The Law and the Prophets in Me (Pentecost 19A, Matthew 22,34-46)

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Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Holy Cross Lutheran Church

Rocklin, California

Pentecost 19, October 23, 2011 (revised)

Matthew 22:34-46

TITLE: “The Law and the Prophets in Me”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for today is from the Gospel lesson, particularly these words, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

Questions, questions, questions. The world is full of questions about what is important. How do you prioritize your life? What matters the most to you? Is it how much money you have? Your family? The future? What is it that makes you tick when you get up in the morning. For every day of every life is spent on questions or prioritizing and planning, ordering and organizing.

For the Jews in Jesus’ day, they thought of these questions as well , only they were a little more spiritual about it than you and I often are. They wanted to know what is the “great commandment in the law?” They had laws for everything. What to eat. What to wear. How many steps to take on the Sabbath. How to treat strangers from other lands and strangers from your own town. 613 laws, to be exact. 248 laws for each part of the body, and 365 laws for each day of the year.

Now obviously God is interested in the Law. It is, after all, His Law which He gave to His people on Mount Sinai so many thousands of years ago. They are really quite simple and straight forward:

  • You shall have no other gods.
  • You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
  • Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.
  • Honor your father and your mother.
  • You shall not murder.
  • You shall not commit adultery.
  • You shall not steal.
  • You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
  • You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.
  • You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

 

That’s it. That’s God’s Law and the full extent of His will for you here on earth, as far as the Law goes. 10 commandments. 82 words in English. But if that isn’t simple and clear enough for you, we can even simplify it further:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

What could be simpler than this? Jesus even goes so far as to say that on these two commandments, or two tables of the Law, hang all the Law and the Prophets. Everything, everything comes down to them. Love God with everything you have and everything you are and love everyone else just as much as you love yourself.

Now we are all legalists by nature, we want to narrow things down to nice and simple rules that will get us into heaven and will make everything clear and perfect and simple. The commandments, of course, are clear and perfect and simple. The problem, though, is that they are impossible. The harder you try, the more you fail. You will find many churches today that are obsessed with the Law and the myth of keeping them just as much as the Jews were in our text. There are churches that make things like smoking or alcohol into the sin against the Holy Ghost. Obesity can be a spiritual catastrophe and the television can become the very tool of the devil Himself.

Now I suppose in one way that this may be true. After all, just about anything that we have or do can be turned on its ear into sin. An innocent brownie can turn into gluttony. Spending time with your family can actually keep you away from church and hearing the Gospel. The more you try the harder you fail.

But Jesus will not be satisfied with this kind of constant running after nothing, as if we are defined by our sins. He says to you this day and every day, You are baptized! Notice what He does with the Pharisees and their endless Law questions. They want Law questions which He answers, but He then gives them a Gospel question: What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He? Jesus doesn’t want them to spend their every waking moment in fear over their failures and sins, true though they may be. So instead He gives them Himself.

This question about whose Son is He really brings us to how these two commands are what the Law and the Prophets hang upon. For you see, Jesus is the Son of God AND the Son of David. He is the only begotten Son of God, without sin and keeping the Law perfectly in every way. But He is also the Son of David, born of the Virgin Mary, your brother, who knows your every weakness, your every fear, your every failure. He knows that the harder you try the harder you fail. He knows. He’s been there. He’s taken the suffering and the pain for it. He knows.

Jesus comes to you today with a message of freedom and hope. Do not let the sins which so shape and define you bind you up and hold you to the grave! Jesus has come into your flesh to bear your sin and be your Savior. He has freed you from the shackles of fear and death. He has come to say to you, don’t be afraid. I’ve kept the Law for you. God looks at you today in perfect righteousness. He looks at you and says well done, good and faithful servant. It doesn’t have to make sense, and yet in mercy it does. It makes sense because Christ is the giver and the gift.

Don’t believe the lie of Satan, who wants to chain you to your sins. Christ has taken them into His own flesh and blood and paid the price. They are now His sins, not yours. You can’t have them anymore. And in their place He gives you the peace which is beyond all understanding, the peace of knowing that in Christ, all things are now ready, the Law is kept, the promise is yours, and everlasting life is your reward. Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.

Heavenly Citizenship (Pentecost 18A, 2011)

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Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Holy Cross Lutheran Church

Rocklin, California

Pentecost 18, Proper 23A (October 16, 2011)

Matthew 22:15–21

TITLE: “Heavenly Citizenship”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for today is the Gospel lesson just read from Matthew 22, with focus on the words, Render to Caesar that which is Caesars, and to God that which is Gods. We also will examine the important phrase from the Epistle: Our citizenship is in heaven.

