Recognizing the hopelessness of your situation is the first step

Posted on September 25, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 17

Isaiah 59:1-11

There are two fundamental teachings of the Bible, that run throughout the entire Bible. We’re studying this right now in our online study of the book of Romans (which we’ll probably end up doing here in person, too, at some point). In fact, in the book of Romans, St. Paul quotes one of the verses we have before us this evening in Isaiah 59 in order to highlight those two teachings. We refer to them as the Law and the Gospel. The Law is the teaching that runs throughout the Scriptures that presents God’s righteous requirement that man must be righteous, as God is righteous, in order to be acceptable to God. It’s the natural path, the default path, that all men start out on. But the message of Scripture is that this path necessarily leads to death for all who walk it. If we are to be acceptable to God, if we are to be saved from sin, death, and the devil, we have to walk the path of the Gospel.

The path of the Gospel, as we constantly present it, is the path of recognizing our sins, recognizing that we are failures on the path of the Law, recognizing that no one is righteous enough to be acceptable to God, and mourning over it. Then it’s hearing the good news, that God the Father has given His Son Jesus Christ into death for your sins, has given Him as a free gift, and that He will cover, with His own righteousness, all who run to Him in faith, that all who believe in Christ Jesus are forgiven and will have everlasting life.

Much time is spent in the Bible, especially the Old Testament, in convincing the people of Israel that the path of the Law is futile, because they kept on stubbornly trying to walk it, in defiance of God’s Word, in defiance of God’s mercy. Defiance, not because keeping the Law is against God’s will, but because they refused to acknowledge their sins and their need to be saved by God’s mercy instead of by their own attempts at Law-keeping.

That’s why we have a very direct, very stern preaching of the Law again in Isaiah chapter 59. Let’s walk through it briefly. And remember, as we do, that it’s directed to those who are secure in their sins, to those who keep avoiding the path of the Gospel, because they are determined to be saved by the Law instead.

Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.

In other words, God says to them, you’re suffering now, and you will suffer more, not because I’m unable to save you, or unable to hear your cries for salvation. No, you are suffering, and will suffer much more, because you have sinned against Me and refuse to repent. You have sinned against Me and yet you still think that you deserve My help, that you have earned My favor on the path of the Law. So, as long as you keep trying to approach Me on the path of the Law, the Law will continue to reveal your sins, and, therefore, you will not receive My help.

For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue has muttered perversity.

What exactly were the Israelites doing? They were mistreating their neighbors with their hands and with their tongues. Some were guilty of actual murder. Others, of supporting the murderers. Others, of simply looking the other way. God could speak the same condemnation on our country, and on all the nations of the world, as some people murder little babies in abortion, while others support them in such murder, while others simply look the other way. Wars, violence, bloodshed take place everywhere. But iniquity takes many, many forms, not just violence. It’s every moment lived without concern for God, without concern for His Word, without concern for one’s neighbor. Lips speak lies, tongues mutter perversity, and hearts are bitter, and loveless, and cold.

No one calls for justice, Nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity. They hatch vipers’ eggs and weave the spider’s web; He who eats of their eggs dies, And from that which is crushed a viper breaks out. Their webs will not become garments, Nor will they cover themselves with their works; Their works are works of iniquity, And the act of violence is in their hands.

Now, calling for justice and pleading for truth were especially relevant in Old Testament Israel, as the whole nation of Israel was the visible Church of God, and God’s covenant with them governed their society as a whole. So when injustice took place in Israel, when the government failed to condemn the guilty and failed to uphold the case of the innocent, it was the responsibility of all the citizens of Israel to seek justice for their neighbor and to speak up for what was true. Some schemed to take advantage of their neighbor, some took bribes to let the wicked get away with it, and some just grew lazy and indifferent to the injustice happening all around them. “As long as I’m doing ok, I’m not going to get involved.” And God looked at it all and said, “You’re all guilty before Me, all of you who practice these things!”

He goes on: Their feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; Wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they have not known, And there is no justice in their ways; They have made themselves crooked paths; Whoever takes that way shall not know peace.

