No One's Favorite Sermon

I want to warn you that today’s sermon is not going to be anyone’s favorite sermon.

I am assuming that today’s sermon will challenge a belief that most if not all of you have.

It is not a political belief, but a theological belief.

I am asking this morning for you to give what I am about to say a fair hearing.

It is not that at the end of the day you have to agree with me or Martin Luther, only that you have given what I am about to say some good thought.

When I was planning on the subjects I was going to preach about for this preaching series on the 500 year anniversary of the Reformation I thought about leaving this out all together.

I knew that it would be controversial, and that it would annoy people.

However, it is an important part of Luther’s theology.

And something he was proud of, so much so that in a letter written 9 July 1537, he said: “Regarding [the plan] to collect my writings in volumes, I am quite cool and not at all eager about it…I would rather see them all devoured. For I acknowledge none of them to be really a book of mine, except perhaps the one On the Bound Will and the Catechism.^”

Because Luther thought it so important I decided to include it, and see where it leads us.

I am assuming that most if not all of you believe in free will.

I know this because in Bible study or adult forum when we get into tricky questions about why there is evil in the world someone will say, “We have free will”.

And everyone else around the table will nod in agreement.

Luther did not believe in free will.

He believed in the bondage of the will.

He believed that our wills cannot choose anything but sin.

We cannot will ourselves to make good decisions.

And even when we think we have made good decisions it is usually for sinful reasons.

We cannot will our way to good behavior, or more importantly salvation.
As St. Paul says in his letter to the Church in Rome “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.”

We can make decisions, but we will always choose sin.

As Luther wrote, “We do not sin against our will but rather according to our will.”

It is who we are.

Our will is bound to sin.

There is no escape.

Luther wrote this in a theological battle he was having with Erasmus who wrote defending free will.

Erasmus believed that people were given two choices by God and it was dependent on them to choose the good.

This is oversimplification of both positions, but it is the essence of the argument.

So was Luther right?

For me, it is the only answer to the problems of the world.

We wouldn’t have the world we have if we could make better choices.

Our world would not be filled with selfishness, greed, and violence.

We wouldn’t have guns.

We wouldn’t have multi billionaires while children go hungry.

We wouldn’t have marches with torches and people yelling racial slogans.

We wouldn’t have people who hate each other over religion.

We wouldn’t have nuclear weapons.

It is interesting to me that we all believe that if we had lived in different times with different choices that we would have made the right ones.

If we had been in Germany in 1934 we would have never have voted for the Nazi party.

We would have stood up for our Jewish brothers and sisters.

Interesting that the Luther church existed in 1934 and the majority of those churches was silent about what was happening.

If I had been in Alabama in 1963 I would be marching with Dr. King.

Interesting that the Luther Church existed in 1963, and most were silent.

Dr. King wrote his "Letter From a Birmingham Jail" to pastors who wanted him to stop protesting because he was disturbing the peace.

Most of us think that if we had lived 2,000 years ago in the time of Jesus we would have been on his side.

We would have been one of those people that dropped everything and followed Jesus all the way to Golgotha.

We would never have betrayed him like Judas, or denied him like Peter, or fled like the other 10.

We certainly wouldn’t have been one of the religious leaders that were so upset with Jesus coming into the temple, turning over the money changers, and preaching for a week in our temple, that they plotted with the Government to have him killed.

The parable that Jesus tells this morning asked this exact question of us.

Where would you be?

Would you be a land manager who thinks you own the land and have the servants killed?

Would you be trying to rob the land owner by not listening to the son?

Before you answer too quickly, really think about that answer.

We tend to protect that which we have.

Once we get something, a house, some land, an important position, we tend to want to protect it at all cost.

Even if that means I will have to kill someone to keep it.

That doesn’t sound like Jesus?

“For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

That is Jesus.

My point is only that we are not as noble and good as we think.

And to believe in free will brings us down a road of judgment.

It makes us believe that we are good, and that others are bad.

