DON'T BUY IT! BUY IT!

 

When your mom sends your dad to the store with a list of groceries to buy, and he comes home with items not on the list, what does your mom say? Don’t answer. I already know. Once my wife sent me to the store with a list, and when I could not find the product, the clerk said, “This is the same thing.” If someone ever says that to you: Don’t buy it!

I say that because in our reading (Isa 44:6-8), Isaiah tells the people that their God is the Lord, the King of Israel, its Redeemer and Lord of hosts. He is the first, the last, and there is no other god. He tells them that because others were telling God’s people that it was good to worship other gods. This god will make your corn grow higher. This god will make your sons stronger and your daughters more beautiful. These gods will make your businesses more successful.

We get messages like that today from people. Commercials tell us to eat at this restaurant because its food is the tastiest. Wear these clothes because they are the most fashionable. Download this musician because he or she is the most popular. Drive this car because you will save the world. Others tell us that it’s okay to worship other gods because there are many ways to heaven. And others tell us that what we read in the Bible does not matter today. Or that our worship of God the Father, Jesus His Son and the Holy Spirit are not needed. Some say that we do not have to follow the teaching of our Church or believe the Creeds or be baptized or receive the Sacraments. Isaiah would tell us not to fall for that. Jesus taught that He is the only way to Eternal Life. My advice? Buy that!

With that, let us pray. Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named: Bless these and all children, and give their parents the spirit of wisdom and love, so that the homes in which they grow up may be to them an image of Your Kingdom, and the care of their parents a likeness of Your love. We pray in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Weeds

 

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … My sermon is entitled Parable, Passage and Prayer. My focus is on Matthew (13:24-30, 36-43). 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.

What is a parable? Simply defined, a parable is a short story that teaches a moral or spiritual lesson. It comes to us from the Latin, parabola, and the Greek, parabole, which literally meant ‘a throwing beside.’ Its origin is from the term para, meaning alongside, and bole, a throwing, casting, beam or ray.

The geometrically gifted understand that a parabolic curve refers to a comparison between fixed points and a straight line. The St. Louis Arch and your satellite dish are parabolic curves. Jesus, however, did not teach math or build arches. Rather, he compared real life situations to teach a lesson about God.

Parables were part of Jewish tradition. The Hebrew term for a parable was mashal. We find mashal in the allegories, proverbs, riddles and taunts of Judges, Samuel, Proverbs and Prophets. We are familiar with Nathan’s powerful story to David of the rich man who stole and slaughtered the poor man’s prized lamb. It transformed David to a humble, contrite sinner. So, we see that Jesus did not invent parables, but like his ancestors, used them to win people over to his views.

Jesus spoke parables to proclaim the gracious advent, disturbing presence and challenging implications of the Kingdom of God. At times, he opened with, “The kingdom of heaven is like…” or, “To what shall I compare?” Often, he concluded with a challenging question. “Which of these three … proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” Or, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Today, Jesus completed his parable with an alarming, “Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

While Jesus did not pressure listeners to choose any one direction, he confronted them with the necessity to make a choice that determined their future. No doubt, his listeners who viewed matters one way now discovered a better way. Discovering a better way resulted in conversion, reconciliation and changed behavior. Once they experienced conversion and reconciliation, his followers transformed society and changed the world. As I conclude my first point on parables, I repeat that last sentence. Once they experienced conversion and reconciliation, his followers transformed society and changed the world.

From parable to passage, my second point. I repeated the last sentence because repetition is effective pedagogy. We learned our catechism by repeating answers to questions. As Luther employed repetition, so did Matthew. He emphasized the importance of this parable by following up with the disciples asking Jesus to explain its meaning.

Our passage is about God acting, about God doing kingly deeds. God graciously reigns in Jesus as He speaks this parable, and will reign one day in glorious power. We know that God reigned in Jesus and is reigning among us today; however, the reign of God takes place in unexpected, unsatisfying ways as far as we are concerned. I will explain that last part in a moment.