These are the verses that Paul cites in Romans chapter 3. And here we have to take note that Paul applies these words, not just to the openly wicked and evil criminals in the world, but to all people everywhere. Not that all people are guilty of every possible sin, not that all people are going around literally shedding innocent blood, but all people participate in these kinds of sins. If God were to judge us by His holy, righteous Law, the Law would find sins in every human being. All who are judged by the Law will be found guilty.

Therefore, Isaiah says, justice is far from us, Nor does righteousness overtake us; We look for light, but there is darkness! For brightness, but we walk in blackness! We grope for the wall like the blind, And we grope as if we had no eyes; We stumble at noonday as at twilight; We are as dead men in desolate places. We all growl like bears, And moan sadly like doves; We look for justice, but there is none; For salvation, but it is far from us.

We don’t behave justly, and, therefore, we don’t get justice from God—at least, not the kind we want. Because, the truth is, when God punishes sinners, that is justice. When God condemns the unrighteous, that is righteousness. But that doesn’t help the sinner. There’s no salvation on the path of the Law, because all are lawbreakers. There’s no light for us to walk by, if we have to come up with our own source of light. We can’t save ourselves. Period.

That Law-message is a hard message to hear, but sinners need to hear it until they finally break, until they finally acknowledge their sins, until they finally stop trying to get God to accept them based on their works.

But when we do acknowledge that God is speaking the truth, when we do acknowledge that we can’t save ourselves, when we finally recognize the hopelessness of our situation, that’s when God comes running to us with the Gospel, which doesn’t make its way into our short 11 verses this evening but which is the theme of the whole Bible. “Look, you sinners! Since you stand condemned if you stand under the Law, come out from under it! See, I offer you another way, another path to walk. I give My Son on your behalf, to be the sacrifice of atonement, to be your Mediator, to be your Savior and Redeemer. Repent of your wickedness and approach Me through Him, and I will hear you. Approach Me through Him, and I will give you justice, righteousness, peace, salvation, and eternal life.” This is the way of grace. This is the way of faith, the way of the Gospel. And it’s the way that works.

Recognizing the hopelessness of your situation is the first step to salvation, which is why the Law of God is always needed this side of heaven. But God holds out new hope in the Gospel. Hear it and believe it, and then spend the rest of your life as a thank-offering to the God who gives you hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

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The ugliness of thinking highly of yourself

Posted on September 22, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 17

Ephesians 4:1-6  +  Luke 14:1-11

There’s plenty of ugliness in the world, as you know. We’re confronted with it every day, whenever people are involved. That’s not to say there’s no beauty in the world, or that everything everyone does is always ugly. But there is an ugliness that infects all men, including Christians, no matter how well it may sometimes be hidden. It’s an out-in-the-open ugliness we encounter in today’s Gospel, in both parts of the Gospel, an ugliness that Jesus exposes and tries very patiently to correct. It’s the ugliness of thinking highly of yourself.

Now, you know that the Pharisees were Jewish leaders in Jesus’ day who were famous for thinking highly of themselves. So it really comes as no surprise that that ugliness came out again while Jesus was attending a Sabbath supper at the home of a Pharisee, with other Pharisees and experts in the law also in attendance. Luke tells us that they were “watching Jesus closely,” not to learn from Him, but to see where they could catch Him in a sin in order to cancel Him, if at all possible, because, by this time, Jesus had gathered many disciples, and had shamed the Pharisees on several occasions for their sinful behavior and their false teachings.

There was a man there at the supper who suffered from dropsy, a painful swelling in the arms or legs, which was often a sign of heart failure. Jesus had miraculously healed many diseases before this. And some of those healings had taken place on the Sabbath Day, the day of rest. And each time Jesus had healed on the Sabbath Day, the Pharisees and other Jews had gotten very angry, both at Him and at those who dared to be healed by Him on the day when they were all supposed to be resting. In chapter 13 of Luke’s Gospel, right before the chapter of today’s Gospel, the ruler of a synagogue (the “head of a Jewish church”!) had yelled at a woman who had been suffering for 18 years, because she dared to be healed by Jesus on a Sabbath day.

