ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

"Trusting in the Grace of God" is the phrase that encapsulates today's little gallery. Pic #1 speaks to the bondage of the will; Pic #2 is Spencer Tracy (1958) as Santiago, a struggling aging fisherman in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, seeking grace to bring home a prize Marlin; Pic #3 shows a young woman who has faith anticipates the grace of God to take her home; and, Pic #4 explains that Christ is always the object of faith who gives us grace.

This brings me to this mornings address:

“The Christian and The Grace of God”

1 Corinthians 15:1,2; 9-10 NKJV “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you — unless you believed in vain…For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was in me.”

My Christian friends: Ernest Hemingway, who wrote “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and his Pulitzer Prize winning “The Old Man and the Sea” also coined the phrase, “courage is grace under pressure” which served as an inspiration for President John F. Kennedy’s book, “Profiles in Courage.” But as brilliant as Hemingway was, he failed to obtain knowledge in his pursuit of courage and grace. Hemingway did not receive the true grace of God to control his drinking; neither did he have the courage to live his life but chose death by suicide in 1961 at the age of 61. You, however, don’t have to come up with contemporary themes in order to apply God’s Grace to your lives. St. Paul says, “By which (Gospel) also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you - unless you believed in vain.”

Many modern theologians and teachers believe they must come up with new concepts of grace because they refuse to believe in that old, old story of Jesus’ sin-atoning death and physical resurrection. They must tell you that there is some universal truth that people are to search for so that all people can live a good and humane life of social justice. Seeking out God is one thing, but willingly pervert the Good News is another. If you were to look at yourselves objectively, you would see neither a Jesus nor a Paul. You would have to confess that you, more often than not, live your lives as if Jesus didn’t exist or that His physical resurrection was a myth (which is what has been taught in the numerous liberal seminaries for decades).

We all could view ourselves as practical atheists in most of our daily lives even when we say we are Christian. We often live as if Jesus were not ruling our hearts by His love. We wish to take our stand on those the perceived sure things of life; money, power, newer spouses that are more easily attainable than not, and trust in human institutions. But remember that Jesus once told His disciples, “What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?” (Luke 9:25).

To depend on God’s grace is nothing other than to trust in the promises of His Word. These riches aren’t in human resources or in elaborate houses or church buildings. But if you choose to worship here this day, it just might be that you want to take another look at the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and behold the hosts of heaven round about singing “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of Sabbaoth!” Your desire will be to see beyond the limitations imposed on you in this world so that you might experience the Lord Jesus and the power of His resurrection.

You see how God loves you with a unique love, as it is written in James 4:6, “But He gives more grace. Therefore, He says (quoting Proverbs 3:34): ‘God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.’” Yes, as you firmly rely on God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense, the Holy Spirit moves your will to seek Him and will give you the strength to face family difficulties; financial problems; overcoming foul addictions; and, even to find peace in the present daily turmoil and rebellion against our free democratic republic. When you rely on God’s grace you can be at peace even among these greatest difficulties.

The apostle once said: “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” (Romans 8:6-10) This, friends, is the same apostle who spoke to the Corinthians saying, “His grace to me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet NOT I, but the grace of God which was with me.” We cannot take any credit for the workings of God the Holy Spirit in our new man, but only rejoice and boast in the cross of Christ.

To this point, I think it is appropriate to relate the famous story of St. Augustine shortly after his conversion. Augustine was the Christian Bishop of Hippo in North Africa. He helped to develop the true Biblical doctrine on original sin and more fully developed the teaching on the Trinity. Regarding original sin, he of all people had come to realize his will was held bondage to sin. So it was not long after Augustine’s conversion to Christianity, he was walking on the seashore when he heard the voice of his former mistress behind him, crying, “Augustine!” but he kept walking away from the voice. She cried even louder, "Augustine!! It is I!" To which he, still walking away and not looking back, cried out: “I know…but it is no longer I”

Oh, the joy that Paul found in knowing the resurrected Christ! Paul claimed Christ’s death to be his very own as he wrote to the Church in Galatia: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” God’s grace to you today is the Spirit moving in such a way that a newness of life, through His Word, is effective.

Many liberal churches, by the grace of Christ, could themselves experience immediate resolutions to their constant perversions of Scripture and pretending to believe that a godly church fellowship exists, if they would repent and abide only by the wisdom given Saint Paul and Augustine and confess, “Not I, but the grace of God which was in me.” Do away with the philosophical and vain theological speculations which might make for good intellectual discussions but only cause men to stumble in the true faith that was simply given them in the clear words of the Bible.