We break this passage into two parts: a description of the situation (vv. 24-28a), followed by a response (28b-30). In describing the situation, Jesus used past-time indicatives. We remember indicatives from our English Grammar classes. The indicative mood states facts or asks questions. (I drink coffee.) The imperative mood expresses commands or requests. (Pour me a cup of coffee, please.) The subjunctive mood shows a desire. (I wish I had a cup of coffee.)

Jesus stated that the reign of God has already become like a man who sowed good seed in the field: a past-time indicative statement. Remarkably, during the night an enemy sowed seed over top of the man’s wheat crop. In time, the plants came up, bore fruit, and then the situation became known. The initial dialogue between the servants and the master of the house confirms what we already know – the facts.

In the second interchange between the servants and their master, the question becomes, “What does the master want to do about changing things?” Their attempt to collect the weeds from the midst of the wheat is met with a lengthy, explanatory reply. “No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

The servants are most emphatically not to change the situation for that would be dangerously premature. In short, it is not their call. The danger in separating the weeds from the wheat would uproot wheat. The servants are to let the plants grow together until the harvest.

The crowds who first heard Jesus’ parable took away two things. First, this is a little story about what it is like now that God has begun to restore his royal rule during Jesus’ time. Second, the story communicates that the crowds should not expect anything different from Jesus’s ministry other than what it has been. Although the crowds have been curious about and positive towards Jesus, they are not his disciples. They are not satisfied with Jesus and must find something lacking in him. Yet, they should expect no other Jesus.^[1]

The crowds expect something different from what they have seen and heard so far. Again, the reign of God takes place in unexpected, unsatisfying ways as far as the crowd is concerned. For the crowd believes that one day it will be different. One day, there will be a change. Yet, they should expect no other Jesus.

The basic impact of the passage is akin to Jesus telling the crowds, “Stop looking for something other than what I am offering you. I must seem strange to you, like a man who has an enemy so evil that he scatters weeds in the man’s field at night, and then the owner does not even weed out the harmful plants from the midst of his own crop! This must seem strange to you, but what you see in me is the present manifestation of God’s reign in the world.”

The crowd does not seek the meaning of this parable. Jesus’ disciples later seek the parable’s meaning. The crowd, however, does not understand it, and does not care to try to understand it. Pity, for – like the harvest – judgment comes to everyone, even the one who does not care to understand deeply Jesus’ words.

Judgment comes to everyone, even the one who does not care to understand deeply Jesus’ words. That said, what has this passage to do with us and my third point, prayer? Previously, I have said that prayer is communal and personal. We pray in our sanctuaries and rooms. It is from the heart, and it is also vocal. Prayer is God looking at me, and me looking at God. Several weeks ago, I reintroduced the Five P’s of Prayer: Passage, Place, Posture, Presence and Passage.

As I meditated on this passage from Matthew, I saw that the disciples were deficient in their insight and understanding. Their faith did not grow the way it should have – like the tiny mustard seed into something larger than expected. Yet, before I become critical of the remaining disciples, I reviewed what happened since this section opened in chapter eleven.

Many followers abandoned Jesus. The reign of heaven came under attack (11:12). Galileans failed to repent and receive the Gospel from the Apostles (11:20-24). Jewish leaders turned against Jesus (12:1-45). He disparaged his family (12:46-50). The crowds did not comprehend his teaching (13:1-15). And what followed was his rejection in Nazareth (13:53-58) and the beheading of John the Baptist (14:1-12).

Agreed, it’s easy for us from the comfort of our homes to criticize the original disciples for their lack of faith, insight and understanding. It’s even easier to criticize those who abandoned Jesus or did not inquire about the meaning of his parables. And when I place this passage into our time and place, it’s easy to see why parables are timeless lessons.

What came to me was that many people are willing to sell their souls for success or simply social acceptance. Many books and movies follow this theme with the seminal work being Faust, the 15^th-century German legend of a highly successful astrologer dissatisfied with his life. He made a deal with the devil exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. While I doubt any of us have made a deal with the devil, the words Faust and Faustian imply a situation in which an ambitious person surrenders moral integrity in order to achieve power and success for a limited term. We see it all the time in business, politics and medicinal and military circles.

