A Blog of Sermons, Devotional Thought, Religious Topics, and Just fun information and thoughts from Rev. Keith GeRue
Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church
Between Girard and Virden Illinois
September 16 2 Chronicles 35:1–7, 16–25; Colossians 3:1–25
September 17 2 Chronicles 36:1–23; Colossians’ 4:1–18; Philemon 1–25
September 18 Nehemiah 1:1—2:10; 1 Timothy 1:1–20; Haggai 1:1—2:23
September 19 Nehemiah 2:11–20; 4:1–6; 1 Timothy 2:1–15
NEXT WEEKS LESSONS:
the Fifteenth sunday after trinity
“You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24–34), for they require two contrary forms of service. Worry is the worship given to the false god of mammon, an unbelieving anxiousness and focus on the things of this world. Faith is the worship of the true God, a confident trust that He is a loving Father who will care for all of our needs in both body and soul. The widow of Zarephath served God, that is, she believed the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah that the bin of flour would not be used up nor would the jar of oil run dry (1 Kings 17:8–16). He who feeds the birds and clothes the flowers will certainly provide for our daily needs. For He has already provided for our eternal needs, clothing us with Christ’s righteousness in Baptism and feeding us His body and blood for our forgiveness. With such confidence we are liberated from worry and freed to do good with our material resources, especially to those who are of the household of faith (Galatians 5:25–6:10).
Collect
O Lord, we implore You, let Your continual pity cleanse and defend Your Church, and because she cannot continue in safety without Your help, preserve her evermore by Your help and goodness; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord . . .
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is from the Gospel lesson just read from Luke chapter 17, the words of the lepers, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!
Today we are going to hear the lesson of patiently putting up with ingratitude just as Christ our dear Lord did and continues to do with us to this very day. Jesus will teach us that the reason we do the right thing is not so that we receive thanks, but because it is the right thing to do. And Jesus does this for you and I every day by forgiving our sins.
In our story, Jesus is traveling along, healing and doing good wherever He wills. As He passes through Samaria and Galilee, ten lepers spy Jesus from afar off and cry out to him, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us! This cry is what we cry out every Sunday in the Divine Service and in our prayers. Lord, have mercy. It is the cry of faith. These ten lepers trusted that Jesus could do something to help them out of their terrible disease, and so they cried out to Him, Lord, Master, have mercy.
Jesus sees them, He hears their cry for mercy, and so He says to them, Go, show yourselves to the priests. This is important, for in Jesus’ day, only the priest could declare one clean. The priest didn’t make a person clean, but He declare what was obvious to everyone what was true. If the priest said you were clean, you were clean. So they go to the priest.
After going to the priest, one of the ten puts the jigsaw puzzle together. We cried out to Jesus, He healed us and sent us to the priest to be declared clean. This Samaritan recognized the hand of God in the whole matter, and so returned to Jesus and gave thanks and glory to God for His mercy.
We know this story. It would be very tempting to simply leave this story with the command: BE THANKFUL! Just like when the Lawyer asks, “What must I do to be saved?” You see there is a Law way to leave this story and a Gospel way to leave this story. The Law ending is pretty easy. Don’t be like the nine. Be like the one who returned and gave thanks. Be good.
Now is this a good command? You bet! Think of the Psalms: O give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Certainly each one of us can and should give thanks for all of the goodness which Christ our Lord pours out on us each and every day.
But this is not finally the point of the parable. For if you examine yourself according to the Law, you recognize your own utter lack of thankfulness. How many of you have ever thanked a teacher who taught you kindly and patiently? How many of you have thanked the platoon or First Sergeant who worked hard to qualify you? How about the XO, Commander, SGM, or Colonel who stopped to ask how your day is going? How about the PFC, or SPEC who cleaned up after you? Your boss? Your employees? Or what about your own parents and spouse? Have you thanked them for caring for you and loving you for years on end without so much as a word of thanks? I could add many more to this list, and I’m sure you could as well. There are lots of people all over the place who keep the world moving, and who patiently see that everything gets done that needs to get done. But as often as not when it comes to these things, you and I blithely ignore them. We have more important things to do than give thanks to God for their work.
For you see, when you go to a doctor and are healed, that is God at work just as much as it was for those ten lepers. Or when your mother changed your diapers and fed you when you were young, that was God at work caring for you in the messiest of places. And yet you ignore and refuse to thank God for all of these gifts He showers upon you.
