Jude: Person, Letter, Passage

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. My sermon title is Hey, Jude: Person, Letter, Passage. My focus is our second reading. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’”  Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

When people hear the name Jude, they may think of Jude Law, the actor who portrays Watson in Robert Downey’s Sherlock Holmes movies. Others think of the Memphis hospital founded by Danny Thomas. Most hear a Beatles’ song in their heads and start humming the melody.

“Hey Jude” is a song written by Paul McCartney of the Beatles. It was released in August 1968, and was more than seven minutes long. At the time it was the longest single to top the British charts, and spent nine weeks at number one in the United States, the longest for any Beatles single and the longest run at the top of the US charts. The single sold eight million copies. But did you know that the title prompted some to consider McCartney an anti-Semite? That John Lennon thought it was an affirmation of his relationship with Yoko Ono? Or that the ballad evolved from “Hey Jules”, a song McCartney wrote to comfort John Lennon's son, Julian, during his parents' divorce?

I am not here to preach about Beatles’ songs, but rather to address The Letter of Jude in three parts – the person, the letter and the passage. First, the person.

There is some confusion regarding the true identity of Jude. He is not an outstanding figure like Peter, Paul, Timothy or Titus. Rather, he is an obscure apostle. Jude is not Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus. Yet, both Jude and Judas are Greek variants of Judah, a name common among Jews at the time. Aside from Judas Iscariot, the New Testament mentions Jude or Judas six times in four different contexts: Jude, the son of James, one of the Twelve Apostles[1]; Judas, not Judas Iscariot, but apparently an apostle mentioned in John’s Gospel[2]; the brother of Jesus identified by those who questioned the Lord’s authority[3]; and, finally, the writer of the Epistle of Jude, who identifies himself as “the brother of James.”[4]

Scholars are divided on whether Jude the apostle was also Jude the brother of Jesus, the traditional author of the Epistle. Generally, Catholics believe the two Jude’s are the same person, while Protestants generally do not. Of course, there is more regarding Jude’s lore and legend, but suffice it to say that Jude was a real person, and the Epistle – the Word of God – is attributed to him. And so, we move from Person to Letter.

Unlike many of Paul’s letters, because this letter lacks hard evidence of the author’s identity, we can only surmise the author. Jude, calls himself the brother of James, who is one of the brothers of the Lord[5], and a leader in the early church. Although, as I already stated, there is an apostle of the same name[6], this Jude refers himself outside that group. One hypothesis is that after his brother, James, was executed in 62 A.D., Jude followed his example and warned Jewish Christians against new threats to their faith.

We know from the letter’s style that the author was a man trained as a scribe who wrote with considerable sophistication. As a Jewish Christian with blood ties to James and Jesus, he saw himself as an orthodox guardian of tradition. He also assumed that his readers were familiar with all his cited sources, canonical and noncanonical alike.

As the greeting of the letter indicates, his original readers were Jewish Christians who personally knew James. We find similarities in Paul’s greeting to the Romans and the Letter of James, where both identify themselves as servants of Christ.[7] Additionally, the greeting offers us a glimpse into Jewish Christianity, not Greek Christianity of Philippi, Corinth or Thessalonica.

Following the greeting, Jude reminded his readers that their salvation was at stake because ungodly outsiders crept into the Church and perverted the grace of God into sensuality, denying their only Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.[8] In other words, syncretism – perverting Law and Gospel by blending it with other teachings – was occurring, and that was as much of a danger in the early Church as it was when Walther and Pieper were the first Synod Presidents, and as it is today.

Most likely, those who “crept in unnoticed” were travelling missionaries. Think of it this way: If someone came to this church and knew the routine, he could present himself for communion as a church member. From there, he could finagle his way into a teaching position, and then present distorted views of the Law and Gospel. As a former Roman Catholic priest, the reason it was so difficult for me to join the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod as an ordained pastor is that the men charged with admitting candidates to ministry purposely made it so. They want to ensure that they are admitting someone who will be faithful to the teachings. Otherwise, you see from Jude the mess that occurs when you do not create a system that admits and rejects. As one Scripture scholar wrote, those who crept in denied the Lord Jesus (v. 4) by refusing to live under his rule. Although the opponents did not see themselves as rejecting Christianity, Jude describes their way of life as denying the order established by the Lord.[9]

From this point in the letter, against these opponents of Christ, Jude presents the evidence of his case, and then prosecutes and condemns these false teachers, while warning Christians so that they do not follow them.

In verses 17-19, we read: “You must remember … the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, ‘In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.’ It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.”