I may not be willing to sell my soul, but as I reflect upon life, were there or are there moments when I desired or coveted to be rich or famous? Perhaps it was to be the star athlete, actor or academic? Maybe it was a title or degree or position?

Maybe I never considered selling my soul, but maybe I never was attracted to the teachings of Jesus and the Gospel – what God has done for us through the Paschal Mystery of His Son, that is, Jesus’ acceptance of suffering and death leading to the Resurrection. Maybe Law and Gospel were never as palatable or pleasurable as fame and fortune. Maybe I found more attractive an interest or a profession and never considered how accounting, baking, coaching, cooking, counseling, engineering, nursing, selling, teaching might be applied to Christianity, or vice-versa.

In many professions, including pastoral ones, we have been taught by someone that it is important to be relevant, relatable, recognized, retweeted, reposted, and in the process, popular, rich and famous. In our personal lives, there may have been a time when other things mattered more than my faith – a desirable house, a landscaped yard, a luxury car. In the world’s eyes, all these things and more may be good. But to be seen as successful or to have the trappings associated with success start subtly, like weeds sown among the wheat; and like weeds, temptations always return.

Part of the reason we don’t notice temptations is because we trust the people planting them in us. Martin Luther once commented on this passage this way: “… We are not to think that only true Christians and the pure doctrine of God are to dwell upon the earth; but that there must be also false Christians and heretics in order that the true Christians may be approved. …  For this parable [addresses] … those who are unchristian in their doctrine and faith under the name Christian, who beautifully play the hypocrite and work harm. It is a matter of the conscience and not of the hand. And they must be very spiritual servants to be able to identify the tares among the wheat. And the sum of all is that we should not marvel nor be terrified if there spring up among us many different false teachings and false faiths. Satan is constantly among the children of God.”^[2]

He continues on how we should respond to such teachers. “We are not to uproot nor destroy them. Here he says publicly let both grow together. We have to do here with God’s Word alone; for in this matter he who errs today may find the truth tomorrow. Who knows when the Word of God may touch his heart? But if he be burned at the stake, or otherwise destroyed, it is thereby assured that he can never find the truth; and thus the Word of God is snatched from him, and he must be lost, who otherwise might have been saved. Hence the Lord says here, that the wheat also will be uprooted if we weed out the tares. That is something awful in the eyes of God and never to be justified.”^[3]

In other words, God will gather the weeds and burn them. He will shut the door on foolish virgins late for the wedding, cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness, and send to eternal punishment those who did not do tend to the needs of the least. Yet, before that time arrives, we must, as the Good Doctor suggests, pray for their conversion to the true Christian Faith.

Folks, our world is populated with God’s disciples and enemies. While I wish God would act now, I must be patient and allow God to punish as He deems. For left to my own will, to paraphrase Martin Luther, I would wreck it all.

I know God’s enemies are active. Some are obvious and others are subtle: powers and people who promote any lifestyle contrary to the Gospel and God’s Law whether they are the seven deadly sins compiled in Proverbs or vices in Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. Some promote personal sins and others modern social sins – destroying the environment, trafficking drugs and humans, violating fundamental rights of human nature and so on.

As Jesus’ disciples and our Father’s subjects, we must not only be aware of God’s enemies and the temptations they sow among us, and pray for their conversion, but also awaken society to them. As prayerful Christians taking our faith to school and work, to family gatherings and on vacation, to the political sphere and our virtual communities, we, like the original disciples, will struggle. That is why we rely solely on Jesus to steady us through Word and Sacrament. Friends, as you take your faith from these walls into the world, I pray that the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, keeps your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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[1] Gibbs, 694f.

[2] https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/luther_martin/misc/003_wheat-n-tares.cfm

[3] Ibid.

