Sermon 08262012 12th Sunday After Trinity

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  AMEN.

Let us pray, Gracious heavenly Father, our earth is full of turmoil and suffering, where brother fights against brother and sin that entered in the world through Adam and Eve in the Garden dashes us against the rocks of reality.  Our lives are sometimes shattered and splintered.  But through the promise of Your Son Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, He came down from heaven and walked among Your chosen people and took away the sin, the sickness and the separation from You.  Heavenly Father, we ask You to reach down to us today and comfort all of us with the salve of the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.  Give us the patience of Job and the Wisdom of Solomon in order that Your Glory may be revealed and we imperfect creatures may be made perfect by and through the promise of Your Son and our Savior Jesus Christ for all of us saints gathered here at Emmanuel this morning.  AMEN.

As Pastor one of the opportunities I have comes in the form and shape of teaching.  Yes, in our worship services I try to help everyone understand, deepen and enrich our Christian faith and I have had over the summer the opportunity to teach and lead a bible study class up at Wheat Ridge Acres.  The residents there are thirsty and come to the well and fount of knowledge found in Holy Scripture to have their thirst quenched.  Recently we began a study of the Old Testament characters and how God reached down into their lives as recorded in Holy Scripture and in some cases allowed them to experience and have all their world radically changed.  These characters include Noah, Abraham, Samson, Samuel, Elijah, David and Daniel.  One of the characters not included in the list is Job.

Job, is best known for being a rich man with lots of animals, family and possessions.  And God allows the devil to take all of his possessions, livestock and children from him in order to test him.  The devil believes Job will speak against God and using every tool in his arsenal and every evil twist, the devil is trying to push Job to where he would question or deny God.  Even Job’s friends claim it is better to curse God and try to convince Job to do just that.

But Job, with the faith and patience that is beyond measure remains firmly planted and proclaiming that God would not do this and gives God Glory, Honor and pays Him homage.  Just as Job who was inflicted in such a harsh way continued to proclaim the glory of God in our Gospel this morning we have another example for us today of God in Jesus Christ clearly encountering sin and clearly offering the remedy of the Gospel.

Jesus who in the last chapter of Mark 6 had fed the five thousand, walked on the water, healed the people brought to Him, now in chapter 7 began to teach them.  Jesus instruction was about the traditions of the Jewish people, how evil proceeds from the heart of man and ultimately healed a woman’s daughter because of her faith.  Now Jesus has brought to Him “one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty”.  Today we probably know someone like this man, who can’t hear and speaks very unclearly.  What is obvious is that this man was not seen by the people as normal, nor could he fully function within society.  The people having possibly seen and definitely heard of Jesus ability to heal, brought the man to Jesus.  The crowd “entreated Him [that is Jesus] to lay His hand upon him”.  Notice, they are not asking for Jesus to perform some Herculean task, but simply to extend His Holy Hand and let it touch the man.

The previous story of the woman’s daughter being healed, didn’t even include Jesus touching the little girl.  It only tells of Jesus conversation with her mother.  But in our Gospel the crowd believed Jesus needed to touch this man.  Some would believe that if Jesus didn’t touch the man, if the man were healed the question would arise, well, did Jesus actually perform the miracle or did the man just spontaneously ‘get better’.  Thus knowing the doubt in their hearts, “Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself”. Clearly, Jesus didn’t want this to be seen by everyone and didn’t want it well known what He was about to do.  Unlike our wanting to do something in secret for nefarious reasons, Jesus was trying to perform this miracle to heal the man, preserve the man and show that He, that is Jesus, heard the people’s cry for help.

When alone, Jesus “put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva.”  Unlike the woman whose child was freed from her sickness, Jesus reached out and physically touched the man.  It wasn’t a simple touch, Jesus Second person of the Trinity, God incarnate, Who had personal action in creating the world, put His fingers in the mans ears, spit and touched the saliva to the mans tongue.  Now if you are like me, with the fear of disease that we have today and the fear of what we can get when someone coughs, when we shake hands or when we visit the nursing home or hospital, this man evidently had no fear.  This man trusted Jesus implicitly that He would help him.  And Jesus “looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He said to him, “Ephphatha” that is, “Be opened!”

The deep sigh that Jesus did while looking up to heaven, was the deepest expression of sorrow.  It wasn’t just an expression, it was Jesus, Son of God, God made flesh feeling deep sorrow over the original sin in this man’s life and how it had become manifest for him in his deafness and inability to speak.   Though Jesus had not caused his condition, Jesus felt great compassion and grief for him.  Hence, Jesus commanded in the same way the Father, Son and Holy Spirit did in creation of the day and night, “Ephphatha” that is, “Be opened!”  The impediment of speech and the deafness of the ears were commanded by God’s perfect and sinless Son to be removed by the word, “Ephphatha” that is, “Be opened!”.