So rather than wait for their accusation, Jesus decided to ask them first: Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? Actually, it was. The commandment prohibited doing “work” on the Sabbath day. But what kind of work was meant? If you read the Old Testament, even Isaiah 58, which we just considered together this past Wednesday, it’s clear that the kind of work that was prohibited on the Sabbath Day was work that was done for a person’s own benefit, working your job, your farm, your kitchen, your yard, etc. Good works to help a person’s neighbor—even good works to help a needy animal!—were never prohibited. Not by God, at least. And the Jews all took care of their animals on the Sabbath Day.

But, for some reason, the experts in the Law remained silent. They remained silent, because they knew they couldn’t cite a single passage from Scripture to prove that healing someone was a violation of God’s commandment. While Jesus, on the other hand, could cite plenty of passages that showed that God wanted certain works to be done on that day, for honoring God and for serving the one in need. So they couldn’t say it was unlawful, and yet, in the ugliness of their pride, they refused to say it was lawful.

So Jesus healed the man and let him go. But He still wanted an answer from the experts in the Law. So He asked again, Which of you, if your ox or donkey fell into a pit, would not immediately pull it out on the Sabbath day? They all would! Anyone would! They’d help an animal on the Sabbath Day, but they wouldn’t approve of their own flesh and blood being helped. Why? Because they took pride in their resting on the Sabbath Day. What’s more, they took pride in being the Sabbath police, condemning others for not being as obedient as they were. And, to top it all off, they couldn’t stand having Jesus expose the ugliness of their pride. They claimed to be defending God’s law, but did they really care what God wanted? No. Did they care at all about what was good for their neighbor, for their fellow Israelite? No. If they had cared about what God wanted, they would have searched the Scriptures, where they would have found that love for God and love for neighbor were front and center, would have found that God’s commandments exposed their pride and condemned them for it, would have found that they needed atonement to be made for their pride, that their only hope did not lie in how well they rested on the Sabbath, but in the mercy of God toward ugly, prideful sinners like them.

There’s more ugliness in the second part of the Gospel, more prideful behavior on the part of the guests at that Sabbath supper. Luke says that Jesus noticed how the guests, as they arrived, all chose the places of highest honor, the tables reserved for the most important guests. Now, it wasn’t a great crime to do that at a Sabbath supper. But it could be embarrassing, as Jesus will point out, and, more importantly, He sees in that behavior an example, a pattern of how those same people behaved toward God, because they didn’t only think highly of themselves compared to the other guests. They thought highly of themselves before God Himself. And that’s both ugly, and deadly.

So He tells the parable, not of a Sabbath supper, but a of a wedding banquet, as the kingdom of heaven is often portrayed. When you are invited by someone to a wedding, do not sit down in the place of highest honor. Otherwise, if someone more honorable than you has been invited by him, the one who invited you both may come and say to you, ‘Give this man your place.’ Then, with shame, you will proceed to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that, when the one who invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher!’ Then you will have honor in front of all those who are sitting at the table with you.

That’s good advice for attending a wedding banquet, isn’t it? If you just assume that you’re the most important person there, you run the risk of being shamed when the host of the banquet comes and kicks you out of the place of honor. But Jesus isn’t interested in earthly wedding banquet behavior. He’s interested in saving people from sin, death, and the devil, and He knows the danger of thinking highly of oneself when it comes to God.

God invites everyone to come into His kingdom. But how you come in is incredibly important. If you approach God as someone who thinks he deserves recognition, who has worked hard and earned a place in heaven and whom God is lucky to have by His side, if you approach God on your own terms, with your own beliefs, doing what you think is right (regardless of what He has to say about it in His Word), that’s like making a beeline for that place of highest honor. But if you do that, you’re doomed, because the Host of the heavenly feast will come in and see you sitting there, all proud of yourself, and He will tell you to get up and give your place to someone else. And when Jesus says in His parable that you’ll have to go down to the lowest place, what He means is, you won’t have a place in God’s presence at all. You’ll be ushered out of His kingdom into eternal darkness.