This quote is from the Book of Enoch, which is outside the canon, and although all Jude’s readers may not have been familiar with it, they were familiar with the apostles. Jude was making the point that scoffers ignore all the the law. Proverbs 9:7-8 reads, “Correct a scoffer and you attract contempt, rebuke a wicked man and you attract dishonor. Do not rebuke the scoffer, he will hate you. Rebuke the wise man and he will love you.” Scoffers create divisions, and these particular scoffers were not Christians, as they claimed, but rather greedy, worldly, spirit-less, divisive persons. They were not interested in building the body of Christ, the Kingdom of God. They were not interested in discipleship, servant leadership, unanimity, cooperation or reaching across the proverbial aisle. They were interested in their own muddled version of Law and Gospel, and not a clear distilled Biblical teaching. They were divisive scoffers.

In essence, Jude said, “They are divisive scoffers, and you are true believers.” And that brings me to our third point, Passage. Take a moment to find verses 20-25 in your program or pew Bible.

Note how Jude contrasted the behavior of the scoffers to that of true believers. By encouraging Christians to build up the community, he offered the model for community life – the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity. By promoting holiness, Jude sought to combat the scoffers’ false teaching. And finally, he encouraged Christians to practice mercy rather than hate. He closed his letter by reminding them that only God’s grace can keep us from stumbling. For that alone, he offered all glory, majesty and praise to our Lord, Savior, Master and Redeemer, Jesus Christ the Son of God. In short, each individual member of the community is to be Christ for one another.

So, there you have it – Jude the Person, the Letter and the Passage. For some, this thumbnail sketch could suffice, but my curious mind does not allow me to rest here. There is more to cover, but time does not allow me to discuss in detail Jude’s personality or educational background – how he wrote with such sophistication and employed words and phrases found nowhere else in the Bible. I cannot delve into the sociological milieu of his time – the understanding of a community 2000 years ago in a world thousands of miles from here where Greeks and Jews intersected. I cannot distinguish Jewish and Greek Christians quite so easily as sugar and salt. There is, however, something that I cannot overlook and that is a question: How is Jude applicable to life today?

The late Bible scholar, Raymond Brown wrote, “Today most would not appreciate or find germane [Jude’s] argumentation from Israelite tradition about the angels who sinned with women, [or] Michael’s battle over the body of Moses … We owe Jude reverence as a book of Sacred Scripture, but its applicability to ordinary life remains a formidable difficulty.”[10] So, how is Jude applicable to life today?

I asked a number of people, “What are the most urgent issues facing congregations today?” I received a number of responses including lack of time for prayer, worship and Bible study, materialism, divisiveness, human sexuality, devaluing God’s word, rejecting Biblical truths, conforming to the current culture, liberal colleges that turn high school graduates into atheists, and parents who place more importance on their children’s weekend sports activities than God’s Church. One gentleman wrote, “Realizing that eternal life can only be obtained by believing in Jesus Christ.” A friend offered his gut response: people looking for ways to live the Gospel and stay faithful to Jesus each and every day.

When I stopped looking for responses, I heard this exchange between a radio host and an author who wrote about living the Beatitudes daily. The author spoke of how he met a young man who had converted to the faith. The author asked this young man what he had converted from. Without skipping a beat and with a huge smile on his face, he responded, “Unhappiness. …. I left a lot of unhappiness and found something greater.” Surprised because he thought the young man was going to name a particular denomination or belief, he instead went to the heart of the matter. Knowing the young man, the author said that his sufferings and heartaches could have led him to choose anger, resentment and self-pity. But in spite of all these darker possibilities, which so many people choose in our world today, this person chose to convert to happiness. He saw the choice between light and dark, life and death, happiness and misery, and he chose – without question – to be happy. In our lives, we have to make our own choice. Will it be an unending and frustrating search for the pleasures and highs of life? Or will we break free from the malaise of incomplete joys and passing pleasures?[11]

If Jude has anything to offer congregations today, it reminds us that remaining steadfast to our faith is the key to happiness. Presented with the Law that convicts me of my sin and keeps me from sinning more grievously, and the Gospel, which frees me from my sin because of the Person of Jesus Christ – who suffered, died on the Cross and rose from the dead – and His teaching of repentance, forgiveness, loving-kindness, mercy, charity, generosity, thanksgiving and prayer, I am a blessed, happy person. Law and Gospel, Word and Sacrament, love of God and service to neighbor is all I really need to be happy or to convert from unhappiness, anger, resentment, self-pity and the unending, frustrating search for life’s pleasures – and God has provided all of that for me.