Mark continues, “And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tonue was removed and he began speaking plainly.”  Still alone with the man, you can imagine, immediately the man who had been deaf and speaking with an impediment was utterly amazed and probably began to yell at the top of his lungs and clearly proclaim the greatness of Jesus Christ Who had just healed him.  But Mark says “And He [that is Jesus] gave them orders not to tell anyone”.  Jesus didn’t want this out.  He didn’t want other people to know what He had done.  Was it because He would be swamped?  Or was it because of fear that the Pharisee’s, Publicans and Sadducees would hunt him down, because Jesus goal was the salvation of the people’s souls?

It is clear, the man wanted to let others hear what Jesus had done, but Jesus didn’t want it to get out there.  For it is clear Mark writes, “but the more He [that is Jesus] ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it.”  This man’s friends had been told and all of them wanted to tell everyone.  This was a miracle.  For “they were utterly astonished, saying “He has done all things well; He makes even the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”  Jesus clearly demonstrated that as God’s only Son, He had the power and authority to heal the sick and correct the original sin that was made manifest in this man’s loss of hearing and speaking with an impediment.

But what does that have to do with us today?  This story is important for three reasons.  First, when we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.  AMEN”, we can be certain as shown in this miracle that God hears us and our prayers and listens to us.  In visiting one of the members at Good Sam recently they clearly stated that they continue to pray and God does hear their prayer.  With a faith like Job in God, it is clear that God listens to us and answers our prayers daily.

Second, God through the creation of the World that we remember in the Apostle’s Creed preserves us daily.  Just as God spoke and made day and night, Jesus Christ from our Gospel spoke to this man and clearly as the explanation of the First Article says, “still takes care of them.”  Though sin ravages our lives today, God reaches down into our lives and offers us the Gospel message to preserve us until we enter into His Kingdom.  No matter what happens to our earthly bodies, God is looking out for our eternal entrance into His Kingdom.

And finally God makes us a promise that is extremely clear.  In the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer that we pray saying, “Give us this our daily bread” it includes our health.  Not only did this man receive restoration clearly manifest by Jesus Christ putting His fingers in his ears and spit on his tongue, but Jesus made him normal to societies standard.  You might ask, why doesn’t this happen today?  I believe it does, but we are less likely to believe it if we cannot ‘rationally explain it.’  But the promise is clear, God will restore us to our perfect and sinless condition when we enter our eternal glory.  As Paul says, our perishable will put on the imperishable and mortal will put on immortality.  We will be new creatures with new bodies and no longer will sin exist in our lives.

For God offers this to us, because of His great love for us.  So much does God love us, that Jesus Christ came into this world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.  It wasn’t for only a select few, the Gospel is for all of mankind, including Job, the man whose ears and mouth were opened and for all of us saints gathered here at Emmanuel this morning.  AMEN.

Sermon 08192012 11th Sunday After Trinity

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  AMEN.

Let us pray, Gracious heavenly Father, when we enter Your house where Your Glory dwells, where it is to be a house of prayer, we choose where we will sit and where we will stand.  Enable us to understand it is not where we sit or stand, but what proceeds from our hearts.  For the Law clearly condemns us and we cannot be saved by it, but the Gospel of salvation offered through Jesus Christ and His death on the Cross of Calvary offers all of mankind eternal life.  Especially all of us saints gathered here at Emmanuel this morning.  AMEN.

Jesus Christ clearly loves to tell stories, whether it be about sowing crops and the harvest, heaven and hell and the Rich Man and Lazarus, stories of grace and mercy like the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son or like this morning the story of the Pharisee and Tax Collector.  Jesus takes many opportunities to tell a story.  Not that different from movies in our local theater, the stories Jesus tells are given to us today to hear, head and help us change.  Jesus in telling stories has a definite audience in mind, a clear purpose, a desired outcome and a final goal.

Jesus told the story of the Pharisee and Tax Collector to a specific audience.  Luke writes, “And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt”.  Jesus with the attribute of God of omniscience knew what the people needed to hear.  Jesus Christ had the ability to look at the people and see the deepest secrets of their hearts and clearly the people He was around trusted, not in God or His mercy and compassion, but in their own abilities, their own righteousness and these people felt they were better than everyone else and everybody in the community knew it.  Jesus audience looked down with disdain upon other people and believed they were ‘elite’.  This gathering wasn’t the elite Seal Team Six, Delta Force or the Rangers, it was just a group of men, women and children ‘who trusted in themselves’ and ‘flaunted it’ and ‘held it over’ other people.