On the other hand, if you approach God, as He has invited you to do, as someone who thinks he deserves nothing from Him, who recognizes that he has no righteousness of His own to offer God, who has earned only wrath and punishment from the just and holy God, who only looks to God for the mercy and favor He has promised to poor sinners for the sake of Jesus Christ, who died for you so that you might be accepted by His heavenly Father, if you approach God on His terms, listening to His Word and believing in His Son Jesus Christ, that’s like choosing the lowest place at the banquet. And if you do that, you’re saved, because the Host of the heavenly feast will come in and see you sitting there, where Jesus told you sit, and He will tell you to get up and go to a higher place, to the place of a son or a daughter of God, to a place of eternal life.

Jesus summarizes the whole thing with a saying that’s often repeated in the Scriptures: For whoever exalts himself will be humbled; and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. To exalt yourself is the way of the Law. It’s to think highly of yourself, as if you deserved something from God. But the Law exposes, not our worthiness, but our sin. As Paul writes to the Romans, by the Law is the knowledge of sin. When you approach God by way of the Law, as the Pharisees and experts of the law often did, your hidden ugliness is exposed every single time. So don’t exalt yourself! Don’t think highly of yourself! Don’t start to think that you’ve earned heaven by your obedience! That is the way of death. Instead, follow the way of the Gospel. The way of the Gospel is to think nothing of yourself, but to think everything of God and His promise to save you through faith in His beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to save you out of mercy, to save you and adopt you and preserve you as His child throughout this life, until you reach the heavenly wedding banquet.

If you’ve been thinking highly of yourself and you didn’t see it before as a problem, then it’s good to have the ugliness of that thinking exposed, as Jesus does in today’s Gospel. Or, if you’re already well aware of that sinful attitude of your flesh and have been struggling against it, it’s still good to have it exposed. Because the Christian life requires a continual humbling of ourselves before God. But that self-humbling, which includes faith in Christ Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer, is always accompanied by the tremendous promise that God Himself will exalt you and lift you up on high. And that self-humbling before God will also result in humility before men, as Paul says in the Epistle, I implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all humility and meekness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above you all, and through you all, and in you all. Amen.

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The Law fast vs. the Gospel fast

Posted on September 18, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 16

Isaiah 58:1-14

What does the Bible teach about fasting? There are some references to it. Fasting involved going without food for a certain period of time, denying oneself the pleasures of the flesh in order to pray, to focus on the unseen God. It was an act of humility before God. In the New Testament, Jesus’ 40-day fast at the beginning of His ministry is famous. Many of the Jews fasted, but Jesus’ own disciples didn’t fast. Because Jesus was with them. They didn’t need to focus on the unseen God, because, for a few short years, God was seen by them in the Person of Jesus. After His ascension, believers did fast sometimes, by their own choice, not by God’s command.

In the Old Testament there was only one day of the year on which God commanded all the Israelites to fast. That was the Day of Atonement. It was a 24-hour fast, and a Sabbath rest on top of it, no matter what day of the week it fell on. They were commanded to “afflict themselves” or to “humble themselves” on that day, and to do no work at all, a special Sabbath Day, because on that day atonement would be made for their sins, as God Himself had provided it through the ministry of the priests. They were to devote that entire day to paying attention to the atonement God was providing for all their sins. Once a year.

But people often took it upon themselves to fast on other days, which wasn’t wrong, which could be useful. But in tonight’s reading, Isaiah highlights what was wrong with Israel’s fasting. It was a Law fast, not a Gospel fast.

God speaks, first of all, to the prophet Isaiah, commanding him to expose the sins of the people of Israel.

“Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins.

Then God tells Isaiah which sins, in particular, to expose. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.

So they were seeking God, seeking the Lord, pretending to worship Him, expecting help from Him and acceptance from Him, even though they were willfully disregarding His Law. They thought they could draw near to God, without repenting of their sins.

Isn’t that just like the people in today’s world? They don’t have any regard for God’s Word recorded in Holy Scripture. They don’t do what He says. They break His commandments one after the other, with zero repentance, with no intention of listening to Him in the future. And yet many of the same people still pretend to seek the Lord, pretend to worship Him, pretend that He will help them and accept them and bring them into heaven, “just as they are.” But, no, it doesn’t work that way.