Friends, as you go about your life today, present someone with the choice to embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Present someone with the choice to be happy, for when you do, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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[1] Luke 6:16 and Acts 1:13.

[2] John 14:22.

[3] Matthew 13:55, Mark 6:3.

[4] Jude 1:1.

[5] Matthew 13:55.

[6] Lk 6:16; Acts 1:13; Jn 14:22.

[7] See Romans 1:1 and James 1:1.

[8] Jude 3-4.

[9] Pheme Perkins, First and Second Peter, James, Jude, Louisville: John Knox Press, 1995. p. 148.

[10] Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament, New York: Doubleday, 1997. pp. 759-760.

[11] Jeffrey Kirby, Kingdom of Happiness: Living the Beatitudes in Everyday Life, Charlotte, NC: St. Benedict Press, 2017.

Three O's of Marriage: One Another, The Other, and Others

My sermon title is “The Three O’s of Marriage: One Another, The Other, and Others.” First, one another. Why do two people marry one another? What attracts one to another? Matt was attracted to Megan not only because of her beauty – her smile, hair, eyes and face, but also to her ambition and inner strength, how she pushes herself and him to be better at what they do and who they are individually and together. Megan was attracted to Matt because of his good looks and athletic ability, his talent and his drive, his sense of humor and love of dogs.

For some mysterious reason, God brought together matt and Megan, and today, we are all the happier for it. Married life brings together two individuals so that they become one and remain as one. And in my experience, what keeps them together is that spiritual dimension, something greater than themselves which dwells deep within them – the presence of God. And so, from one another to the Other.

Lasting relationships remain because something greater than the individuals keeps them together. The spiritual dimension of marriage cannot be overlooked or underestimated. God, however you view God as a Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Moslem, Hindu, Sikh or any believer, is fundamental. God, who is Love, offers himself to all and is present in all. God, Love, offers himself to you, Megan and Matt, and to all who are here with you today – parents, siblings, relatives, friends – and those present only in spirit.

Whatever human mystery attracted you to each other will change, but the divine mystery – love – will remain and sustain your marriage as time ends some season in your lives and begins a new one. As single life ends, marriage begins. A second point ends, a third one begins.

Others. The beautiful words of God read by Margaux and Josh speak not only of God, but also God’s creatures. As the Teacher (Ecclesiastes 3) taught the wisdom of knowing times, the Apostle (Paul) taught the wisdom of knowing human behavior (1 Corinthians 12). Paul knew we are not always patient or kind. Indeed, we are jealous, snobbish, rude, self-seeking, angry, broodish men and women. Much to my dismay, I too rejoice in wrongs and not the truth.

That is why we need you, Matt and Megan. You, who love each other and God deeply, remind us of who we once were, who we can be once again, and ultimately, who we really are – sons and daughters of God created to love, speak, know and live loving lives as God intended. We love God and neighbor with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and we need you to show us once again how to do that. … Will you do that for us?

As you pledge your love, will you be our symbol of unity? As you vow to love, comfort, honor, and keep each other faithfully for the rest of your lives, you remind us of our vows to do the same. And should you falter – as we all do to some degree – we hope that we, the married, can be the “others” to support you through our example of love. Amen.

ABC: All Saints, Beatitudes and Christian Living

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. My sermon title is ABC: All Saints, Beatitudes and Christian Living. My focus is our gospel. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’”  Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

All Saints’ Day is a Christian festival celebrated in honor of all the saints, known and unknown. In Western Christianity, it is celebrated on November 1^st by the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran and other Protestant churches. Eastern Orthodox Churches celebrate it on the first Sunday after Pentecost and others on the first Friday after Easter.

All Saints’ Day stems from a belief that there is a powerful spiritual bond between those in heaven (the "Church triumphant") and the living (the "Church militant"). In many historically Catholic countries it is a national holiday. In Lutheran churches, such as the Church of Sweden, the Day assumes a role of general commemoration of the dead, and usually takes place on the first Sunday of November. Lutherans celebrate All Saints' Day after Reformation Sunday, and in many congregations, we remember the dead while celebrating Christ's victory over death.

Lutherans do not believe that saints can receive prayers or intercede for a petitioner because, according to the Lutheran Church, there is no evidence to support this in the scriptures. In the Lutheran Church, a saint is anyone who believes in Jesus Christ, tries to live an exemplary life and is an example of what everyone else can aspire to become.