And in that belief we fall prey to the temptation not only to judge others (think Jesus had some things to say about that?) but also to think too highly of ourselves.

This is exactly what was happening in Luther’s day.

There were really good people (saints, priests, bishops, nuns, monks).

And then there were the bad people, most everyone else.

Luther tries to even the field by pointing out that we all sin.

Because what Luther wants us to see is our need for Jesus Christ, our need for the Holy Spirit, and our need for God.

It is only through that relationship that we can see and understand our failings.

It is by God’s grace and God’s Spirit that we are able to do any good at all.

When I was in college I was playing some pickup basketball in the school gym.

I can be a pretty competitive person.

It was a hard fought game.

There was another student who was one of the Jewish leaders on campus playing on the other team.

We were going at each other good.

I checked the ball with him and he rolled back to me in an angry way to a place I couldn’t get it.

I had to go to the other end of the gym to retrieve the ball.

I don’t know if it was on purpose or not.

I got the ball and went up to him and said, “Didn’t they teach you manners in Jew-boy school.”

As soon as the words were out I knew it was wrong.

I was shocked by my behavior.

I wouldn’t think in a million years that would be something I said or thought.

It was a sin.

It was maybe who I really was/am.

I tell this story because for me it shows the truth of what Luther was trying to get at.

Our will is bound to sin, no matter how much we wish it was different.

For me this helps me to better understand the world we live in.

This is why someone would rent a 37 floor hotel room and kill 59 people with a weapon.

It is why people would follow a mad man who told them they are a superior race.

It is why people for entertainment would lynch someone from a tree and take pictures.

It is why we have the world we do.

I wanted to end a positive note today.

But I am going to leave us hear.

I told you this would not be anyone’s favorite sermon.

I don’t want it to be.
I wanted you to go home and think about it.

I wanted you to go home and think about your bound will, and turn again to Jesus Christ.

It is only in him that we find hope.

Luther was right what he wrote in the hymn we are about to sing, “Do not regard my sinful deeds. Send me the grace my spirit needs; without it I am nothing.”

Amen

Jesus Emptied Himself For Us!

I am wondering this morning if you have ever experienced something in your life that made you feel helpless.

Have you ever had a problem that you that you couldn’t solve?

We probably don’t like that feeling.

We want it to go away.

This morning I want to suggest that it is at these times when God is at work.

That in that helplessness God is up to something.

We know this because as Christians that God that we know died on a cross.

That the God that was revealed to us in Jesus Christ was not an all powerful God, but one who was helpless to stop the violence and death that he faced.

We read today in Philippians, “Though he was in the form of God…but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness, and being found in human form…and became obedient to the point of death- even death on a cross.”

The God that we know in Jesus Christ is not the God who sits up high.

It is not the God who grants wishes.

It is not the God who makes everything wonderful.

It is a God who knows all too well human helplessness, human venerability.

Of all the insights that were brought forth from the Reformation this one was of key importance.

God works are hidden from us, except, in the work of suffering.

The place where we know God’s work is in our suffering.

It is in our places when we feel defeated, we feel lost, and we feel helpless.

In those places we will find God at work.

Luther called people who only saw God in winning and triumph theologians of glory.

But true theologians he argued are found in those who see God truly at work in our suffering.

Before the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 I would tell people that Yankee fans were theologians of glory.

Red Sox fans knew the theology of the cross.

We knew true agonizing suffering.

We knew what it meant to lose every time.

Yankee fans expected to win every year, we expected to lose.

As we have been exploring these past couple of weeks the themes of the Reformation still are relevant for our times, maybe none more than this one.

We live in a world of glory.

We love glory.

We love the big stories of triumph.

We love the underdog making it big.

We love winning.

We want to be with the winner.

And we want our lives to be great.

We want them to be happy and awesome.

But they are often far from the fairy tales we have been told.

Our lives are often more mundane then we wish they were.

They don’t seem as heroic.

Jesus tells us this morning that the place where God is at work is in prostitutes and tax collectors.

Not in the chief priest and elders!

Not in the people who have it all together?