Isaiah records the people of Israel complaining to God. ‘Why have we fasted, and you do not see it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no notice of it?’ Many in Israel, probably some of the prominent leaders of Israel, wanted to get some help from God. So they chose to fast. They chose to humble themselves. And God didn’t applaud. He didn’t pat them on the back and say, “Good job! Good job! Thank you so much for not eating for a few hours. It means so much to Me! Of course I’ll help you now!”

No, and God tells them why He wasn’t pleased. Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. They were fasting, all right. They were not eating for a day. But how did they spend their time while they were “humbling themselves”? Still seeking their own pleasure in other ways besides eating. Still mistreating their workers. Still quarrelling and fighting and breaking God’s commandments left and right. And still, they thought that their little act of self-sacrifice and self-denial would earn them God’s favor.

Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD?

No, God says. What does He care if a person doesn’t eat for a while, and walks around all bent over and sitting in ashes? With the attitude of, “Oh, look at how humble I am. God will have to help me now!” No, He says, “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’

In other words, if you want to do something to please God, if you want to take a day to gain His favor, then it’s not not eating that would please Him. It would be the keeping of His commandments. It would be doing away with all wickedness, not mistreating your neighbor, including your worker or your spouse or your children. It would be taking the food that you would have eaten for yourself and giving it to those who have nothing to eat in the first place.

The Lord goes on: If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.

Get rid of the “yoke” from your midst. That is, the things you do to burden other people, to make their life difficult, to make your life easier. Get rid of the pointing finger, blaming and demeaning others. Get rid of speaking wickedly about your neighbor. And devote yourself to helping those who need your help. That would earn the Lord’s favor!

The Lord goes on: “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

God tells Israel, do you want to get My attention? Don’t do it with impenitent fasting. Do it by honoring Me, which means honoring My Word, which means honoring My Commandment to rest on the Sabbath Day. Honor Me on that day, not only by not working, but also by not complaining about how I’m forcing you to rest, by, instead, giving thanks to Me for giving you this day of rest, and for all the things I’ve given you. Honor My word. Honor My commandments by obeying them, from the heart, with love for Me, your God and your Savior. Then you will be blessed! Not by hating Me in your heart, not by ignoring My commandments, not by going without food for a little while, which I never commanded you to do in the first place.

What’s the real problem this chapter of Isaiah exposes among the Israelites, and among people still today? They were trying to earn God’s favor with their own self-chosen work of fasting, even while ignoring all the works God had commanded them to do in His holy Law, even while living lives that dishonored the very God whom they wished to appease. That is why I called it above “Law fasting.” And it’s worse than useless. It’s an offense to God.

But “Gospel fasting” is different. The right way to approach God is through the true humility of repentance, recognizing our sins, against God and against our neighbor, and giving them up instead of living in them intentionally. Then, it’s through the atonement made by the Lord Jesus, who paid for our sins on the cross. The “Gospel fast” is to pause and reflect on Christ’s sacrifice, to stop trying to earn God’s favor by your works, and, instead, to seek His favor through Christ crucified, through whom God has promised mercy and acceptance and the forgiveness of sins, for free. Finally, the “Gospel fast,” if you want to call it that, is to live each day, not for yourself, but for Him who died for you and rose again. It’s to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him, to endure affliction patiently, to pray for one another, to live each day honoring God’s Word instead of honoring yourself, doing what you can to help those in need instead of obsessing about your own needs and desires. This “Gospel fast” won’t put a scowl on your face, but a smile. Because it’s the easy yoke, it’s the light burden that Christ offers to all who come to Him. God is pleased with it, and it ends in glory and eternal life.

This is the kind of fast you should practice all the time, the God-pleasing Gospel fast, whether or not you choose to go without food for a while. Amen.

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The hope of a Christian funeral

Posted on September 15, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 16

Ephesians 3:13-21  +  Luke 7:11-17

Do you remember how St. Paul described God at the end of today’s Epistle? He described Him as the One who is able to do far, far more than we can ask or imagine, according to the power that works in us. We have just a small example of that beyond-our-imagination power in today’s Gospel. With a word, Jesus raised a man from the dead. And He’ll do the same for you, one day, on an even grander scale. The funeral procession we encounter in today’s Gospel is the only funeral procession we encounter anywhere in the Gospels, which makes it, I think, a wonderful opportunity for us all to prepare for our own funerals ahead of time, and for the funerals of our loved ones. Every time we ponder the raising of the young man of Nain, we’re reminded of the hope of a Christian funeral.

