The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, 2018
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual
The Gospel
Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
Believers See
The Preface p. 24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn # 361 O Jesus, King
KJV Ephesians 4:1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, 2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
KJV Luke 14:1 And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him. 2 And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. 3 And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? 4 And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go; 5 And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day? 6 And they could not answer him again to these things. 7 And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them, 8 When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; 9 And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. 10 But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. 11 For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Seventeenth Sunday After Trinity
Lord God, heavenly Father: We beseech Thee so to guide and direct us by Thy Holy Spirit, that we may not exalt ourselves, but humbly fear Thee, with our whole hearts hear and keep Thy word, and hallow the Lord's day, that we also may be hallowed by Thy word; help us, first, to place our hope and confidence in Thy Son, Jesus Christ, who alone is our righteousness and Redeemer, and, then, so to amend and better our lives in accordance with Thy word, that we may avoid all offenses and finally obtain eternal salvation, through Thy grace in Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God. world without end. Amen.
Sermon Introductory Material
Two issues often mentioned are 1) legalism; 2) Antinomianism. They have a close relationship because both come from a denial of the Gospel. The Objective Justification crowd would like to call itself all-grace and all-Gospel, but they cannot when they deny, repudiate, and silence Justification by Faith. The OJ hive does not teach the Gospel, so they do not know what the Law is. Luther's sermon for this passage emphasizes that people must come to know that God is friendly, caring, and forgiving toward us. They must hear about the true nature of God - from the God-man Jesus - to have faith and receive God's forgiveness, blessings,
and protection.
The OJ Pharisees do not believe in the Savior, so they are legalists about everything. They have written and unwritten laws that they fish out of their memories and declare at all times, bidden or unbidden. For example, no one can question a seminary professor or District President, because they are infallible. To question a potentate is to argue with the Holy Spirit, as one pastor said, perhaps not aware that is precisely the Roman Catholic claim about papal infallibility. The legalists lay down burdens on people that are not Scriptural and do not apply to the legalists. But they are also Antinomian, anti-Law. One of peculiar traits of WELS is that pastors say, "The Law is obsolete" and falsely use Paul's passage about the tutor (Law) leading us to Christ.
That is the paradox of ossified false doctrine. They teach the opposite of what they claim. Jesus is so forgiving that He cares not if no one believers, or if millions believe in many gods at once, pagan and degenerate in worship. They are against faith but they insist that everyone believe in their dogma, which never appears in the Bible, Luther, or the Book of Concord. Their version of faith is not faith at all but agreement with them. God have mercy on those who question this, because they will show no mercy to their critics, no matter now kind and patient the critics are.
Their version of the Law is shouting at people that they are wrong to talk about faith in Jesus, because "you are not Christians - you are Faithians - your faith is in your faith!" But of course, the entire Bible teaches faith in Jesus as forgiveness, Justification by Faith, revealed by Genesis 15. Abraham believed he and his wife, an ancient pair, will begin the line that leads to the Messiah and the ever-growing and eternal Kingdom of God. Rather than emphasize the biological miracle, which is remarkable, this is really an emphasis on Abraham believing in the promised Messiah and His ever-lasting, ever-growing Kingdom. Centuries later, Isaiah 7 and 9 taught the Savior's divinity and His eternal Kingdom. TV has a feature on 8 kingdoms that no longer exist, all of them fading away in modern times - Portugal, Greece, Italy, etc.
Those who do not believe in Christ and war against His teachings are exactly like the Pharisees. That is why those Pharisaic warnings are in the Gospels, not only for historical truth but also for present parallels. The unbelieving Lutherans are works-saints, they are eager to say, but unforgiving and unwilling to see anything good. However, they covet anti-Means of Grace sects and want to make Lutheran worship over to be just like them. (Like First Christian, Moline? - once 3 services a Sunday, now empty, closed. No creed, no liturgy, coaching talks.)
God only works through the Word, but the Enthusiasts reject that and tell us to trust their words. How did God forgive the entire unbelieving world at once? "Trust us." Why baptize a child who was born forgiven, as they claim. "Never mind. Trust us." How does the Church grow and expand? They say, "According to our studies, by starting in the right place, using entertainment, avoiding all that traditional stuff like hymns and creeds and sermons. Ignore the spectacular failures and focus on our amazing very unique star attractions like Willow Creek and the Crystal Cathedral . Wait there's a new list."