Now before we begin the sermon proper, I have to explain something. We are starting sermon studies in confirmation class, and I promised the kids that I would make it really really obvious where the Law and Gospel were in the Sacrament. So if I have an aside to them every so often, that’s why. But on to our text.

Heavenly citizenship. That’s how Paul describes the Christian. “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Phil. 3:20–21).

But what does this heavenly citizenship entail? What does it really mean for us sons and daughters of Adam, as we live and work and struggle here, now, in the midst of a very earthly life? What does this heavenly citizenship mean to you? Does it change who you are? Does it change your relationship to your neighbor, to those in need around you?

There really are two ways that Christian’s have traditionally looked at this question. One way is to think of it like this: “‘I’m but a stranger here’ means that I am not a part of the world. It means that I can blissfully ignore my neighbor in need, and anyone and anything around me. I am a Christian. I am above such things.”

The problem with this view, of course, is that it is simply not true. Heavenly citizenship doesn’t mean that we write off the earthly as irrelevant or beneath us. If this were true, why did Jesus come to earth at all? Why did God become man if w are really supposed to ignore or belittle the world and everything that is in it? Remember the words of our Creed: “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.” If we take heavenly citizenship to mean that I don’t have to serve my neighbor, then we are breaking the Ten Commandments. That’s the Law for you students.

A part of what this means is that the Christian Church must have her feet firmly planted here, on earth, in the midst of all of the trials and troubles and difficulties that this life beings about. If we don’t do this, and it is oh so tempting, if we don’t do this, then we risk becoming so heaven oriented that we actually forget we’re on earth! We forget that we are also here to serve our neighbor.

Now the other view of heavenly citizenship is that I can only think of things below, because heaven is just too hard to understand and really get a grip on as a Christian. I know heaven is coming, and I don’t really understand it, so I’m just going to worry about the here and now and not be overly concerned with what’s coming.

In this view, the things of this life actually take on too much importance. We can start to get the idea that we’re God, and that we are the ones who are at work here below ordering everything according to His holy plan. There are many churches the world over that have become so here and now focused, that they lose the connection between taking care of and serving the needs of today and taking care of and serving the needs of the whole person, body, soul and spirit together. Churches that forget about heaven and eternal life in Christ has forgotten the Gospel.

Remember again the words of St. Paul in Colossians chapter three:
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory (Colossians 3:1–4).

So then if we aren’t to be so heavenly focused that we forget we live on earth, and we aren’t to be so earthly focused that we forget our hope is in heaven, how then are we to live as children of God?

We live and serve our neighbor not because we are trying to create heaven on earth. We live and serve our neighbor in love because heaven is our home. Think of it this way. God has given you all things. You are set to inherit eternal life, where you will be changed from this sinful sack of flesh to a new, glorious body, perfect in every way. But even more than that, you will be at peace. You will be at peace with God through the forgiveness of sins. You are at peace with everyone because of what God has won for you. That’s the Gospel.

All of this begins now. We have hints of this all around us, pointers and signs that lead the way to this great mystery. Baptism, preaching, the Lord’s Supper, absolution, all of these and more point to this great and beautiful reality that because God has done all these things for you, you are free to live here, now. You are free to enjoy the gifts that God gives you. Gifts of family and life and the things of this world. But even more than that, you are free to share those gifts with everyone around you.

The Pharisees in our text want to trip Jesus up with this distinction, but our Lord does not stumble or falter. He knows full well that we live in the world but that we are not of the world. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. Give the world its due. If taxes, then taxes. If tribute, then tribute. If that means taking care of your neighbor more than seems reasonable to you, then do it anyway. Why? Because you also render to God what is His. And you, dearly baptized, are His. You are His body and soul.

So come, feast on our Lord’s body and blood. Live as citizens of the heavenly kingdom. Give freely because Christ has so freely given to you. Come, eat, live, and give everything of yourself, because God Himself will fill you up more than you can possibly imagine. Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith unto life everlasting. Amen.

Two Kinds of Religious People (Pentecost 15, 2011) – Matthew 21:23-27

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is the Gospel just read from St. Matthew chapter twenty one, with focus on the words of the religious leaders to Jesus, “by what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”

There are two kinds of religious people in the world. There are the religious advice givers, and there are the mercy givers.