King Solomon wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes, To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven…A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. A funeral—the death of a loved one—is certainly a time to weep, for believers and unbelievers alike. Death, in some cases, may bring to an end a long life of pain and suffering, making it somewhat of a relief, but that still doesn’t make it a time to laugh. It’s still a time to weep. How much more so when death takes a young man in the prime of his life. How much more so when death takes the only son of a mother. And how much more so still when that mother is already a widow. Such was the funeral procession in today’s Gospel as it slowly moved through the city gates of Nain, heading toward the grave where the dead man would be buried, a mournful procession with plenty of weeping.

It was no accident that Jesus, and a large crowd of followers, was approaching the city just at that moment. This is the one and only time when this city is mentioned in Scripture. As far as we know, Jesus had never gone there before and never went there after. But God Himself worked out the timing of these events, even as He is always working out the timing of all things so that His good purposes for His Church may be accomplished.

Luke tells us that, When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her. We need to pay attention to that. The Lord Jesus’ reaction to death is God the Father’s reaction to death as well. Yes, He is the one who first threatened our first parents, Adam and Eve, with death if they chose to go against Him. And God is the One who has been justly following through on that threat for some 6,000 years now. But He doesn’t do it gleefully, or indifferently. Nor is He indifferent to the pain and sorrow people suffer when death takes a loved one from them. He sees our sorrow, as He saw the widow’s sorrow, and He has compassion.

Someone may be tempted to ask, well, then why doesn’t God make it stop? And the answer is that He did, and He will.

God, temporarily, made death stop for the young man in our Gospel. He approached the widow and said to her, “Weep no more.” He wasn’t denying that she had a reason to weep or rebuking her for crying. He was simply informing her that there was no longer going to be a reason for it. He came and touched the coffin, and those who were carrying it stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” And the dead man sat up and began to talk, and he gave him to his mother, allowing that man to live out the rest of a “normal” earthly life with his widow mother, until he died again.

God doesn’t make death stop very often. It remains as His curse on our sinful race, and really, on the creation itself. It remains, lamentably, a “fact of life” in the story of this world, along with the toil and suffering that come before it. This is what our first parents brought upon themselves and upon their children when they chose to go against the God of goodness and life. And we, their children, are participants in their sin. We know better than to blame God for the suffering and death that befall us. We don’t expect God to remove suffering from this life or to stop death in its tracks. It’s going to continue for a little while longer.

But we take great comfort in the fact that, on a few momentous occasions, the Son of God was able, and willing, to step in and put a stop to death, as He did in today’s Gospel. With the power of His almighty Word, the Lord of life healed the young man’s body and returned its soul to it unharmed, lightening the burden of the widow mother, turning her sorrow into joy, and amazing both sets of crowds, those already following Him and those in the funeral procession.

This account gives us just a small glimpse of the power of Jesus—power which He displayed to an ever greater extent in His own resurrection from the dead, power which He has promised to use to accomplish something similar for us. In John’s Gospel, Jesus says this: For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will…. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

So first, Jesus talks about raising people to life even before their bodies die. He speaks to the spiritually dead, which is how we all begin life when we’re born into the world, and through His word, He calls people to believe and thus raises them to spiritual life. That means that, for believers, even when your body dies, you don’t die. You have already crossed over from death to life. This resurrection is even more important than the resurrection of a dead body, because this resurrection that happens through faith in Jesus is what determines where you spend eternity. This resurrection to spiritual life is what makes you a child of God. It means your sins are forgiven, you’re clothed in the robe of Christ’s righteousness, you’re made to share in the life of Christ. Not even death can take that away from a person.

And that’s the hope of a Christian funeral, that our loved one who died in the faith has not evaporated into nothingness, is not suffering in hell, but lives on, not in our hearts, not in our minds, but in the presence of God.