Believers See
KJV Luke 14:1 And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him. 2 And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy.
Two kinds of people were drawn to Jesus in a positive way. Those who wanted to hear Him speak about God, and those who were very ill or disabled. The rumor (logos) or report (hearing the message, Romans 10) went out everywhere about His teaching and His miracles. Jesus had such a reputation that the Pharisees were watching Him when a man with dropsy came in.
This is something we have to accept - that unbelievers see nothing good in Christianity, in Christians, or the Christian Church. That especially applies to the mice in the cookie jar. They want to be considered cookies, but they are only there to devour the cookies. Those are the apostates, who once believed, got into church vocations, and lost whatever faith they had. The religious unbelievers are no different from the Pharisees, who are their models. One can be ever-so-obsevant of the traditions of man and be an tireless opponent of the Christian Faith, so much easier from the inside than from the outside.
3 And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? 4 And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go;
Left unsaid is the obvious from our picture of Jesus and the times. Jesus already knew what was in the heart of man and did not need anyone's testimony. Therefore, he knew the man came for healing. Likewise, there is a reason this man appeared before Jesus. The Gospel was spreading among the people. If we read the Fourth Gospel carefully, we see how great the antagonism was from the earliest days. The more people saw Jesus as the Messiah, the more the union of Jewish religious leaders saw Him as the enemy, though some were secret believers.
Why did this outburst of trust in Jesus happen? They longed for the Savior, the Son of David, and knew the main prophecies about Him. The people and the religious leaders had the basic information, and Jesus fit them all and went far beyond expectations in His healing power and His powerful teaching. On the other hand, the religious leaders were captives of the Roman Empire and feared the end of their peace, their prosperity, and their power. They unbelief fed their fears and their hatred.
This spoken Gospel drew those hungering and thirsting for righteousness and those with grievous physical ailments. This spoken Gospel also antagonized those who worked all their lives for their positions and now saw that crumbling with Rome's wrath and posssible civil war. There is no war like a religious one.
3. And this is the Gospel, as I said, that must be preached and heard before there can be faith. We must know that God is kindly disposed toward us and has sent his Son from heaven to help us. This the conscience must hear and believe; for if God were unfriendly and unmerciful toward us, it would avail little to know that all his creatures sympathize with us. If God is satisfied with us, no creature can do us any harm, as St. Paul says in Romans 8:31: “If God is for us, who is against us?” Let death, devil, hell and all creation rage; we are safe. Therefore it is the Gospel that must present to us the God-man as merciful. This is the fountain from which our heart can draw faith and a friendly confidence toward God that he will help both the dying and the living in every distress.
4. We notice this here in the man afflicted with dropsy. He had heard of the kindness of Jesus to others and now believes that he will show the same to him. Had he not believed, it would have been impossible to help him. The Gospel resounds in all the world, but it is not heard by everybody. The Pharisees also sat there; they saw these things with their own eyes and failed not to notice what a friendly man Jesus was, but they believed not; hence the Gospel could neither reform them nor give them help and comfort. Thus the Gospel is very universal, but the true laying hold of it is very rare. So much in regard to faith.
We can see amusing but also sad examples of this. The denizens of LutherQuest (sic) were angered that our little crew, working on the Internet from a rented home, produced an enormous set of Luther's Sermons, illustrated in color, for a small amount of money. The LutherQuashers were offended - in this year of Luther's 500th Anniversary of the Reformation.
3 And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? 4 And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go;
Should they answer according to man's law or God's Son? Many times the opponents only want to remain silent so they can gather their evidence and build up a case. This was certainly true of the union of religious leaders, but they did not know that believers were among them, that the greatest Gospel preacher and writer would be a converted Pharisee of the Pharisees, Paul.