GOD'S RAIN

 

Do you like when it rains? There are times that I am so thankful to God for making it rain. Rain waters my garden, my trees and my lawn. The Prophet Isaiah (55:10-13) said that God’s rain comes down from heaven to water the earth. The purpose of rain is to sprout seeds and give us food to eat.

We know that rain is good, but too much of it is not good. Too much rain can ruin our crops and take away the seed we plant. This happened to me a few years ago when I planted grass in front of my house. After I finished, it rained for three days, washing away most of the seed I planted. God humbled me, and made me realize that I only plant the seed. God gives the growth.

What other seeds do I plant? Apart from grass, pumpkin, cucumber or bean seeds, I plant the Word of God. Every Sunday, I plant seeds of faith in the people who gather with us for worship, and the Holy Spirit makes the seeds of faith grow in people according to God’s good and gracious will.

I don’t rely upon entertaining people with jokes and funny stories, with colored lights and rock bands. I simply plant seeds of faith and pray that God’s Holy Spirit stirs the hearts, minds and hands of every person who hears God’s Word.

I also offer people Christ’s Body and Blood to strengthen them for the week so that after they leave here, they go home and show God’s love to their family members, neighbors and friends and bring those people to hear God’s Word. You too can plant those seeds of faith when you leave here too. Maybe next week, we can all bring someone to worship with us.

With that, let us pray. Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named: Bless these and all children, and give their parents the spirit of wisdom and love, so that the homes in which they grow up may be to them an image of Your Kingdom, and the care of their parents a likeness of Your love. We pray in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Convicted Christian

 

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … My focus is Romans 8:15, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship,” and Matthew 13:3, “Then Jesus told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed.”

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.

“I to I” stood for “Incarceration to Independence.” “I to I” was a program I started when I worked at Jubilee Kitchen. It was for young mothers incarcerated at the Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh. The goal of “I to I” was to offer a seamless transition from a woman’s incarceration into society where as an independent woman, she could resume her duties of motherhood.

In the year that I initiated and oversaw “I to I,” more than 50 women sought assistance. Our most successful client was Eva. In fact, Eva was our only successful client. Despite all I did for my clients – counseling, suitable clothing for court, personal transportation to their parole officer, or to other organizations that work with homeless women, and connecting them to a myriad of social services, my ministry was a failure. Of 50 women, one succeeded.

I failed because I was working with incarcerated women, including those with babies, who were addicted to some drug that stemmed from abuse or neglect as children. They were arrested for crimes related to their addiction – possession, theft, solicitation or some other non-violent crime.

In 1970, there were 5,600 women incarcerated in all US prisons. By 2001, there were 160,000 incarcerated women, and the number continues to grow annually. Is there a need for programs such as “I to I” today? Definitely. Will such programs produce successful women such as Eva? Undoubtedly. Will the majority of incarcerated women transition to independence? No. Then, why support such programs? In a word, grace.

I relate my experience of “I to I” to Romans and Matthew for two reasons. First, our understanding of addiction helps us grasp Paul’s theology of sin and grace, or fear and sonship. Second, failure offers us understanding of the Sower and the Seed, and the parable offers us hope.

First, Paul’s theology of sin and grace. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. Paul used “slave” in Romans to teach Christians how sin, the flesh or the ways of the world enslave us. He also used the word to describe our relationship with God. As heirs of God and co-heirs of Christ, we are slaves of righteousness.

We do not have a personal experience of being slaves, and few of us have ever met a slave, although there are more than 15,000 slaves trafficked in our nation annually. So, when Paul writes of slaves of sin or fear and slaves of righteousness, we do not grasp the meaning.

A slave has a master. Society teaches me that I do not have a master. I am master of my own destiny. No one tells me how to live, how to think, how to behave. I am my own man. I get to define myself. That makes it difficult to grasp the meaning of Paul’s theology of sin.

We might understand Paul better if we consider ourselves not as slaves but as addicts. Our experience of addiction is real. We know addicts. Whether our experience of an addict is an incarcerated mother, someone in our school or in our family, or even personal, we know addicts.