Not in the people who are telling everyone the mighty acts of God?

But in the people who are beaten down by life, the losers, and the sufferers.

This is hard to fathom.

The question that our faith in God confronts us with is who are we?

Do we have it all together?

Is there nothing in our lives that is bad?

And the second is where is God?

Is God only found in the wonderful moments?

Is God only found in the glorious moments?

A couple of years ago I went up on my day off with my kids to spend some time with my mother.

We had a really wonderful day.

We went sledding at Calumet.

We went out for lunch.

My mom called it, “This is a God is good day.”

It was indeed.

But what about the other days in our lives that are not so wonderful?

What about the day I got the call from my mother that my Dad died?

What about the day I found out that my mom had cancer?

What about the day my friend Sarah died?

What about the night at College when all I wanted to do was quite?

What about the night our family was fighting and my Dad had to leave the house?

What about all those other times when things were not all so wonderful.

What about those times I felt helpless?

What Luther challenges us on is that God is just as much at work in those moments as the “God is good day”.

I was talking to some people in our congregation this week about prayer.

It is interesting to me how some subjects come up in a week more than once for some reason.

But I had several conversations about prayer.

People were telling me that prayer was an essential part of their faith lives.

That it was prayer that got them through some pretty hard times.

And that God always answers prayer.

Isn’t that true?

There are two caveats to this (that the people agreed with me on).

One, not always in the way we think God will answer that prayer.

Two, we only see this in hindsight.

This means that God works in mysterious ways.

And while we are going through struggles we don’t know the outcome.

We don’t know the way that God will work in our lives.

That is the hidden part of God.

To suggest that we do know is dangerous and disingenuous.

It is to be a theologian of Glory.

To say things like, "God will never give you more than you can handle."

“To blessed to be stressed” “Everything happens for a reason.”

Or something else that seems comforting by really ignores or overlooks our pain is not helpful.

On the other hand, to see God in our pain, helplessness, and hurt is to see that Jesus Christ emptied himself for us, took our human form, and can sympathize with our human weakness, is the good news!

The God we know in Jesus Christ has dwells with us.

God sits with us in our helplessness.

Turn to God with your troubles with what aches your heart.

Because we know that God will be there.

Pray with all your might to God to be with you in those times.

Some day you can look back and see God at work in that time.

Not that God caused your suffering.

But that God helped you through, God created something new in you through that moment.

Maybe even that you are stronger in faith for having gone through it with God.

Not that it all got taken care of, that everything is all tied up in a nice bow.

Only that you survived, and maybe learned some lessons along the way about yourself and God.

God does not fix every problem we have.

To believe that is to be a theologian of glory.

But God is in every problem we have.

And we can call on God to be with us through everything we face through our helplessness, pain, heartache, loss, and sin.

To believe that is to be theologian of the cross.

It is to have faith in the God we know through Jesus Christ that even though he was in the form of God emptied himself for us.

Amen

Faith Alone!

Faith Alone.

This was a central idea of the Reformation that we are saved by faith alone.

What does it mean to live by faith alone?

How do we get faith?

Most of us don’t like this idea.

Well…most of us have probably never really thought about it that much.

We might want to live by faith.

But most of us live by works.

We live believing in our works.

We live believing that we have lived a good life, a hard working life.

During the time of the Reformation this saying was about getting to heaven.

That you got to heaven by faith alone, through grace alone, because of Christ alone, that was shone in the Word alone.

Those things formed the core of what the Reformers were trying to teach.

It was through Christ that we are saved.

And to have faith meant to trust in Christ and his promise of eternal life.

It is great, but I think we are uncomfortable with it because we want to do something.

I can’t tell you how many times in my years as a pastor I have been challenged on this point.

People say something like, “If you don’t have to be good, then you will just do whatever you want.”

In other words, it can’t be that simple.

It can’t just be about trusting in God.

What do I have to do?

Our Gospel for this morning is a good example of what people are trying to get at.

We don’t like the idea that people get something for nothing.