The reason that Lutherans do less with saints is Luther’s belief that in Christ’s kingdom all the baptized are saints. All received the same gift of grace and are equal and not better than anyone else. Luther was cautious about a hierarchy where some could be seen as better than others. He was also cautious about praying to saints as intercessors for us before God, believing that in Christ we have direct access to God and need no intercessor.

In his essay on Public Worship in 1523, Luther wrote, “All the festivals of the saints are to be discontinued. Where there is a good Christian legend, it may be inserted as an example after the Gospel on Sunday. The festivals of the Purification and Annunciation of Mary may be continued, and for the time being also her Assumption and Nativity, although the songs in them are not pure. The festival of John the Baptist is also pure. Not one of the legends of the apostles is pure, except St. Paul’s. They may either be transferred to the [closest] Sunday or celebrated separately, if one so desires.”

Luther made similar remarks in his revision of the Latin Mass, “If any desire to approve the introits (inasmuch as they have been taken from Psalms or other passages of Scripture) for apostles’ days, for feasts of the Virgin and of other saints, we do not condemn them. But we in Wittenberg intend to observe only the Lord’s days and the festivals of the Lord. We think that all the feasts of the saints should be abrogated, or if anything in them deserves it, it should be brought into the Sunday sermon. We regard the feasts of Purification and Annunciation as feasts of Christ, even as Epiphany and Circumcision. Instead of the feasts of St. Stephen and of St. John the Evangelist, we are pleased to use the office of the Nativity. . ..  Let others act according to their own conscience or in consideration of the weakness of some—whatever the Spirit may suggest.”

In general, Lutherans kept the feasts associated with the life of Jesus, as well as those saints from the Bible, particularly the New Testament. For example, on June 24^th this year, we observed the Feast of the Birth of John the Baptist.

The Lutheran Service Book adds a few more feast days for Saints, including Michael the Archangel, Paul, Barnabas, Joseph, Mary, Mary Magdalene, Timothy and Titus. It also includes a list of commemorations for Old Testament saints – Abraham, Samuel, Esther – and other saints from the history of the church – Polycarp, Lawrence, Anselm, Luther, Melanchthon, Chemnitz and C.F.W. Walther.

We do not have strict rules governing which saints we must celebrate and which ones we cannot. Much of this is left to the discretion of the pastor. In general, we don’t want to obscure the work of Christ or detract from the main message of the gospel. We certainly should not spend more time talking about the saints than we do about Jesus. And when we do speak about the saints, the focus is still on Jesus. The Apology to the Augsburg Confession mentions three particular ways that we remember the saints: Thanksgiving – When we remember the blessing that these people have been to the church and world, all thanks and glory goes to God alone. Examples of Mercy – In the saints we see how God used sinners like us as His servants. Moses, David, Peter, Paul and the rest were forgiven for their many failings, and that gives us hope. Examples of Faithfulness – God gives us examples to follow through the faith shown by the saints and by their acts of service. You can remember Saints’ Days as part of your daily devotions, school chapel services or devotions at church meetings.

Since the role of the Saints is never to distract or detract from the work of Christ, but to give examples where we can see Him at work throughout the history of His Church and today, we move from A to B, from All Saints to Beatitudes.

We usually consider The Beatitudes as the eight blessings recounted by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel. Each is a proverb-like proclamation, without narrative. Luke reiterated four of the blessings in the Sermon on the Plain followed by four woes which mirror the blessings. In all, Matthew and Luke contain 28 of the 44 beatitudes that appear in the New Testament.

The Greek word for blessed or happy is makarios. Beatitudes have roots in the Greek world and in the Hebrew world to connote praise or the act of blessing.

In the Old Testament, blessedness refers to persons experiencing the fullness of life because of trust in the Lord, deliverance, prosperity or justice.

We read in the Psalms, “Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!”[1] And later, “Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry.”[2]

In the New Testament, beatitudes, such as those in today’s Gospel, focus on the paradoxical reversal of human values. They require openness in faith, which is the appropriate context for understanding the challenge of the Beatitudes.

The Sermon on the Mount, the wider context of the Beatitudes, is a compilation of sayings that Jesus used in different settings. It was also the basis for his ministry. Matthew adapted Jesus’ Sermon and Beatitudes to the changing needs of the Church separated from Judaism and the synagogue.

The Beatitudes shed light on the actions and attitudes characteristic of the Christian life, and are paradoxical promises that sustain hope in the midst of tribulations. They proclaim the blessings and rewards already secured, however dimly, for Christ's disciples.

They respond to our natural desire for happiness. We all want to live happily. In the whole human race there is no one who does not want to be happy. So, what does it mean for us to be happy?