You know the religious advice givers. There is a Law for everything. And their job is to make sure that YOU know what the laws are. If we could only have the rules clearer, THEN everything would be right in the world. If I can cross the tees and dot the eyes in just the right way and in just the right place, then I will truly be a Christian.

All too often this is what the world sees as Christianity. Christianity is about following the Golden Rule, “do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” Christianity is about putting on this mask of righteousness, so it would appear. Christianity is about making sure that we wear the right clothes to church, that our children are behaved just right, and that nobody knows that we hurt, suffer and are broken. Nobody knows that, ever. Christianity in the eyes of the religious advice givers is really about the Law, “do this, and you will live.” I remember years ago watching those words acted out on the 70s TV show, Little House on the Prairie. Some of you remember the quotation, “The Lord helps those who help themselves.”

The problem, of course, is that we cannot keep the Law. We cannot make this fit and work, and so by nature we want to blame someone for how everything is so screwed up. In Ezekiel’s day from our Old Testament, the people wanted to sit in judgment of God, and blame Him for their troubles. When the religious advice givers fair in their works, then they must turn to placing the blame. But they, and we, have no one else to blame but ourselves.

But that living and dying by the Law is not the Christian faith. God is, perhaps more than anything else, a God of love and mercy. Mercy means that God does not give us what we deserve. Mercy means that rather than giving you advice and waiting for you to fail, it means that God knows your need and brokenness. Mercy means that God does not tsk tsk tsk at your problems. It means that God acts. He goes. He sends His Son down into your flesh and blood. We pray in Psalm 147 that the Lord builds up, gathers, heals, binds up the wounds, and that he lifts up the humber. God even counts the very numbers of the stars, and names each one of them!

If God is going to number the stars of the heavens and the sands on the seashore, how much more, O redeemed ones, will He care for you? Today (in the second service) we are blessed to watch God at work in baptising Casey Trester. God has drawn Him in by His Word and Sprit, and is at work even now at forgiving Casey’s sins and making Him a part of this family of faith.

You see, that’s what Jesus does. He sits with sinners and eats with them. He goes from town to town, teaching a message of repentance to the forgiveness of sins. He calls sin a sin, make no mistake about it. But He does this in order to draw us into His loving embrace forever.

This is what made the religious advice givers of Jesus’ day absolutely crazy. Who does He think He is, forgiving sins? Who does He think He is, healing the sick? Who does He think He is? Who gives Him the rigth to do such things? That is what is behind their question, by what authority do you do such things?

Jesus doesn’t tell them the answer. They won’t get it. They reject Him and they reject the forgiveness of sins. They reject Him to the point of having Him crucified to death.

But that is the miracle of our Lord. He is still merciful to you. He still forgives. He still creates life in His name. He is still at work, drawing us into Himself by the power of His Spirit.

This is what it means to be a mercy-giver. I said at the beginning of the sermon that there are two types of religious people. Advice-givers and mercy-givers. The mercy giver doesn’t count the cost. The mercy-giver doesn’t keep track of how much they have cared for their neighbor. St. Paul says in Philippians 2:4 that we are to not only look out for our own interest, but the interests fo others. The mercy-giver does all things without grumbling or questioning. I hate that part. The mercy giver does all things for the sake of His neighbor.

Now I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time finding myself in that description of the mercy-giver. But you are there. Because you are in Christ, you are there. God is at work in you and through you, delivering His gifts to a world broken and lost and in need. It’s not about your performance. It’s about Christ and everything that He gives to you this day.

So let go of all the stress of trying to be the perfect advice-giver. Repent of your sins, trust Christ and live. He is the mercy-giver, for He is the very Mercy of God in flesh for you. You will never measure up in yourself. But you don’t have to, for you are in Christ, and in Christ you have done all things well. Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

And now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith to life everlasting. Amen.

On the Unfairness of God (Pentecost 14, Matthew 20:1-16)

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Rev. Todd Peperkorn
Holy Cross Lutheran Church
Rocklin, California
Pentecost 14 (Proper 20A)
September 18, 2011
Matthew 20:1-16

Sept18-2011

TITLE: “On the Unfairness of God”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is taken from the Gospel from St. Matthew chapter twenty: “…and the last will be first and the first will be last”.

One of the most basic rules of any playground is that the games must be fair. The rules must be fair. The bases have to be the exact same distance. It must all be exactly fair in every way. The rise of labor unions follows the same basic principle. Everything that happens in the workplace must be fair. There can be no cronysism or playing favorites. If you work for the company, you get what you put in. So many years with such-and-such performance ratings equals this pay. It is a formula. It is simple and clear. Well, at least it’s supposed to be.