We are usually like the people hired at the start of the day.

We feel that we have worked harder, done more, then the people hired at the end of the day.

When I first read the Gospel for this morning I thought it was about grace.

But it is more about faith.

In our relationship with Jesus what do we come to know?

That God is gracious and loving.

We know this because we have come to experience it ourselves.

We see that so much of our lives are out of our control.

That the things we want to do we don’t do.

And we come to see our own need for God.

For God to forgive us, lead us, and help us.

Because of this we learn to trust God, and place all things in God’s hands.

That is what is missing from the workers in our Gospel, a trust that God is God and works on a different level that we do.

Our faith is putting our trust in God’s hands.

The powerful core of our shared faith is that God is generous beyond our simple mindset.

And we really need it.

I can hardly keep up these days with all the things that are going on in the world.

It seems that bad news is coming at an ever increasing pace.

Earthquakes in Mexico, multiple destructive hurricanes in Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico, people dying in terrorist attacks, wars and rumors of wars.

As the 80/90 Rock Group REM once sang, “It’s the end of the world as we know it.”

When people ask me, “how I am?” it is a hard to say.

I am fine, but I see the rest of the world falling apart.

And this doesn’t even take into account the personal struggles of people I care about.

My mother’s cancer.

My friend’s cancer.

Or your struggles that I hold in my heart.

Getting older and struggling with life changes.

All of the things that happen in our congregation that I worry about like people coming to church less and less.

All of these things are on my mind.

I am sure that you have your own list of things that are troubling you.

If I lived by works this would be impossible to keep up with.

It would be devastating to think about all the problems of the world, and how few solutions there are.

But to live by faith is to trust in a gracious and loving God.

As Martin Luther wrote, “The law says, ‘do this,’ and it is never done. Grace says, ‘believe this,’ and everything is already done.”

Faith alone is to believe that the world with all of its problems has at the center a God of grace.

We don’t live there very often.

We live in a world of judgment.

We judge each other.

We live in a world of anger.

We are angry all the time at each other.

It is nice to think that the other side is getting what we think they deserve.

When we build a relationship with God we come to find out it doesn’t work that way with God.

Jesus tells us that, “the first are last and the last are first”.

The parable he tells this morning is one that the original hearers would be shocked and angered at.

And I suspect the same is true for us.

To think Jesus is being overly gracious.

Except it is parable about the kingdom of God.

It is a parable about the way that God works that contradicts the systems of the world.

Jesus tells us today that the only way to live in the kingdom is by faith alone.

I think the only way to live in our world is by faith alone, because the whole thing is crazy.

It is out of control.

It doesn’t make sense.

And so all I have is a God of grace.

How do we get this faith?

According to Luther we get by hearing God’s word.

Coming to Church and receiving the sacraments are part of that.

For me, often it is through you and some act of kindness that I am reminded of God’s promise.

Like this card I got from Alva for my birthday one year.

“Have faith in untraveled roads….Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith” (Matthew 21:22)

Often I will get a card or nice word from one of you that will help me.

I know that you also do that for each other.

The Word of God reminds us of God’s grace and love.

It reminds us of God’s promise and brings us back to our faith.

One of the great things about being a pastor is that you get to see people’s faith all the time.

Many people that I have had the privilege of being the pastor to have shown great faith in their lives.

They are people that have experienced great heartache and pain, and still trust that God has their best interest at heart.

They express this faith in different ways, in different language, but it is all the same thing.

Faith is not believing in some doctrine.

It is not having the “right” words to say.

It is about a deep relationship that one develops over many years.

It is relationship that develops of hearing God’s word over and over again.

In that relationship one learns to trust God.

One learns that life happens, good things and bad things.

“That if we live we live to the Lord, and if we die we die to the Lord.”

Today I wish for all of you faith alone.

Faith that keeps you going.

faith that helps you get through those hard times.

Faith that keeps you from becoming too cynical.

Faith to know how much God cares about you.

Faith that keeps you believing in a Gracious and loving God.

Amen