Today, we know addicts as people dependent on drugs or alcohol to cope with life, but in the Roman Empire, addicts were bankrupt people given as slaves to their creditors. Addict comes from the Latin addictus, meaning, “a debtor awarded as a slave to his creditor.” In the 1600s, it meant giving yourself to someone or some practice. By the 1900s, addict became associated with dependency on drugs.

So, when Paul says we are slaves of fear or slaves to sin, he means that we are addicted to sin. This addiction to sin extends beyond acts of murder, theft, adultery or gossip, and goes to the heart of sin – idolatry. … The heart of sin is not having God rule my life. I am addicted to thinking that I control my destiny. God is not my master. I have no master. I am my own master. Martin Luther realized that such thinking goes against the First Commandment: I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods before me. He wrote extensively about this in his Large Catechism. (We will cover this in our classes in the Fall.)

From his encounter with the Risen Christ, Paul knew better. As sinners whose debt was paid through the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus, we, the baptized, should live as addicts of the Holy Trinity. We are addicted to God. As a drug controls the life of an addict, the Trinity controls the life of a Christian. Addiction to God leads me to my next point, failure.

Failure offers us understanding of the Sower and the Seed, and it offers us hope. … To develop this point, we examine the parable in its fuller context. Matthew opens the chapter with the words, “on that day.” What happened on that day? Before the parable, that is, in chapter 12, we read that the Pharisees claimed the source of Jesus’ power was Beelzebul; teachers of the law demanded a sign; and his family did not grasp his identity.

At the end of chapter 13, His scandalized homefolk questioned the source of Jesus’ wisdom and power. The closing verse reads, “He did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.”

Reading the wider passage helps us understand why Jesus spoke these parables. Despite his teaching and his healing, despite opening people’s minds and hearts, so many failed to respond in faith and discipleship.

True, Satan, sin and the world devoured His message as birds feed on seed so that before Jesus proclaimed the reign of God, His hearers never had a chance to understand or believe it. Some new believers and followers of Jesus, like seed on rocky ground, who did not put down deep roots, experienced personal difficulties or opposition because of their belief, and turned away. Others, like seed among thorns, were seduced by wealth or let worry asphyxiate the Good News of God’s power. In short, most seed produced no fruit.

Most seed produced no fruit because God came in mysteriously lowly, weak and resistible ways. … God comes in mysteriously lowly, weak and resistible ways, but those who have ears hear Him. During Jesus’ life, some heard the Good News of how God the King was coming to reclaim creation and forgive His people. They heard and understood, and in their understanding, they were fruitful for God. Peter and Paul, Martha and Mary, tax collectors Matthew and Zaccheus, fishermen James and John, and others heard and understood Jesus.

What did they hear and understand? … Scrape away the top layer of our text to examine the Sower’s methods, and notice that He, God, throws His seed on the path where birds eat it, on rocky soil where roots wither, among thorns and on good soil. In other words, God sows seed everywhere. God does not restrict His seed, His message, to a particular plot of land or a specific group of people. God’s indiscriminate broadcast of seed or grace is not efficient and goes against the human tendency to conserve one’s resources and efforts. God’s method is not efficient or productive, but in the Reign of God, grace trumps efficiency. God’s message, God’s grace, God’s forgiveness, God’s love is for all people.

Now, compare the fruit that fell on good soil to the seed that produced none. Ask yourself how that seed produced faith that has lasted for 2,000 years and blossomed in every nation and culture. This occurred not by reason or sheer human willpower. As Martin Luther’s Small Catechism explained the Third Article of the Apostle’s Creed, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel.”

The Holy Spirit called me by the Gospel. We believe in the Holy Spirit because by our own reason or strength we cannot believe in Jesus Christ our Lord. Those who heard and understood Jesus allowed the Holy Spirit to enter their hearts.

The Holy Spirit also empowered Jesus, when faced with failure, not to abandon His Father’s will. Even though the Pharisees, His family and friends thought He was possessed or crazy, Jesus did not abandon His mission. He continued to spread His Good News. He continued to spread His Gospel like a farmer sowing seed. Jesus sowed seeds of faith, hope and love. Among the hopeless, Jesus sowed seeds of hope. Among the unloved, Jesus sowed seeds of love. Among those struggling with faith, Jesus prayed that the Holy Spirit enlighten their minds and move their hearts. So, how does the parable offer us hope today?