So you can imagine what a labor boss would think about today’s parable. The master of the vineyard invites men in to work at all hours of the day. They come in morning, noon, afternon, and right before closing time. They each work as they have been given time and talent to do. And the master of the house pays them all the exact same thing.

You can almost hear the objections of the men who worked since the break of day. “It’s not fair! We should get more than those lazy slobs who only worked an hour! We should get what is coming to us!”

Have you been there? Have you ever felt like others were sliding off easy, while you were doing all the work? We act this way at home and at work, on the playground and in school. Like Cain being jealous of Abel or Leah being jealous of Rachel, it is always oh so easy to look at our lives and to believe that there are others who have it so much easier than us. It isn’t fair. It isn’t right.

Of course, this is true after a fashion. As we muddle around in our measuring, it is easy to find someone who hasn’t had as many sicknesses or heartaches. They haven’t lost their job. They don’t have these health problems. They aren’t married to him.

Our self-righteousness really knows no bounds. Look at what I do for the church! Look at what I do at home for my family! Look at what I do for my work, for my friends, for my school! Look at me, look at me, look at me!

Our Lord, of course, has a different perspective. Isaiah reminds us of this when he says,

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

You and I compare and contrast and highlight and figure and schedule and determine the pecking order and measure. God, other the other hand, gives of His generousity. This is why it is so hard for us to figure Him out. He gives when we think He should take, and He takes away when we feel like He should give. How frustrating it is!

The strange thing, though, is that despite God’s generosity, you and I continue to want to live under the Law. We want to measure, because we still believe, somehow, that if we measure ourselves against others, we will come out ahead in the end. Maybe you’ve heard the old joke: when running away from a bear, you don’t have to run faster than the bear; you just have to run faster than the guy next to you.

That is exactly how we want to run our spirituality and faith. I don’t have to be perfect; I just have to be better off than the next guy. I may not be a Mother Theresa, but I am way better than them!

The problem with our natural approach here is that we are using the wrong measuring stick. We want to measure ourselves against each other. But God doesn’t care how you stack up against your neighbor. The measuring stick is the Law. It doesn’t bend. It’s measuring is simple and clear: “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it”(James 2:10). St. Paul also reminds us of this when he says, “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23).

So what is the point our Lord wants to make in this parable? The point is beautifully simple. God gives us our “wages” not on the basis of our merits and labor, but out of His generosity. Give gives from Himself, He does not reward based on our behavior or lack of it. This is why we pray in the collect for the day,

Lord God, heavenly Father, since we cannot stand before You relying on anything we have done, help us trust in Your abiding grace and live according to Your Word…(A78)

Today God gives you His mercy. He rewards you with the fruit from His vineyard, which is Jesus Christ. Our Lord, after all, says “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

God frees you today to live in Him and trust in His mercy. Life your life as free children of God, and serve your neighbor. You do not do this because you must, and certainly not because it is fair. Just the opposite. You do these things because God is generous. He gives you all things. As St. Paul says, *”I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” * (Philippians 4:13)

Live this day as free children of God. Don’t measure yourself against the good deeds of others. In fact, don’t measure yourself at all! Look to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. Come, eat and drink from the fruit of the sacred vineyard. Come and live in Him.

Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Forgiveness is the Life of the Church (Pentecost 13)

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Rev. Todd Peperkorn

Holy Cross Lutheran Church

Rocklin, California

Pentecost 13 (Proper 19A)

September 11, 2011

LS110050a

TITLE: “Forgiveness is the Life of the Church”

Joseph and his brothers had history. They were jealous of Joseph because their father, Isaac, seemed to love him more. Isaac showered gifts upon Joseph. So, out of envy, Joseph’s brothers plotted to murder him. At the last minute, in a moment of “pity”, they decided to sell him into slavery. How generous.

Joseph’s life kind of went downhill from there. He thrived as a slave in the house of Potiphar, until Potiphar’s wife put her eye on him. He refused to give in to her advances, and was then falsely accused of attacking her. Then in prison, Joseph continued to thrive by serving his fellow prisoners. Eventually, by God’s mercy, Joseph gained Pharaoh’s favor, and came to the point of being the viceroy of Egypt. He was the number two man in all the land, and Joseph’s planning saved Egypt from drought.

