Trinity 15 Matthew
6:24-34 September 15-16, 2012
In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
The God of Abraham is a jealous God. He will not share the
adoration of His children with anyone or anything else. You shall have no other
gods. You are to fear, love, and trust in the God who called Abraham out of
Chaldea, who parted the Red Sea and gave His holy Law to Moses, who multiplied
the widow’s flour and oil in Zarephath, who sacrificed His Son to make you His,
above all else.
It really comes down to just two options. There are only two gods.
One has many names and faces, as many, in fact, as you could possibly want. You
can call him “God.” You can call him
“Allah,” or “Buddha,” or “Scratch,”
or simply make up a new name. He doesn’t mind. He’ll go by anything. He
conducts himself as the gentlest and noblest of all masters, existing only to
better the existence of his servants, finding commonality amongst all
religions, seeking peace and prosperity regardless of cost. His password is
tolerance. He isn’t jealous. He is quite modern-minded, sensitive, enlightened,
and patriotic. He doesn’t make any demands of his servants. He has no strict
doctrine or moral code. He is convenient, never embarrassing, never harsh,
never confrontational or condemning. He encourages His followers to enjoy
themselves, to pamper themselves, to indulge themselves. He is never shocked by
lewd behavior or deviancy. He understands. Life under him is a smorgasbord of
personal choices and preferences. He embraces diversity and encourages free
thinking. And he glibly tells his servants that they can have as many masters
as they want.
But he is a liar. There are only two masters. All his seeming
niceties are just bait. It is a trap. He deceives to enslave and eventually to
devour. He is willing to bide his time for under that sheepskin of tolerance
are claws meant for killing. He lures men to complacency with shallow
sweet-nothings, like domesticated animals to the slaughter. Nonetheless, most
of the world has fallen prey to his delusion. For he is far easier to take than
the other option, the other God, the One of circumcision, sacrifice, and
Eucharist. For the other Master is so old-fashioned and quite conspicuously,
awkwardly jealous. He won’t allow multiple masters. He offends the
sensitivities of fallen man. He calls them “sinners.”
He is not tolerant. He tends to be stern. He won’t hear prayers in any other
name. He is the God of Truth, the God of Light, not of ambiguity and shadows,
not of silky promises in negligees, not of easy pleasure, but of discipline. He
is Life. But He is found in death. If you will be His, than you can belong to
no other. But you need no other. For no other is of any help, comfort, or aid.
Repent. Jesus is One, the only One. And He still wants you.
What shall we
eat? We shall eat the Body of Jesus, born of the Virgin, executed for
crimes He did not commit, and raised again to glory by His Father given for
you. What shall we drink? We shall
drink the Blood of Jesus poured out outside the city gates for the remission of
your sins. What shall we wear? We
shall wear His righteousness, the wedding garment of joy that He provides by
Grace.
About what then,
shall we worry? Nothing. For all things pale next to this reality: God loves you
in Christ Jesus and promises to remove you from this shadowy valley of pain and
bring you to Himself in heaven. So what if code enforcement is making you paint
the garage, the synod is crumbling around you, your job is on the line, your
daughter has a drinking problem, they make fun of you at school, you can’t fit
into your wedding dress anymore, and terrorists are threatening America! God is
in control. He knows what He is doing.
When Our Lord directed the attention of His disciples to the
sparrows and the lilies, it was not much better for them. They lived in an
occupied country. Imagine East Germany after World War II. They were poor.
Imagine having nothing to eat. I don’t mean not wanting to eat the can of
creamed corn and tomato soup in your cupboard, I mean not having a cupboard.
Imagine people not living much past the age of 50 and half the children dying
by age 5. Imagine foreigners dragging off your adolescent sons to fight in
their wars. In the midst of this Jesus says, “I take care of the sparrows. I’ll take care of you.”
From the world’s point of view there is always plenty to worry
about. But worrying doesn’t change things. It doesn’t stop terrorists anymore
than it prevents tooth decay. No mere man knows what the future holds for the
stock market, for America, or for the Missouri Synod. The Scriptures are silent
on those things. This is not the promised land. America is not God’s chosen
country. We are not better than other people simply because we were born here.
We are more fortunate, yes. But we didn’t earn it. In the same way, the
Missouri Synod is not the last word on orthodoxy and Truth. Yes, we are
fortunate, blessed by God, to have it. But it does not belong to us by Divine
Right. Despise the Word of God and it can be taken away. Anyway, tomorrow
America and the Missouri Synod and Trinity Lutheran Church will all be thrown
into the oven. There won’t be Americans or Missouri-Synod Lutherans in heaven.
There will only be Christians, those who were baptized into Christ, heard His
Word, ate His Body and drank His Blood for the forgiveness of His sins. No one
will care if you were Finnish, German, Russian, or American, let alone what
squabbling little Church body you allied yourself with. But despite that,
despite the temporary nature of the things God provides for us now, we know
this: Jesus is coming back. Death has been defeated. He will not abandon us to
the grave.
In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment