Tenth Sunday after Trinity - Den of Thieves

KJV 1 Corinthians 12:1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. 2 Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. 3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. 4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. 8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: 11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

KJV Luke 19:41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, 42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. 43 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, 44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. 45 And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; 46 Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves. 47 And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him, 48 And could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him.

TLH Hymns

The Hymn vss 1-4 #188
The Sermon Hymn #13
The Hymn #307
The Hymn #316

Den of Thieves

When Jesus looked over the city of Jerusalem, He wept over it, knowing what would happen in 40 years. First Jerusalem crucified Him. Nevertheless, the Gospel was proclaimed there and thousands were converted (Acts). The Christian Church was so successful that the religious authorities persecuted the new church and drove out the Christians, killing their leaders. Thus Jerusalem showed two-fold bitterness toward its Savior, much in the pattern of murdering prophets in ancient days.

The persecution spared the Christians, scattering them along the waterways and highways of the Roman Empire, where they set up new congregations. Religious tensions grew in Jerusalem, aggravated by Roman disdain for their monotheism. The fanatical Jews first routed a small Roman army, making them bold to try independence, which was forbidden in the Roman Empire. A large Roman army moved in their direction.

What Jesus predicted was carried out with uncommon precision. Thanks to slave labor and Roman persistence, the city was surrounded by a wall so that everyone was kept inside, no food coming in to help the masses of residents and a horde of visitors for the religious holidays. A massive supply of grain was burned early, so panic and starvation set in. Cannibalism took hold with scenes too graphic to repeat. They are in Josephus’ history, a first-hand account.

Jerusalem was such a powerfully situated city, with a protected water supply, that one Roman said only God could have willed that the capital be taken by force. The Roman army became God’s instrument of wrath. Not one stone was left on another in the army’s zeal to find gold. The temple of Herod was utterly destroyed. So many residents were sold into slavery that they had to ship them away to get decent money for them. Jews had been dispersed before, but this was even greater and more painful.

This rebellion of 69-70 AD convinced Rome that the Christians in their own capital were just another band of troublesome Jews. The growth of Christianity in Rome also incited persecution. Nero was famous for his tortures of Christians, but he was not alone. Luther’s comment about Rome is worth remembering – “They tolerated every god but One.” They even built a tremendous temple to all gods – the Pantheon, still famous for its architecture.

Thus Jesus foresaw the persecution He and His followers would face and wept over the fate of those who brought God’s wrath upon themselves. Jesus’ many visits to Jerusalem, starting with His boyhood teaching in the temple, showed His many attempts to win converts to God’s Word. He went to those who hated the promised Gospel most and brought God’s grace to them.

The message today is – go where it is easy. Go to the zip codes where people are moving and they have plenty of money to pay for nice buildings. Take an easy message anyone can enjoy. Give them man-made law, like how to be successful and popular. Turn the Gospel of forgiveness into the gospel of prosperity. Never argue about doctrine, because doctrine divides (the sheep from the goats).

Knowing the persecution He would face, why did Jesus set His face steadfastly toward Jerusalem and confront the moneylenders in the temple courtyard. People still cheer that idea, overturning the tables, making a whip from His belt. They often discuss it during the bake sale out in the narthex, the car wash by the youth to pay for their trip to the Wisconsin Dells, the men’s fish fry (all you can eat for…) People have no trouble talking about this and asking if they have enough Thrivent napkins for the next coffee hour, the Thriven liturgical chart, and the Thrivent matching funds for the rummage sale, car wash, bake sale, and fish fry.

Who would guess that the only work of the Christian Church is to proclaim the Gospel, teach the Word of God, and care for the membership?

Worse is the attitude that the Christian Church is a business venture to be run as a business. The materialistic model is easy to adopt, because we live with it all around us. Things are changing because of it. Newspapers will soon give up on print editions, some say. The Monday edition of the Phoenix paper is the size of a shopper’s guide. So the business model is used to revamp and upgrade the Church.

As I expected and predicted, ELCA took its apostasy another step and approved homosexual partners in the parsonage, the convention voting to tell bishops to stop disciplining “chaste, committed relationships” in the parsonage. I wonder how many chaste, committed relationships existed at Sodom, which still lends its name to those practices?

I also predicted that “conservative” Lutherans would immediately start clucking their tongues over the ELCA convention. Some even worry and complain that non-Lutherans group them all together. And why not?

Paul McCain was SP Al Barry’s assistant for nine years. For the entire time the Missouri Synod and WELS (ELS as a tag-along) worked with ELCA on all kinds of religious projects, including evangelism and the Joy radio show. The same Barry-McCain administration refused to discipline DP Benke for outrages against good confessional practice. As Henry of Navarre said about caving in, “Paris is worth one Mass.”

If ELCA is so terrible, then why work with them as partner churches? (Missouri even listed ELCA and Thrivent as “partners in ministry” on their webpage!) Why hector and lecture ELCA after working with them via the Purple Palace?

The Barry-McCain administration prepared the way for even more pan-Lutheran and pan-religious worship in the Kieschnick regime. Which is worse, to go against one’s stated beliefs, as Barry and McCain did, or to do exactly what was expected, as Kieschnick has done? In the Benke case, Barry watered, McCain planted, and Kieschnick gaveth the growth.

The Gospel rain moves on, as Luther taught. The message of Jesus moved East at first, creating a Christian Empire for 1100 years, the largely forgotten Byzantine Empire. Then Islam took over Byzantium and the Gospel moved West across Europe and into America during the Age of Exploration. Persecution of Christians by Rome helped funnel English and French Protestants to America. Later persecutions sent the founders of the LCMS to America, to enjoy freedom from the Prussian Union of Lutherans and Reformed (now recaptured in the Church Growth Movement, which has been flourishing in all synods for the last 30 years).

Various trends have ended the vitality of the Lutheran Church in North America, but the Gospel moves on. Christians were eager to make China Christian in the 19th century, called The Christian Century back then. (The magazine reflects the optimism, but the Christian Century magazine is hopelessly anti-religious now and has been for decades.) Some claim (posted on Ichabod) that Christians in China now vow and actively work to Christianize Islam, to take the Gospel back to Jerusalem as the last act of God’s drama. They gladly endure persecution in China and Muslim lands for the sake of the Gospel.

A den of thieves will not last as God’s temple. We are all sinners, but that is diagnosis according to God’s Word, not an excuse to do what we want.

The mercy of God is shown in His desire to give us the Gospel in visible form. When we see the elements of Holy Communion and participate in the sacrament, our individual attention is focused up this Means of Grace, which the Concordists called “an instrument.” Zwingli made fun of this concept. He wrote, “God does not need a vehicle, like an oxcart.” True in one sense - God does not need an instrument, but we do. In God’s wisdom He established various means: the preached and taught Word, Holy Baptism, Holy Communion, absolution, and the mutual consolation of the brothers. He has done all this for our needs, not for His needs.

One might say, “Jesus did not need to feed the Five Thousand and have many baskets left over.” He did not need that, but He accomplished the miracle to reveal the abundance God offers in His promises.

Jesus’ patience and mercy toward Jerusalem, the planting of God’s Word in the very place where the Savior was rejected and killed, is a testimony to us of His patience and mercy toward each and every one of us.