But Joseph’s father still thought him dead. When the drought brought Joseph’s brother’s down to Egypt, Joseph eventually revealed himself to his brothers. He forgave them of their sins against him. You can almost hear the echoes of our Lord on the cross in this story, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

So now we come to our Old Testament text for the day. Joseph’s father is now dead, and Joseph’s brothers are afraid. Will he get his revenge now? What will he do now that he is really in a position of power and doesn’t have to worry about dad? Would he exact the revenge that was his right?

They needn’t have worried. When Joseph saw how fearful and desperate they were, Joseph wept. Sin is a trap, and those caught in the net of sin are to be pitied and forgiven, not stomped on. Joseph wept, and then said, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As you for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.”

The evil that happens to each one of us is indeed evil. Have you been hurt by others? Have you been betrayed by those you love? Have you sinned against your brothers and sisters? And I don’t just mean your physical brothers and sisters. I mean those here, in the family of faith. I mean your neighbor, your co-worker, or anyone whom God has put in your path. If you are a son or daughter of Adam, then you have been crushed by the weight of sin upon you.

We all by nature want our pound of flesh. We want to exact revenge. I remember the mindset of our country ten years ago today during the terrorist attacks and the days and weeks which followed. We as a nation wanted revenge. It was not simply about justice, although that was part of it. We wanted to hurt those who hurt us. That is our nature. We all want to give others what is fair, as long as the “fair” means that they are the ones on the receiving end of our so-called justice. Joseph, in a beautiful Christ image, forgives those who have harmed him. He doesn’t give them what they deserve. He gives them mercy. He loves them.

So fast forward to Peter in our Gospel. He comes to Jesus with a reasonable question. “How often should I forgive my brother? Up to seven times?” Peter was being generous. Seven times was considered a lot in his day. But our Lord is not about measuring forgiveness. “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.” Now Jesus doesn’t mean 490 times and then WHACK, you give them what they deserve. Jesus’ point here is that if you’re measuring forgiveness and doling it out like a ration during a war, then you have missed the point.

But why, you might ask, is it so hard to forgive those who sin against us? That really is the question, isn’t it? We don’t want to forgive those who sin against us because we don’t by nature trust that God will work out all things for our good, as St. Paul confesses in Romans 8. I am afraid that if I forgive the one who sins against me, they will be getting away with something. I am afraid that if I forgive them their sins and let go of my anger and hatred, that they will come back and hurt me again. Because truth be told, I don’t want everything to work out for THEIR good. I want everything to work out for MY good.

When you forgive someone their sins against you, they aren’t getting away with something. What you are saying when you forgive someone their sins is that Jesus paid the price for their sins on the cross. You have no right to cling to them, to hold those sins against them, and to strut about as the self-righteous one that has been wronged. When you refuse to forgive someone their sins, you are saying that Jesus didn’t die for them. You are denying them the Gospel.

That’s the problem, though, isn’t it? In Church, at home, at work, at school or at play, we want things to be fair, as long as fair means the other guy gets what he deserves.

This is why the heartbeat of the Christian Church is the forgiveness of sins. It is what makes us tick, because that is the very heart of God for you and for me. Dr. Luther put it this way:

Everything, therefore, in the Christian Church is ordered toward this goal: we shall daily receive in the Church nothing but the forgiveness of sin through the Word and signs, to comfort and encourage our consciences as long as we live here. So even though we have sins, the ‹grace of the› Holy Spirit does not allow them to harm us. For we are in the Christian Church, where there is nothing but ‹continuous, uninterrupted› forgiveness of sin. This is because God forgives us and because we forgive, bear with, and help one another [Galatians 6:1–2].⁠1

But what happens when we don’t forgive? What happens when we are more like the unmerciful servant in our Gospel than we are like the master of the house? Truth be told, it takes a lifetime to learn to forgive others as God has forgiven you. But guess what? You have a lifetime and more. Each day begins anew in God’s sight. That is why we pray every day, forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

God is the merciful Lord who forgives your sins, a debt far greater than you could ever repay on your own. He loves you with an everlasting love. Jesus is the greater Joseph, who forgives your sins, even though your sins are grievous and have hurt him deeply. He puts Himself in your place, takes your sorrows and hurts, and gives you life in His name.

What’s more, like Joseph fed His brothers in the desert, He feeds you this day with more than simply grain and water. He feeds you with His own body and blood, so that you now eat and drink forgiveness, life and salvation. The forgiving master calls you to His Table. Come, take your place in the Church of the Forgiveness of Sins. Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

1 Concordia : The Lutheran Confessions. 2005 (Edited by Paul Timothy McCain) (405). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.