I should have given up on Eva. I worked with 50 women, and 49 failed. However, by grace, Eva succeeded. I spent countless hours on the phone and in person counseling Eva. I visited her in jail. When released, I got her into Bethlehem Haven, an organization that assists homeless women in recovery. I listened to her complaints and disappointments. I met her children. I secured furniture for her first apartment. And then, I moved to California.

Two years later, my former boss at Jubilee Kitchen, Liguori Rossner, told me that Eva greeted her as her host at a local restaurant. Eva was thrilled to see Liguori and expressed joyful gratitude for all that I did for her. People may say that “I to I” failed, but Eva did not.

Our work with her – all for the glory of God – produced more fruit than imaginable. Honestly, I thought the birds of prey would snatch away the Good News or the worries of life would choke her, but the Spirit worked in her and I am grateful to God for that.

God may not be calling you to minister to incarcerated women, but God is calling you to demonstrate the fruits of His seed, His grace and love. God calls you to show how His loving-kindness has changed your life. He calls you to read, study and pray His Word. He calls you to receive His grace poured into your heart through the Sacraments of Baptism and Communion. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Father and Son call you to demonstrate His presence in your life.

If God called you to parent, raise your children as baptized Christians. If God called you to marriage, love your spouse as Christ loves His spouse, the Church. If God called you to teach, inspire students. If God called you to the military or public service, serve under the banner of Christ. If God called you to business or industry, do business with Christian ethics.

Fear not those who steal the Gospel like birds of prey. Let not the world or its worries stifle God’s Spirit in you. In Paul’s words, “You who have received the Spirit of sonship will never again be a slave to fear.” Offer hope to the hopeless, love the unloved, evangelize without words. Offer this world’s Eva’s another chance.

Be not a Christian comfortable living the ways of the world, the ways of flesh. If you melded your faith into the world’s ways ... If you are satisfied with your relationship with God … If you are living a “respectable” Christian life, remember that we’re not called to be respectable, but we’re called to be champions – champions for Christ.

Be a champion for Christ. Witness for Christ, and not Satan, sin and self. … Witness for Christ like an addict, like an heir of the Kingdom. Spread seeds of faith, hope and love everywhere and without discrimination. And when you do, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

BIBLICAL DONKEYS

 

My friend teaches people how to ride horses. If you want to learn how to ride a horse, I can tell you who to call. I have met other people who know how to ride and train horses, but I have never met anyone who knows how to ride and train donkeys. No one ever says, “I own a donkey!” or “I train donkeys for a living!”

The reason I mention that is because in our reading from Zechariah (9:9-12), we heard, “Behold, your king is coming to you; … humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Have you ever wondered why Jesus rode a donkey and not a horse?

The horse was thought to be a war animal. When soldiers went into battle, their leaders rode horses so they could see above everyone else, and because horses are strong enough to pull chariots and wagons. The donkey was seen as a peace animal. Anyone who rode it was not coming to make war on you.

When we set up our manger scenes under our trees and in our church at Christmas, there is usually a donkey. We read in Isaiah, “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib” (1:3). Isaiah saw that at the place where Jesus was going to be born there would be a donkey.

In all four Gospels we read that when Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He did this to fulfill the prophecy we heard in Zechariah today. As our King, Jesus brings us peace.

With that, let us pray. Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named: Bless these and all children, and give their parents the spirit of wisdom and love, so that the homes in which they grow up may be to them an image of Your Kingdom, and the care of their parents a likeness of Your love. We pray in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Brackets and Believers

 

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … My sermon is entitled Biblical Brackets and Blessed Believers. My focus is Matthew 11. 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.