To answer that, and to segue into my third point, Christian Living, let me tell you about a book I read this past summer entitled Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers by Christopher Hall. While Luther’s Small Catechism does not cite Church Fathers, all of the other documents in the Book of Concord do. The first Lutherans quoted the Early Church Fathers against the new (false) teachers of the Roman Church, in order to show that Lutherans were in line with the historic creeds and teachers.[3] They also turned to the Fathers for help in the arguments against radical protestants – Anabaptists, Zwinglians, Calvinists – who rejected infant baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Hall points out that the Ancient Fathers heard music in Scripture where we remain tone-deaf. Despite their occasional eccentricities, theirs was a hearing refined through long listening in song, worship, teaching, meditation and oral reading. And like true masters they challenge and correct our modern assumptions as they invite us to tune our ears to hear the divine melodies of the Bible.

Hall writes about the Fathers quoted in the Book of Concord who offer insight into how Christians today can live the Beatitudes. One of them, Augustine, wrote this:

We must search out the life of happiness, we must ask for it from the Lord our God. Many have discussed at great length the meaning of happiness, but surely, we do not need to go to them and their long drawn out discussions. Holy Scripture says concisely and with truth: Happy is the people whose God is the Lord. We are meant to belong to that people, and to be able to see God and live with him forever, and so the object of this command is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience and a sincere faith.[4]

I quote Augustine because many people view the Beatitudes as a guide to happiness. Some even rename these verses as the Be-Happy-Attitudes. In his succinct analysis, Augustine was correct when he cited Psalm 144: Happy is the people whose God is the Lord.[5] We don’t need to seek every spiritual writer or worldly-wise person offering happiness in a twenty-dollar book or a two-hundred-dollar seminar. Happiness comes freely for the asking from God.

Happiness comes freely for the asking from God. If you ask God for happiness, God will give it freely, even in the midst of your greatest troubles and difficulties. I say that because one of the people I wrote to as I was preparing this sermon was Peg Durachko. I have known Peg for more than 30 years. The two Beatitudes that stood out for her when she responded to me earlier this month are Blessed are, they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied; and Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. She said that for her the former stands out because of how Mother Teresa of Calcutta dedicated her life to serving God, and the latter because at the beginning of this Millennium, Pope John Paul II declared the Second Sunday of Easter Divine Mercy Sunday.

Now, you may be wondering why I am quoting a devout Roman Catholic’s musings on the Beatitudes in a Lutheran Church, a week after Reformation Sunday. One reason is because our observance of Reformation Sunday need not replicate the Lutheran Church of the 16^th century. In spite of those who remain steadfast, many Lutherans and Catholics live harmoniously in the same neighborhoods, work cooperatively in the same business, serve the same community as firefighters and coaches, and sometimes even pray for one another and with one another. The second reason is because Peg Durachko was married to Richard Gottfried, one of those murdered at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, eight days ago.

Richard was a devout Jew, a community servant, a loving husband, a connoisseur of fine wines and full-bodied cigars, a dedicated dentist and a friend of mine. Through many conversations and activities, Rich taught me lessons of life and happiness. And when I think of Happy is the people whose God is the Lord, I think of Rich, for he lived his religion not on his sleeve, but in his heart and in his home, in his dental practice and in his community. In other words, Rich and Peg offer us an example of my third point, Christian Living.

They each studied the Scriptures and their faith. Rich even leaned Hebrew so he could serve as a cantor. He was the president of New Light Congregation and chair of its religious education committee.

Rich and Peg introduced me to personal development seminars, Marriage Encounter and his rabbi at New Light. This led to me leading a session at their adult education class, and Rabbi Harvey leading one at my congregation. Ecumenical, open-minded and loving, they prayed for everyone’s needs. And when people asked Peg what they could do to help, she replied, “Do not let his death be in vain. Drive out evil from your own life and help another to drive it out of their life. The only way to combat evil is with love.”

Drive out evil from your own life and help another to drive it out of their life. The only way to combat evil is with love. My friends, as you observe All Saints’ Day, contemplate the Beatitudes and consider how you will live the Christian Life today, open yourself to those who might offer you a lesson on the latter, no matter what his or her religion, and then, for others be an example of Christian Living by living the Beatitudes and becoming a saint for them, for when you do, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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[1] Psalm 40:4.

[2] Psalm 146:5-7.

[3] https://lutheranreformation.org/history/lutherans-early-church-fathers/

[4] From a letter to Proba by Saint Augustine, bishop (Ep. 130,12,22-13,24; CSEL 44,65-68)

[5] Psalm 144:15.