The rest of the hope of a Christian funeral is that the bodily death that we see there will also be fixed by Jesus, permanently stopped and even reversed at the last day. That hour is coming, closer and closer with each day that passes. Then we’ll hear the grand “Weep no more!” because there will be no more reason to weep, over anything. Then our bodies will not only be raised, but changed, perfected, and glorified. That will truly be the time to laugh, and the time to dance.

For now, there is still a time to weep and time to mourn. God doesn’t discourage that. He simply says, through the apostle Paul, that we should not sorrow as those who have no hope. Because we do have hope. The sure and certain hope of a continuing life now, and of the resurrection of the dead soon.

This is the Christian’s hope, at a Christian funeral. And it is a hope for Christians only. While we surely want all people to become Christians and to remain Christians so that this hope also applies to them, just as God Himself wants all men to be saved, we know that not all people will believe in the Lord. Many will stubbornly cling to sin. Many will seek salvation elsewhere than in Christ Jesus, the Lord of life. We can’t force others to believe, but there are some things we can do. You can remain devoted to hearing the Word of Christ and receiving His Sacraments. You can encourage one another to remain faithful until death. You can speak the truth in love to the people in your life who aren’t believers in Jesus. You can show the world by how you live that you do believe in the Lord Jesus. And you can leave behind for your family, for your loved ones, and for your church, the kind of steadfast confession that leaves no one with any doubt: This man, this woman died in the faith. This man, this woman died as a Christian. And that is a sure and solid reason to hope! Amen.

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Trust in your Father, who cares for you

Posted on September 8, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 15

Galatians 5:25-6:10  +  Matthew 6:24-34

It’s “do not worry” Sunday again. It almost seems a shame, doesn’t it?, that “do not worry” Sunday only comes around once a year. You probably need it more often than that. But, of course, every Sunday, every sermon, essentially comes with the message of “do not worry,” because every Sunday, every sermon, every preaching of God’s Word points you away from the things that cause you worry toward the Lord God, urging you to trust in the Lord Jesus, to hope in Him, to have faith in Him. And faith, fully formed, drives out all worry and fear, because the One in whom we trust reigns over all the things that cause us worry.

But that doesn’t mean that believers don’t stray into worry and anxiety at times. We do! Which is why Jesus had to speak the words of today’s Gospel from the Sermon on the Mount, and which is also why the Holy Spirit, in His wisdom, saw to it that these words would be recorded for us in Holy Scripture and preached repeatedly in the Church for two thousand years, because He’s well aware of our weaknesses, and of our tendency to worry about things.

Jesus begins in our Gospel with the thing that’s behind many of our worries: Mammon. Money. Earthly wealth and possessions. No one can serve two lords. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon. When you order your life around making money and acquiring possessions, you effectively push God to the side. You push Him out of your life. Oh, you may not mean to do that. You may think you can keep God around in the background for emergencies while you continue to make your life decisions based on pursuing wealth. You may think you can keep God tucked away in your pocket to pull Him out once in a while for an occasional prayer or request, while you spend most of your time relying mainly on yourself and on your ability to run things, or to fix things. But it doesn’t work that way, according to Jesus. If you allow concerns about money to order your life, then you are serving it as your lord. If you insist on managing everything by yourself, running everything, trying to fix everything by your own careful planning and prudent actions, then you’re serving yourself as your lord. On the other hand, if you order your life around serving God, hearing His Word and putting it into practice, living each day with the intention of worshiping the true God with your whole self, placing your life into His good and capable hands, then you won’t end up serving Mammon, or trusting in Mammon, or in yourself. You’ll be serving God and trusting in God. Your heart can belong to Him or to something else, but not to both.

Then Jesus goes on to persuade us with gentle and friendly words to serve God instead of Mammon. And here it’s important to remember who He’s talking to. He’s talking to church members who know God, not to atheists who deny Him or unbelievers who don’t acknowledge Him. The Sermon on the Mount was preached to people who knew the true God, the God of Old Testament Israel, but who wanted, who needed to know Him better and who had come to Jesus for that very reason. That’s why He can speak to them about God as their Father in heaven. They knew this God as He had revealed Himself in the Old Testament, as He had created and ordered the world, as He had guided and guarded the patriarchs and the people of Israel. You know this God, too. Most of all, you know God the Father, who sent God the Son to redeem you from sin, death, and the devil, and who still sends God the Holy Spirit to teach you and to guide you. In fact, you know Him even better than the people who originally heard these words from Jesus, because you know the Father through the suffering and death of His Son. So you know just how much He cares about you.