Jesus says, “¹⁰ “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.”  These two men were common people for Jerusalem in Jesus day.  Even today their contemporaries would be someone who is both religiously and politically connected and the individual that works for the government that we vote into office to receive our tax money for our cars, land and personal property.

But now the similarities end, Jesus continues, “¹¹ The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’”.  Jesus seeing the heart of the people aimed with the precision of a sniper directly at the people’s hearts the bullet that not only labeled their ‘self-righteouseness’ a sin, but clearly hits the mark that sin not just exists, but they are guilty of it.  For the Pharisee clearly compares himself to others and believes he is better than anyone and everyone.  He is bragging about what he does.  He is telling God this is what I have done.  “I fast twice a week, I pay tithes”, “I am better than everybody”, “even like this tax collector”.

Jesus purpose in telling this story was to expose the Pharisee.  The Pharisee had so much pride and arrogance of what he did, he did not feel he wanted nor needed any help.  The Pharisee felt he was righteous and said, “God, I thank You that I am not like other people”.  Jesus desire was to expose this clear and manifest sin of pride that the Pharisee flaunted and that the people lived.

On the other hand there is the tax collector.  Jesus says, “¹³ But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!”  This is the polar opposite of the Pharisee.  Jesus purpose was to tell the people, this tax collector felt so unworthy he couldn’t even look up to address God.  His simple statement of “God be merciful to me, the sinner!” is not only a prayer, but a pleading and asking for forgiveness from God.

Jesus desired outcome is for the people to confess their manifest sin and simply rely upon God.  For the people in hearing and identifying with the two polar opposites and extremes of the Pharisee and the tax collector Jesus wants to change their collective hearts from prideful and arrogant hearts, to pliable and purposeful hearts not proclaiming their greatness, but relying upon God.  For this is the lesson we can take away from this parable, Jesus says, “I tell you, this man, [the tax collector] went to his house justified rather than the other”.  The tax collector who humbled himself, didn’t rely upon what he gave, what he did or how he did it, the tax collector was held in higher regard by Jesus Christ.  For Jesus says, “for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled”, meaning the Pharisee will be humbled.  And, “he who humbles himself will be exalted”, meaning the tax collector.  Jesus is clear, rely upon God, not upon yourself.

Now the question we get to ask today is which are we?  Are we prideful of what we have done?  Do we go out into the community and look down upon others?  Is Emmanuel Lutheran seen in the community as elite and unwilling to help?  Do we leave Emmanuel Lutheran and go to the Butterfly, Shira’s, McDonald’s, Gambino’s or the Mexican restaurant and look down upon others, because we have been to church or given an offering?  Do we believe we can save ourselves and do not need a Savior?  Do we believe we are sinless and not in need of a Savior?

Jesus has one final goal in mind, for all of mankind to be in heaven with Him.  And this story of the Pharisee and the tax collector calls for us not to be prideful or arrogant, but in true servant fashion with Jesus Christ as our model to ask God for mercy and grace and for all of us to pray “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”  God is calling us to be humble in spirit and rely solely upon Him.  When we pray, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!”  God hears our prayer and embraces us as His children.  God feeds us with this precious meal we are about to receive of His Precious Body and Blood.  And God strengthens us to encounter our community and minister to and for others, not to be arrogant and say, ‘look what I’ or ‘look what we’ have done, but allows His grace to flow through us to others.  And that grace freely offered to us through Jesus Christ innocent death on Calvary we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer.

As we pray the Lord’s Prayer in a few minutes, “forgive us our trespasses”, our prayer is not only a prayer of confession like the tax collector, it is a prayer asking for God’s mercy, grace and divine favor.  We pray to God asking for His mercy, the free grace offered in Jesus Christ on Calvary and His divine favor to be placed upon us and showered over us.  We ask God to look not at our sins of pride, arrogance, self- worth and self- acclamation, but as we humble ourselves to exalt us.  For God promises us He will when we humble ourselves by confessing our sins, God will exalt us.  It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, it may not be in this lifetime, but when we enter His kingdom, which is God’s final goal for us, and partake of the feast in His presence, then we will be exalted.  This occurs, not because of what we have done, but because of Jesus Christ true humility to suffer and die for all of our sins, for all of mankind.  Including all of us saints gathered here at Emmanuel this morning.  AMEN.

Technology and Pastors

This article includes part of an interview I did about my Pericope group I meet with every Tuesday.  (Full Link: http://www.canadianlutheran.ca/a-long-distance-relationship-technology-and-far-flung-parishes/)

Please comment about this article.

YIC,
Pastor Darian L. Hybl