heaven because their lawfulness is lawlessness. But those who know their lawlessness enter without the law, looking to Jesus. The irony is those not trying to please God by works, God the Father regards their works as good, because of faith, for the sake of Christ. He is our lawfulness. He is our perfection. He is our justification. He is our sanctification. He is our salvation. He is our all in all because He did it all for you.

          Jesus Christ justifies sinners. Jesus rose from the dead by the will of the Father to give eternal life. Jesus is coming again so that you may live with Him. Because the Son did the Father’s will, the Father honors the Son and declared this word to the lawless: pardoned.  If you’ve been killed by the law and dumped at the narrow gate, you have the password. We can all say it, although it is a hard sentence: “I’m guilty.” This is how we enter the kingdom of God; with a law-broken heart ready for good news. You are pardoned. Your sin is forgiven and your guilt taken away. Receiving that, you bear good fruit, the fruit of faith, the fruit that God as Father regards as good whether or not He uses you to do miracles. This fruit is not your doing, but the result of being grafted into Christ. Faith in Christ is a fruit that the tree of life grows in us. Faith is a fruit from the tree of life; and faith returns again and again to eat of that tree, to eat and drink in the banquet, to commune in the feast of the Sanctus. By faith we are sons and daughters of the Father, calling Him “our Father;” for the fruit of Christ’s righteousness is life, life for His called out ones, the church.

          A chapter or two before today’s text, Jesus said to those who did not work but sat at his feet, “Here are my mother and brothers. Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”  (Mk 3:35) What were they doing but sitting at his feet? The will of God is to hear and believe Jesus. Through Jesus we too receive pardon and the pardoned receive adoption as sons of God. What is the way to recognize wolves and bad fruit? Whoever rejects Christ, who chooses to live by the law and modifies the use of God’s law. What is the will of the Father except to believe in the Son, in the Son’s forgiveness of lawlessness and in the Father’s adoption through the Son?  You who believed have all you need to keep from being eaten alive. Let us now eat of the Living One who made us His sheep. This is good news, the will of God for us in Christ Jesus.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Amen.)

13th Sunday of Trinity: Isaiah 29:11-19

Aug 26, 2012; 13^th Sunday of Trinity; Texts: Ps 14, Isa 29:11-19; Eph 5:22-33; Mark 7:1-13; Hymns: 160; 400; 238; 278; Title: The Upside Down Cake Upside Up; Rev. Tim Beck

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ

Our text today is from Isaiah. And what’s the message in his prophesy from God? The shortest explanation is “repent and believe in the gospel.” The long explanation is: because of rebellion against the Lord, the Northern Kingdom of Israel fell to Assyria. Meanwhile, Judah’s King Ahaz promotes idolatry, even burning his son as a sacrifice. But those many gods don’t seem to help, for Syria attacks Judah. So Ahaz strips the temple, paying Assyria to invade Syria; and he fills the Lord’s temple with images of Assyrian gods too, since they might help, at least politically. When he dies, his son Hezekiah bids Judah return to the Lord, but most only act as if they believe the God of the covenant. They no longer understand or care. Isaiah points out they cannot read the Scripture or they say it is sealed. What they man is they refuse o be shaped by it. Isaiah summarizes the sorry state this way: and the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men…”   

          They’d like to be saved from Syria and Assyria, but not by the Living God if that means trusting Him, relying on Him, believing only that God. To hedge their bets they go through the actions of Yahweh worship, despite 1,000 other gods before the Lord, despite twisting his word like a dishtowel. We ought to ask ourselves, when for fears do we do the same? Yet of Judah’s gross insult to the Living God we expect this: “OK guys your goose is cooked, you are duck soup, the game of chicken ends with a crash, there’s no sparing this sparrow.”  Surprisingly we hear… therefore, behold, I will do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.” “The deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.” The wonder is an opening of ears for the meek, and joy. Yes, the big-brain tricksters, twisting God’s word will perish. They will no longer stupefy people with pious sounding lies. There will be repentance; the repentant remnant will be forgiven and restored. Praise be to God.