Thus it is God's gracious will that there be division among the believers and unbelievers, those who follow sound doctrine and those who follow diseased doctrine. (Sound doctrine in Greek is hygienic teaching.) Sometimes those most offended at first become the most studious and then see what God really is teaching. Luther tried to be the best monk of all and in that quest, that Luther quest, found the Scriptural answer was not in Enthusiams (dogma apart from the Word) but in the true Gospel of faith in Jesus.
5 And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day? 6 And they could not answer him again to these things.
Most people care deeply about the suffering of animals. In fact, those who torture or abuse animals are already signaling that there is something deeply wrong with them. So this is almost univesal, as Jesus knew. Who would let an animal suffer because it was the Sabbath? They could not answer so they were silent.
That is why we need to recognize that the response of silence is the greatest (most antagonistic) response of disapproval. Anger is an earlier stage, because people think they can oppose an idea by expressing their ideas. And that is really good in sorting out religious differences. But silence - that represents seething emotions and an inability or unwillingness to oppose. Silence often moves to shunning, excommunication, and a storm of slander. The situation around Jesus was building to false accusations, the use of the government to silence and kill Jesus, and the trick of slander to make sure no one ever mentioned Him again.
Many of the insults heard against Christian believers are an example of angry opposition. For example, long before we moved to the South, I was called a "redneck." That still makes me smile because that is term used with pride in this area. Any solution that works and costs almost nothing is a "redneck solution," and good for laughs. When someone uses a minor insult to make me upset, I use it back and laugh about it. A cop stopped me when I had PhD on my driver's license (why I don't know). He said with contempt, "Oh a Phud. You are a Phud. Do you know that those initials stand for?" I said, "Sure - Patience, Hard Work, and Determination." That ruined his joke and he conceded, "I guess you are right."
A district VP said, "We get those pastors with a Luther complex." I said, "That's better than a Melanchthon complex." (I have great respect for Melanchthon but the poorly educated view Melanchthon as a compromiser, so that label fits them. I think they want to bury his essay on Justification by Faith in the Apology.)
The lack of a good answer is proof of error. We should always be prepared to give a reason for the hope within us. That is the key passage on apologetics - a good defense of the truth of God's Word. The Pharisees had no good answer, so they tried accusations, silence, and finally a political trial.
7 And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them, 8 When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; 9 And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. 10 But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.
I have seen people try to model this behavior, more as a show of their humility. But Jesus is really talking about actual humility, not show-humility. The religious got special haircuts in the Middle Ages, tonsures, to tell everyone, "He is a poor beggar. Give him money, which will bless you."
Some of our modern Uriah 'eeps give themselves away when they explode in anger when opposed in the mildest way. I saw that happen when I was invited to talk to someone. I suppose he was supposed to tame him. I challenged his promotion cell group Pietism. "I was asked." I said, "You could say No." Much, much later, this umble servant was exposed as a leader and pioneer of Church and Change, the synodical group that took over to inject their false doctrine into everything - now known as the Jeske Crime Family. That all made sense in retrospect. I would say something mildly and he would wildly wave his arms around and barely contain himself. It was like saying to a Mafia don, "We have to do something about crime. You should be a good example."
Humility comes from realizing the power and grace of God. Whateve place we are in, we have a a vocation in serving Him and reflecting the Gospel. There is no outside in serving as believers. We are inside the Kingdom, whether on earth, in a hospital bed, or enjoying eternal life. It is a Kingdom of grace and mercy, where God pursues us with the Gospel, includes us in His flock, and gently leads us on our path.
I often think of Patton, who wondered "How could I end up as the leader of a fake army?" He was put on ice and headed up a ghost invasion army to fool Germany. That ended up being real genius, because the Germans assumed the Patton Army Group would lead the invasion, and it was still in England. That was such a distraction that an almost impossible landing was made possible through that deception. Many things, like Midway, were divinely ordered to make that happen.
So there are no "onlys." I am only a layman. I am only a mother. I am only a parish pastor. A pastor teaching his son Greek is preparing generations ahead of him for Gospel training. Children complain about their mothers being...typical mothers...until they realize decades later how important those lessons were.
We have seen 50 years of people doing canonballs into the swimming pool of the Church. They make a big splash and soak many people, who are in awe. But now...nothing. They are an embarrassment, whether cardinals or seminary professors or mega-church broken pastors. 11 For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