Now if you are IN one of those positions, where you are giving, sacrificing, and plodding along for the cause, whatever the cause may be, your temptation is to become impatient. Why can’t we get more people to help? Don’t people realize how important this is? They should be jumping up and down to help. Now you and I both know that if you’ve ever done something kind for someone and been rebuffed or ignored, you get bitter about it. You may even get angry about it.
But now we are starting to come around to the point of our text. Do you remember the words of the Lord’s Prayer?
Give us this day our daily bread.What does this mean?God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.
You see, it is God who is at work taking care of you, loving you, and providing for you every day of our lives. He does not work like you and I work. You and I get impatient. We forget that nine out of every ten people that you help in this life will never thank you for it. You may never see them again. They may ignore you, they may even ridicule you for your kindness and generosity. That is how people are, dear friends.
But we say with St. Paul, let us not grow weary in doing good. Jesus knew that the nine would not give glory to God. He knows that most of the world will mock and ridicule His death and resurrection. He knows. But you know what? He still loves them. And He still loves you. He continues to heal and bring about His great salvation.
You see, God’s love never fails. He gently, patiently invites you to come and be healed by him, and to remember that you do not do good because people will give you thanks or so that you receive praise and adoration. We do what is good and kind and right because of what Christ did for us on the cross and in the empty tomb. You know, helping others, doing good as St. Paul puts it, is really what Christ is all about. He does it better than anyone. He forgives your sins. His patience and love for you never ends. So when you are down, when you are at the end of your rope because of ingratitude or because of weakness of faith, look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. His work for you will never fail. Amen.
In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The world takes little note to this gathering. On the way to the cemetery the rat racers will speed up to beat us, caring not at all, and therefore showing no respect, for those who mourn. Neither are any dignitaries going to stop by. The paper will only run an obituary that you pay for. To them, to the world at large, Dorothy was not important. She was old. She was sick. She was not fabulously rich or famous. Her death does not qualify as news. It is not interesting to the world.
But it is to you. To you, she was something special, a unique and lovely person. The world ignored her to their poverty. For you this is an event of great and personal significance. But you are not the only ones who mark this occasion. So, too, do Dorothy’s brothers and sisters at Trinity. So, too, do the angels. I do not mean this modern mythical nonsense of babies with wings, or lovely points of light, or super-hero’s wandering the earth helping people. I mean the angels of the Holy Scriptures, the cherubim and seraphim, those mighty, powerful beings in God's army who guard and protect His children, who announced the birth of His Son to shepherds in their fields, rolled away the stone that sought to seal Him in the grave, and whom, the Scriptures tell us, rejoice over one sinner who repents.
Those angels rejoice this day for Dorothy. They rejoice because God's will has been done in, and for, her. Christ has honored her above the angels. For He did not become an angel, but a Man. He became a Man precisely in order to take up Dorothy’s sins, to die her death, and to rise again for her justification. He has paid her ransom, removed her guilt, made her His holy, perfect, innocent, and immaculate child, named her as His own in the waters of Holy Baptism. All this she received by humble faith. Christ is the Savior of all men. He died and rose again for all. And those who believe in Him, submit to His Word, trust in His mercy, are saved, spared the ravages of Hell and delivered into perfect bliss of heaven. Thus says Our Lord: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”
And so it is that we mourn not as the world mourns. We do not weep for Dorothy, nor do we pray for her. She needs neither our tears nor our prayers. Jesus has paid everything for her. There is no side stop along the way. There is no debt, no price for heaven. She already now has His reward. We weep this day for ourselves. Our time is not yet ended. We are still asked to endure this cruel world and its many hardships. And now, we must go on without the benefit of her company, without her wonderful chicken and dumplings, without her dancing and singing, and without all the times we shared with her.
But that being said, we have hope. Not some sickly, weak, half-hearted wish that maybe there is something good, something lasting after death. But the hope and promise of the Word of God which cannot lie: The good that most Holy Trinity has done for her He does to all who believe in Him. If you also look to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for forgiveness, if you also hope in the resurrection of the dead and the life to come by the grace and mercy of the Most High, if Jesus is your Lord, then Dorothy has not been taken from you forever. There will be a reunion. You will see her again. And your days there, without tears or sorrow, without pain or sickness, without troubles and woes are without end. So that St. Paul can scarcely imagine even trying to compare that incomprehensible glory with all its wonder and delight to the sufferings we currently, and fleetingly, endure.
Not just you and the angels note this day. So also, does Our Father in heaven. For He loved Dorothy enough to sacrifice His Son that He would have her with Him forever. He loved her even more than you do, and He still does.
Thanks be to God! He does all things well. His mercy endures forever. His love is from everlasting. May He soon also deliver us.