          That’s the long of it. Now to say it another way, to show the message applies to you, to each generation: There is hope for you because Scripture’s message doesn’t change. Scripture’s message does not change; not only the law’s reproof of every sinner, but also grace for every sinner who repents. If we lose hope because in our sins we try to change God’s word, to make God be what we want, the Lord continues His call to repentance in order to restore us. For since the fall of Adam and Eve, that is the pattern. They turned away from the Lord, the law worked repentance, grace restored the penitent. We need that too, for in each generation a rebel race re-writes the Word, to worship tree trunks shaped as men, images of precious gold, or swollen heads full of pride. Yet the Living God love us by showing our errors in the calamitous results of our acts, calling us to restoration through the forgiveness of our sins. When the little boy b urns his hand after being told “don’t touch,” mother is there to comfort him for his tears.

          Seeing the errors of the past we sigh with Isaiah, “If only Ahaz believed, or Judah’s people believed they would not have been burnt by fire.” Then seeing the Lord’s mercy that followed, we rejoice that the Word kept a remnant faithful despite apostate kings and captivity in Babylon. Likewise, we sigh when Jesus says the word “corban” to the spiritual leaders of Judah; for by a good word they do an evil work in God’s name. The word “corban” means “given to God” but in practice meant “our tradition modifies the 4^th commandment.”  They said say “corban” (given to God) and deed all your wealth to the temple. We’ll let you live in your house until death while the temple meets every need, tax free. You’re on welfare, you’re retired, and you don’t have to care for anyone else. The temple “absolves” you from taking care of your aged parents, and for that matter the future of your children, so don’t ask us to look after them. “Corban” bought a false security, with God’s approval of course. So Jesus poked “corban” in the eye and pus ran out, spiritual eye disease revealed. Jesus spoke the law, revealing the dark wisdom of those hiding from God; and then everyone saw those he poked rise to do Him evil. Rejecting the Word, they cursed him with words, thorns and a tree; as Isaiah prophesied. They proved the law’s accusations true by killing their Saviour. And we sign for that evil, one we share, for has the law poked you, and you added to evil with disobedience, by every proud moment?

          But rejoice! What our race intended for evil Jesus turned to good. His death became eye salve, His very body and blood became the means to wash away our guilt. Being lifted high for all to see, He calls all to faith that He forgave all our sins. And the Holy Spirit, sent by Father, opens eyes to see and ears to hear. Some crushed by the law, confess. And Christ is quick to heal and restore. Christ, the Word, is constant. He gives the humbled the very life of God. His Word has power to change us through the forgiveness of sin.  This is the pattern of the Word for the world, and for the church kept by her Saviour. For example, early in the first and second centuries the Caesars and Roman governors persecuted Christians, because they attracted the losers, the riff-raff.  Christians gathered the old who were abandoned in the streets to die. They raised babies likewise dumped as refuse. They cared for the derelict. Christians, more than Rome’s touted free bread and circuses, took care of the poor, the sick, and the defeated and were loved by them in return. Therefore they were hated into the lion’s mouth and lit as torches for the night; yet they lived humble lives, trusting in Christ, their Saviour. And many who received the mercy of the church received spiritual sight, especially the weak, the afflicted, the tormented. And in time, Christian faith entered the households of emperors. What a glorious joy for the poor, the meek, those whom the Word saved.

          But you know our condition. When Constantine declared Christianity favored about 330 AD, guess what happened? For political expediency, those armed with the state’s edicts gradually combined the faith with pagan practices and called it the true church. And as barbarian invasions swept the Western empire, the church confused more the word and picked up more the sword. Like Israel and Judah of old, it is a story of closing eyes, although a remnant saw. The blindness grew: kings and people and popes found Scripture a sealed book. Either they could not read or would not read as it is written. Then all Europe was again threatened, this time by those who impaled infants on poles because they were baptized. That enemy aimed to wipe Christian faith out. Then too the reformation came, a return to the law’s morality and the gospel’s grace, a time of repentance and absolution. Once again Scripture was unsealed, unbound from traditions, legends, decretals, illiteracy and because of the corruption of the church, a vast religious apathy. In your Lord’s mercy, the sword of Islam did not prevail, and enough reformers were not burnt at the stake so the people again heard “saved by grace through faith alone.”