Since you know that, act on what you know. And that applies, first and foremost, to the attitudes of your heart. Therefore I say to you, stop worrying about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? The unbelievers of the world wouldn’t agree with Jesus. They would say that our body and life has to be the first and primary concern. If your body doesn’t have the necessary nourishment, if you have no clothes to wear, what can you accomplish in life? Therefore, it should be your first and primary concern to ensure you have food and clothing, and not just enough for today, but for tomorrow and for the future. That’s where the world would have you focus your attention. This also applies to elections, by the way. If you want a good earthly life, then you have to be focused on getting the right people elected! Pour yourself into the fight!

But Jesus says, no, life is more than that. That can’t be the primary focus of your life. Because, if you serve God, if He is your Lord, it doesn’t need to be.

Look at the birds of the air! They do not sow, nor do they reap, nor do they gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they do not toil, nor do they spin. And yet I tell you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these. Therefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today stands and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

God has left a witness in nature, a witness of His care and concern for His creation, in how He cares for and provides for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. But Jesus takes that general truth written into nature and applies it in a special way to those whom the heavenly Father has called His children. If God cares for the birds that were never made in His image, if God provides beauty for the grass of the field that grows for a few days and then is gone forever, shouldn’t you conclude that He cares more and will provide far better things for those whom He has created to be with Him forever, for those upon whom He has placed His name—the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Yes, you should conclude that!

And you should also admit something else. Which of you by worrying can add one foot to his stature? Or “one hour to his life”? All right. Let’s hear it. Which of you? Worrying, fretting, being anxious about providing for some need that you have—does it get you any closer to actually providing what you need? You know it doesn’t. And so Jesus, in a loving but direct way, tells you, “Stop it. Don’t do it.”

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or, ‘What shall we drink?’ or, ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles chase after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Why should you quiet your anxious thoughts? Why should you stop going over and over in your head how you’re going to provide for yourself? Not only because it doesn’t do any good, but because it’s what the Gentiles do. Now, the Gentiles are literally just the non-Jewish nations, and in that sense, we’re all Gentiles here. But Jesus is referring to the Gentiles as those who don’t know God, who have no faith in Him. So it makes perfect sense that they spend their time thinking anxiously about how to provide for themselves for this life.

But you have a heavenly Father who knows that you have earthly needs, bodily needs. You have a heavenly Father who gave His own Son into death for your sins. Why should you be like the Gentiles who think they have to be in control of everything, and figure out everything for themselves, who think that the present and the future depend on them and their worrying and planning and executing?

No, instead, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Seek first. Before anything else, turn your thoughts to seeking God, and His kingdom, and His righteousness. You have already sought the righteousness of God by believing in Christ Jesus to blot out your sins and to make you righteous before God. Now seek the righteousness of God by being concerned with His kingdom. Seek the kingdom of God by hearing and pondering His Word. Seek the kingdom of God by going about the daily tasks He’s given you in your vocations. Seek to be the light of the world that God has called you to be. Seek to lead holy lives that bring glory to the name of your heavenly Father. And do this “first,” before giving a single thought to where your food or clothing or other necessities are going to come from. When you do that, you’ll find that all those things are added to you by God, according to your needs, according to His wisdom and merciful care. You couldn’t add a single hour to your life by your worrying. But when you concern yourself first with the kingdom of God and His righteousness, He Himself will do the adding of the things that you need.

So, Jesus concludes, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. It is enough for each day to have its own trouble. Tomorrow isn’t in your hands. It’s in God’s hands. So turn your attention to what He has given you to do today, not to worry about today, but to do today. Seek His kingdom. Seek His righteousness. Trust in Him. And, as Peter writes in his first epistle, cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Amen.

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