Listen to Martin Luther who explained Biblical doctrine this way: “The will is a beast of burden. If God mounts it, it wishes and goes as God wills; if Satan mounts it, it wishes and goes as Satan wills; Nor can it choose its rider... the riders contend for its possession.” Selfishness always tries to justify itself by convincing others to live as you want them to live. But it is only by God’s grace that you can actually live as God wants you to live…and to die.

Have you ever heard people who were carnal minded say they wish they were Christian? I have not. But I know that many people who are Christian do a lot of wishing. Many wish they could live out their Christian life; and yet many that stay away from those “Bible-thumping” churches really do deprive themselves of coming to the knowledge of living that Christian life. Their newness of life does not and cannot be experienced when God’s living word, the Bible, up until the time of death only remains a wish book for them.

However, St. Paul also had wishes. For example, in Romans 9:3, he said “I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh.” Yet in that wish he was not only expressing deep love and sorrow for those who are on their way to hell because they rejected the grace of Christ, but he was expressing the same mind of Christ who lamented over Jerusalem. Paul also knew that his wish could never be realized since Jesus Christ had already become the curse who had taken the sins of the world with Him to the cross! Therefore, St. Paul says here, “But by the grace of God I am what I am.” What a contrast to the famous people of the world who have no idea of what the grace of God really is.

Call upon your churches publicly to repudiate their empty philosophies and then their simple faith and trust can return. Give your congregations back the Bible only! And you know what? When the philosophies of man are repudiated, then the Gospel of Christ will shine the brighter as you give the God of your salvation all the glory.

As Paul says, in 2 Corinthians 4:2, “But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” Why is it that many cannot be simple in their faith? Why cannot they set forth the truth plainly without getting involved with the philosophical and psychological methods of this world?

We all should take note that Paul was not just saying that about his being saved by God’s grace (which is true enough) but that he labored more abundantly...talking of his sanctified life in Christ as a grateful missionary and apostle. Paul had all the reason to boast of what he did for the Lord, but he knew what the grace of God was all about. If we imitate these saints who imitated Christ, we will be relying on God's grace. Then life isn’t a mere existence, dreary as the most humid, overcast, day of summer. Life is then embedded in grace. The message of the gospel is nothing other than the Easter message: the resurrection causes us to take another look at life. It’s forgetting the things past and freely reaping the benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection that are manifold.

Luther has on more than one occasion stated that by faith we are in need of nothing and have all we should ever want; on the other hand, in love we are to serve our neighbor because we have what we need by faith. By faith we receive everything good from above, from God and in love we let them flow out of us below to our neighbor.

Do not trust in your own abilities to come to know the richness that God has for you in Christ. Paul didn’t; Paul couldn’t! The truth of the matter is simply this (Ephesians 2:4-6 NKJV): “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” This is how the psalmist in Psalm 82:6, could write: “I said, ‘You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High.’”

What you should not be find as trustworthy is that which is preached about grace by your prosperity TV preachers like Bishop Jakes and Jesse Duplantis. The gospel they preach is that grace is equivalent to having power in this world: Power to be healed of every known disease; power to have an important high-paying job; power to live in a beautiful home and drive luxurious cars; power to be debt free and power to have plenty of money so to be gods in this earthly realm; but, never the power to overcome by grace your sin, death and the devil. The idiocy of it all was culminated in a sermon that Crefloe Dollar preached: When St. Paul complained about the “thorn in his flesh” asking God to remove it three times, God “reminded Paul” that he already had it within himself by grace to be healed of his infirmity! Just think about it.

Unlike Crefloe Dollar, you recall the Bible verses Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

You tell me: Is God’s grace synonymous to earthly power, health and wealth? And is this power that resides in you the ability for you to remove all infirmities and obstacles in this life? Dollar said that St. Paul understood it that way. But all you have to do is see what Paul writes earlier in 2 Corinthians 11:23-31 where Paul states, “Are they ministers of Christ? — I speak as a fool — I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness — besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation? If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity.”

This message of Christ’s resurrection power not only bestows grace but it truly brings like-minded people into the community of faith, Christ’s Church; even suffering people, who by His grace, are indeed worthy because the grace of Christ remains sufficient for the Christian. Amen.

NINTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 2020

Servitude is the term that best describes the little gallery below. Pic #1 is Pilgrim and his companion Faithful in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress at Vanity Fair. Faithful is killed and Pilgrim imprisoned because they would not buy Vanity Fair's religion; Pic #2 is Walt Disney's Jiminy Cricket as Pinocchio's conscience, but Pic #3 shows that a person's conscience, since the Fall of Adam, can be misleading as to whom you are to serve; Pic #4, on the other hand, is a painting by a very young Coptic Christian, showing a conscience bound to the Word of God leading to suffering, death, and your life with your Savior in heaven. 

This brings me to my Gospel address for this morning:

“Sons of Light are Concerned with Heavenly Matters”
Luke 16:8b-13: For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own? No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. NKJV

My Christian friends: Jesus ended His parable of the unjust steward with the pronouncement, “You cannot serve God and mammon.” Just as the master commended his unjust steward, so Jesus made the comparison of the unbelievers to the believers, or the sons of light, saying: “The sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.” R.C.H. Lenski, in his commentary on Luke, comes directly to the point when he says, “As the sons of this world are concerned with earthly houses and riches, so the sons of light should be concerned with heavenly, eternal habitations. When unrighteous mammon comes to an end, even our bodies will become the property of others to do as they will, along with every dollar we have accumulated while on earth.”

All mankind has a master whom it serve and to whom it is accountable. Luther would have man viewed as a beast of burden or a horse that always has a rider. That rider is either Satan or God. But our Lord said it best with these words, “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

This Gospel lesson, more than any other, seems to suggest that we all hate God in favor of our adulterous affair and attachment to money and material possessions. This world cannot hide its unbelief in God for its self-indulgent sins. Here, we can plainly see that it is more the love for money than love of God that the world has. As St. Paul tells Timothy: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness.” And no matter how spiritual people claim to be, people make all their decisions based upon money and worldly possessions. The truth is that people make all their decisions based upon mammon even at the expense of high moral values and justice.

If Jesus and His apostles were to ascend the myriad of pulpits across our country and preach the pure Gospel, the attitude of the world most likely wouldn’t change one iota. And while it is true that the Church possesses the true saving Gospel, what is your response in knowing that when you received the Gospel you were forgiven your sins? Whom do you serve?

For the common Christian, the one concern is to hear the Gospel, learn from it, and apply it to daily living, for unrighteous mammon will surely fail. You shouldn’t be surprised at my musings, for since the beginning of recorded history there have always been more outstanding thinkers, more outstanding talent, greater learning, and eagerness in applying the principles among heathen and pagans than among Christians. As our Lord said, “For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.” Jesus is stating that those who profess to follow Him are to be experts in their field of study, namely, the one, and true, Christian faith.

If you are not devoted to the things of Almighty God then you are devoted to the devil. There is no neutral ground. And whether you believe it or not you will be serving the things of the devil and not the things that are of eternal value. If you are not devoted to God, you are serving the devil, and servitude to Satan comes in various ways along with a wide range of feelings and satisfactions.

There are those sins that can immediately bring apparent joy. You can often get immediate gratification from these sins: Gluttony, a full belly; drugs and drunkenness, a euphoric feeling and temporary escape from the responsibilities in this world, and so forth. Even if you claim to be your own master, like those women who claim a right to abort their babies because it is their body, you have been duped into believing that the devil, the god of this age, hasn’t any power over you. But it is the devil who is “the prince of the power of the air that now works in the children of disobedience.” Also, you may wish to take note of what St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, namely, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

It comes down to whether you believe you are your own master, as the Buddha taught; that you really are no servant to anyone or anything. In the late 1980s, when I was a pastor-missionary in the upper Ottawa Valley in Ontario Canada, I had a meeting with the principle of Pembroke’s Champlain High School to discuss the daily morning devotions that students read before first class. He handed me the official book for the daily public (i.e. protestant schools) meditations and prayers comprised, and approved of, in Toronto. He pointed to a meditation of the Buddha and challenged me to find anything objectionable. Immediately I pointed out the simple phrase, “Remember that you are your own master.” I handed the book back to him and asked him, “Are you a Christian?” to which he proudly replied, “Yes.” Then I asked him, “Well then what do you do with the verse in the Bible that Jesus says in Matthew 23:10 “Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ”? He was speechless.

The devil already has those who are the children of disobedience, but also wants to be the master over the Christian that is unstable in his faith. Therefore, on the Christian’s journey in this life to his everlasting habitation, the devil sets up three major obstacles: Reason, Self-reliance, and, of course, Mammon.

There are three obstacles that exist in our earthly sojourn: The first obstruction to the heavenly habitations is reason. Reason claims that our journey in this life is to be led solely by our conscience which is the “Jiminy Cricket” Walt Disney type of guidance to Pinnochio. Now we know that the conscience is a good thing to have; that is the one thing that sets us apart from the common criminal. However, since Adam’s fall in the Garden of Eden, man’s conscience often falters and can err in spiritual matters. What shrewdness is this? It is certainly not befitting the sons of light. The conscience is therefore not my true guide, nor should it be yours. Our guide should be the man, who is true God, Christ Jesus!

If, and I emphasize the word “if,” my conscience guided me all the time, and “if” everyone else reasoned by their own consciences then the words spoken in the very last verse of the Book of Judges would come alive for us even today, namely, “In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” The Lord, Jesus Christ, and His Word alone should always be your Guide, for He alone is the One who makes us wise unto faith and the saving Gospel that has called and enlightened the holy Christian Church on earth. It is the Word of God that leads you to your eternal habitations as well as shows you the works you are to do that our pleasing to God.