          Yet every generation feels compelled like a toddler who discovers ears have holes, to stuff them with moss, wax, beads, and anything that fits. In rationalism’s day, in the 1700’s, on Christmas Eve pastors preached the         wonder of reason and the proper care of cattle.  Germany’s once full churches emptied. The wise men wondered why. In romanticism’s day, in the 1800’s, pastors preached feelings of dependence and the wonder of nature. But the dying found little hope in puffy clouds or dark earth. And the discernment of the discerning wondered why. In existentialism’s day, in the 1900’s, pastors said make some meaning for yourself, embrace the Christ myth whatever that means. And the clay shaped the faith into a chamber pot. In our day, in nihilism’s day, the church agrees to follow your heart (that wicked thing) to seize what it can. But sin can only seize death.  You see the blindness in the official pronouncements of so called Christian churches saying, “We call the Trinity “Mother, womb, child.”  Or, “For justice we consecrate this bishop because she defies Scripture.” Or “Worship at the Lutheran church of our goddess.” Or “jiggle-dance to God’s glory!” These examples are real, as is the fall, the wisdom of hiding deep, the clay accusing the potter. Have you too asked “what to do with the Scriptures I don’t like?”  “What’s the least I need believe?  “What’s the least I need do? Can I do and not believe?”

          Our race is fallen and our wicked hearts wish to change the word, but thanks be to God, the Word does not change. The Word that made all things is constant. Wonder of wonders, He is constant so that He changes you. And wonder of wonders, you are here to listen, because the Holy Spirit opened your ears and your eyes. You are here since your Lord took the wisdom of the world, like the Forest of Lebanon, under whose cedar boughs nothing grows, and cut it down to make a fruitful field.  In doing so, the Lord reveals our need in order to reveal His great mercy and love, comforting the repentant with the assurance every sin is forgiven and every need for restoration shall be met. You come here because the Saviour takes water with the word to turn the upside-down right-side up. You come here because the Saviour preaches good news, taking blinders off eyes and rinsing out ear wax. You come here for this reformation: In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. The constancy of the Word is written across history by the God who entered time and space, born in a stable to be lifted up for all to see, so that we see.  The Triune God effectively calls us into Christ, creating faith to restore hearing and vision in all generations.  So the church was kept alive in Ahab’s, Ahaz’s or Hezekiah’s day. So the church endured the Caesars and shall endure through each philosopher’s day. Despite our sins, despite the losses believers must endure, we shall endure because our Lord is the constant Word. He not only changes us, he forgave us. He promises: The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.

          We say “What a blessing to be made meek, to discover our need of God, to be brought low by the law. There may yet be hope.” We say, “How joyful to receive the living God, He who meets all our needs, who gives life and salvation.” When Israel intentionally forgot the Lord, the constant Word led them to repentance and kept a remnant in the faith. When Imperial Rome was bested by the faith of the long suffering, that faith spread to the barbarians who burned Rome’s gates.  Then your ancestors cut down the sacred oaks and buried their swords, finding in Christ a greater glory than the glory of battle and victory. And when the church was corrupted in later years, Christian heresy and invading Islam did not destroy the remnant, for a reformation sprang up.  In our day, despite the same evils afflicting the church, blessed are those who believe in North and South America. And in Africa, the church swells. While the faithful suffer in the Muslim lands of the East, often forced to flee or die, they shine. And in China, the persecuted church grows.  Those who hide deep from the Lord he overthrows by the Word working in the lives of those He keeps.  The proud will be overturned. The meek will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. By the constant Word we who believe see things as they are, and call the Almighty, “our Father” through the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what He accomplished for you through the law and gospel, summarized in the shortest proclamation: repent and believe in the gospel. In Christ, you receive forgiveness of sin, distributed in water and Word and by the Word in His body and blood.  So we exult in the Holy One of Israel by declaring His death until He comes. Our future is not with the world that perishes, but is in Christ the ever-living.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.