Bracket. The word bracket is one of the most versatile words in the English language. We use the word to refer to various supports and name them as corner, countertop, counterbalance, mending and wall brackets. Brackets are used by architects, basketball fans, mathematicians, photographers, programmers, scientists, shipbuilders, writers, gunners and spotters. Based on your income, you are placed in an economic or tax bracket. The Latin root word for bracket is brachium meaning the upper segment of the arm extending from the shoulder to the elbow. Hence, we use brackets to separate and to join.

In biblical studies, bracketing consists of creating a frame by placing similar material at the beginning and end of a section. The purpose of a bracket may be structural – to alert the reader to a particularly important theme – or it may serve to show how the material within the bracket relates to itself. An important case of this occurs in Mark’s 11^th chapter. There we read of the “Cursing of the Fig Tree” and the “Cleansing of the Temple.” By giving the first half of the story before the Cleansing of the Temple, and the conclusion after, Mark creates a “frame” that effectively highlights that he wants the Cleansing of the Temple to be seen in light of the Cursing of the Fig Tree. In other words, Jesus' actions in the Temple are not just a reform measure, but a judgment against it.

Matthew bracketed several sections to make theological points. The Infancy Narratives, the Sermon on the Mount and the Passion Narrative are three brackets. Today’s passage falls within the bracketed section beginning with verse two of chapter eleven and ending with verse twenty of chapter sixteen.

Matthew bracketed this section to ask and answer the question – Who is Jesus? Matthew introduced this passage with John the Baptist asking the question regarding Jesus’ identity, “Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’” (Mt 11:2-3).

Matthew ended the section with Jesus asking his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” and Peter stating, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Because he confessed this, Jesus said, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (16:13-17). Now that we know why Matthew bracketed this larger passage, let’s examine verses 25-30 more closely.

In verse 25, Jesus praises the Father because he hides and reveals these things. “These things” refers to the significance of the ministries of both John and Jesus – ministries that the wise and understanding in Israel were rejecting and in which infants were rejoicing through faith.

Recall that as John’s disciples went away from Jesus, the Lord spoke to the crowd about John. At one point he said, “John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.” (Mt 11:18-19).

Jesus is responding to a specific situation in history when many Galileans refused to repent and receive him as Israel’s Messiah. Recall that in chapter 10, Jesus sent his Twelve Apostles to the lost sheep of Israel living in towns and villages throughout Galilee. Many people rejected the Apostles’ teaching, preaching and healing. They refused to repent and receive Him and His message though His Apostles. They reacted with arrogant self-sufficiency. They were content with what other teachers, preachers, rabbis and priests were offering them. In a word, they were self-sufficient.

It is a deadly thing to think that one is self-sufficient. The self-sufficient are those Jesus labeled as the wise and the understanding. Jesus encountered many people like that in Israel who thought they had figured out both Jesus and John. Yet, neither, and to a greater degree, Jesus, can be contained by anyone’s preconceived thoughts or theological systems. Jesus is the foundation for all other things in life and eternity. His words are spoken with divine authority, and proclaim that even the knowledge of God the Father must come through Jesus and him alone.

In an encounter with Jesus, either during his earthly ministry or today through the preaching of His Word, no one can claim independence or self-sufficiency of any kind. Since all comes from Jesus, only He is wise and understanding.[1]

When people react to the good news about Christ with arrogant self-sufficiency, the Father responds by hiding the message from them. Jesus does not say that this hiding will remain forever for we cannot rule out that God may yet bring these people to repent and believe. As the Lord teaches, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Mt 23:12).

Those who have “these things” revealed to them are little children. Other versions of the Bible translate the term differently, including babes, childlike, infants, ordinary people and unlearned.

Infants here are not young children, but people who are unable and insufficient in themselves to accomplish anything good. They are the poor in spirit. Jesus also speaks of such people in chapter 18, when asked by disciples about the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. He placed a little child in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (18:1-4).

Such people were definitely not arrogantly self-sufficient, but saw Jesus as a touchstone, a reference point or new wine. They saw Him as God’s Messiah and followed him as his disciples. They brought nothing but their need for Christ who offered, and still offers, forgiveness, healing and salvation. To them God himself reveals their poverty and infancy.