It is too bad that many preachers don’t or won’t direct their hearers to God’s living voice, the Bible. They would rather have their congregations follow what they believe to be right in their own eyes. Believe me, society would be impacted greatly of only it could see the results of the children of light living and acting in accordance to God’s Word and not according to what reason deems to be the conscience.

Another obstacle that the devil sets up for the Christian sojourner is self-reliance. Self-reliance is a type of individualism that points the Christian inwardly to his own concerns. It is this second obstacle of self-reliance that makes one wise to worldly excuses. This is manifest within every Christian congregation. For I have heard people proclaim just how spiritual they are even to the point of proclaiming that their relationship with Jesus comes ahead of the Church. This is tantamount to saying, “My relationship with my spouse comes before my marriage.”

See what shrewdness is behind the unrighteousness here. Yet God’s Word tells us as individuals that our union as the Bride of Christ unites us to His body, the Church. All who believe that Jesus died for the sins of the world are united into one, holy, apostolic, Christian church. Therefore, our individual relationship with Jesus lies within His body, the Church; whereupon He has established His Lordship over us all; for we are living stones built into this magnificent structure with Christ Jesus as our chief cornerstone.

The Christian therefore is individually free but not without constraints. Martin Luther said it best in his writing on “Christian Liberty” of 1520, when he set forth these two theses to Pope Leo X:
“A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none; and,
A Christian is a dutifully servant of all, subject to all.”

The final obstacle is the most comfortable and the easiest one for the Christian to take: Mammon. Mammon is the Semitic word for wealth and material possessions. One of the most quoted verses of the Bible is 1Timothy 6:10, “The love of money is the root of all evil.”

This is the most relenting and vain master with which the devil tempts Christians. The greed for money and the power that it brings also demands the complete and full worship of its devotees. In reality, money and wealth never provide anything in the shape of pleasure or joy, yet for the worshiper of money, the money kept in the bank or invested in the market demands a constant vigil on trading values, or savings money-market statements. Money defies you even to pay your bills, yet alone to give to God what is in proportion to your income in order to spread the Gospel or help some poor soul in need.

Bob Dylan in the early 60’s wrote these lyrics “Ya gotta serve somebody” which were later picked up with the fusion of rock music and jazz and made popular by the group named “Blood, Sweat, and Tears”. One of their earlier recordings in 1967 had these words: “Ya gotta serve somebody; whether it is God or the devil, ya gotta serve somebody.” If you have to serve somebody, how do you know that you are serving God?

Can you even pray aright the Lord’s Prayer when we come to the fourth petition “Give us this day our daily bread”? Luther gives us a splendid explanation to that petition in how the one, true God actually becomes a servant too, as Luther said: “God surely gives us daily bread without our asking, even to all the wicked, but we pray in this petition that He would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.” This daily bread includes all our possessions, good government, family and health as Luther rightly discerns. We, as God’s subjects, are merely caretakers of His possessions, for all things were created by Him (Jesus) and for Him” (Colossians 1:16).

So just how do you know with any certainty that you are serving God, and God alone? God doesn’t demand that anyone runs away to a monastery to live a life of poverty, and obedience, neither does He demand a celibate lifestyle or to avoid luxury. But, on the other hand (and there always is another hand) God neither commends you for making yourselves prosperous by means of unrighteous mammon. Rather, we know that we are serving God as we are at peace with Him through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and, in turn, live at peace with our neighbor.

Mammon demands more and more of its devotees until there is nothing more to give. But the true God, our true Master whom we serve, feeds us with His own true and essential Body and Blood to strengthen our faith as He wants to nourish us and refresh us with His Word, as springs of living water. When we serve the living and true God, we come to a realization that the Master demands little but He Himself gives us all things and that which He demands of us He always supplies the means for us to accomplish. Mammon could never be able to do that. Faith and the Gospel message of forgiveness of sins for Jesus’ sake alone bring us to the knowledge that God, our Master, serves His people. God, as our Master, makes us shrewd in understanding that Jesus has brought us to eternal life in spite of the obstacles the prince of this world has erected.

You cannot serve both God and mammon. But when you know the true God and all the benefits that He freely bestows on His people, why would you ever again want to serve mammon? Isn’t it good news to know that the One that you serve serves you even more? And it is definitely good news to know that the One you serve is with you always and bestows upon you His true, essential, and natural Body and Blood with the bread and the wine for the forgiveness of sins and for the strengthening of your faith. Rejoice and be happy in knowing that you are subjects to such a wonderful Lord. Amen.