Then we get to verse 27, which reads, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Know this: In the union of the divine and human natures in the one Person of Christ, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, all of the divine attributes of God the Son are communicated to the human nature of Christ, for all things have been given to him by the Father.

In turn, Christ is the only one who reveals to humans the saving ways of God that are now at work in our world today. God the Father communicates to us through his Son in Word and Sacrament.

Were we to read verse 27 in isolation, we might conclude that God may not want to save everyone. There is nothing further from the truth. God wants to save everyone. The paradox is that God alone brings some people to faith through the message but all people are invited. And that brings us to verses 28-30.

Here, we read the Lord’s words: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

The burdens experienced by Jewish people during the time of Jesus included an unbalanced emphasis on the necessity of obedience to all the commands of the Torah – both written and oral interpretations of it. The heavy emphasis on obedience to the Law’s commands watered down our utter dependence to God’s free grace.

And so, we must yoke ourselves – or allow ourselves to be yoked – to Jesus as his disciple. To be Jesus’ disciple is to learn from him how to be gentle and humble in heart. In learning that Jesus gently receives and forgives all who come to him in need, disciples find rest for their lives. All who come to his unparalleled authority and power with only their need in their hands find a Savior. He saves because of his own humility of heart that leads to the cross and the empty tomb for all. Taking on Christ’s yoke lightens life’s burdens and those of eternity.[2]

A personal example. Cindy and I planted a garden earlier this year. As any gardener knows, weeding is an essential task. Weeding alone is tedious and tiresome. Weeding with another person makes work easier and the burden lighter.

Jesus’ yoke is called easy. The underlying Greek word means kind. A good yoke is one that is carefully shaped so that there will be a minimum of chafing. Jesus’ yoke will be kind to our shoulders, enabling us to carry the load more easily. In this sense alone the Blessed Believer’s burden will be light. Jesus does not diminish the weight of our accountability to God but helps us to bear this responsibility.

The rest that is promised to the weary is not, however, the rest of inactivity. Jesus did not come to abolish the law of Moses but to fulfill it by providing its ultimate interpretation. Remember his words on the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Mt 5:17). What he offers is not a vacation from the law but a less burdensome way of fulfilling it. At certain points his interpretation will be more lenient (Sabbath observance), at others more stringent (divorce) than that of the Pharisees, but law observance as a whole will be simplified by his emphasis on ‘the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness’ (23:23) and on the double commandment of love of God and neighbor, for “all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (22:40). Rest is made possible through the provision of Jesus’ new yoke.[3]

As Blessed Believers we will struggle with sin and temptation as did Paul. He reminds us of that in our epistle today (Rom 7:14-25) when he writes, “Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin” (Rom 7:24-25).

Yet, there is hope. Turn to Romans 8, and you read of the hope offered to us. Blessed believers, “if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (v 11).

The opportunities to love God and neighbor are more numerous than the 613 commandments of the Old Testament. How many times throughout each day can we embody Beatitudes, offer forgiveness to offenders, love our enemies, friends and family members? How gentler and humble can I be? How less anxious and angry can I be? What opportunities are there for me to give alms, pray and fast? Have I lived the Golden Rule today or offered healing to the hurt?

Friends, our opportunities to love God and neighbor are countless because God’s love for us and others is innumerable, boundless, immeasurable. As my friend, Dave Gruseck, once said, opportunities are like pitches. If you miss one, there’s another on its way.

May we always find ourselves like little children totally dependent upon our Savior, and may we avail ourselves to His Presence in Word and Sacrament. Let us ask others to let us pray with them and ask them to pray with us because we need each other’s prayers and support. Live your Christian lives as enthusiastically as basketball bracketologists. And as you live, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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[1] Jeffrey A. Gibbs, Matthew 1:1-11:1. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House (2006), p. 586.

[2] Gibbs, 591.

[3] Douglas R. A. Hare, Matthew. Louisville: John Knox Press (1993), p. 128.