This sermon was preached at Trinity Lutheran Church, Tailem Bend (9 am).
In order to experiment with how introverts and extroverts react to
different things, some researchers took a bunch of kids, and one by
one had a researcher give them what that researcher said was their
“favorite toy” to play with while they stepped out of the room.
Unfortunately, the toy was designed to break. So what they found
was, the introverts reacted more strongly, because they didn't just
fear getting in trouble, but they felt bad for the person whose toy
they broke. They had more empathy. But let me draw attention also
the fact that – they gave them a toy that would fall apart in their
hands! It's a tough business, science. But the hands that hold
false gods, when those false gods turn to dust in their hands, are
the hands that hold onto the true God for dear life. For
Christ Jesus establishes a holy place despite the unholy rebellion
of idolaters.
Idolatry is something that is present in the Old Testament as well
as in the New. Martin Luther teaches that as well as anybody in the
explanation to the 1st Commandment: We should fear, love,
and trust in God above all things. And the connection between
turning idols to dust and establishing a holy place for people is
only to be found in Christ Jesus. Let's start with idolatry. We're
not so good at picking out the signs of idolatry in this reading from
Isaiah. Good thing that Jesus interprets them in the casting out of
Legion – because there we see a demon-possessed man in the
wilderness and among the tombs, and the demons are cast into a herd
of pigs. All of those things are present in the Isaiah reading.
All of the these things have to do
with idolatry, but we don't see the connections anymore. Here's how
God describes the idolatry of those “who provoke me to my face
continually” in Isaiah 65, “sacrificing
in gardens and making offerings on bricks; 4
who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat pig's
flesh, and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels; 5
who say, "Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too
holy for you." These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that
burns all the day.”
Let's take tombs, for example. Today, hanging around in cemeteries
is what bored teenagers do. But in the Old Testament, anyone hanging
around tombs did so for things that had to do with inquiring of the
dead, necromancy, and the like – all idolatry, because we are
commanded to call upon God in every trouble. Today, going out bush
is a relaxing holiday. In Old Testament times, the wilderness was
described as the very edge of God's ordered creation colliding with
the demonic. Hanging out there was also done because of idolatry.
Sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks are two things
we really don't see as idolatrous, until we are reminded that God
clearly called for sacrifices to be made only at the temple, and that
bricks were clearly not the right material for altars. This is
worship that God didn't authorize, done simply for the reason that it
was the popular thing to do, and because it required not listening to
God's clear Word. And it's not like this replaced the true worship
of God, it was just a little addition. But God still calls it
idolatry. And what about you? Don't you want to do the popular
thing too? So what if God has clearly spoken or not?
This is serious stuff, and if we get that, then the thing about pigs
is easily understood. Today, they are delicious, and Christ clearly
declared all foods clean. But then, pigs were heavily involved in
idolatrous worship. Tainted meat was meat that was used outside of
God's instructions for sacrifices, either the wrong kind, or using it
outside the time frame that God set. See, the Bible knows idolatry
inside and out – whether something plainly looks like idolatry or
whether it barely does. And your sinful heart runs after idols, even
if the idols may look a bit different, a bit more “modern”, and
have different demands. But they still do; all idols do.
But the kicker is that these
verses aren't describing the demon-worshiping Gentiles. They're
describing Israel. That's the surprise between verse 1 and verse 2.
Verse one is about the Gentiles “I
was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready
to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, "Here I am,
here I am," to a nation that was not called by my name.”.
But verse 2, “
I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in
a way that is not good, following their own devices;”,
the people that God had been reaching out to in appeal all day, that
was the Israelites. They knew God's holiness first hand, so the
shock is when they say, “Keep
to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”.
That's where we get the phrase, “holier-than-thou”, from the
King James translation. It's like they're saying it directly to God,
even if it might be addressed to another person. The surprise is
that these are people who knew God's holiness first hand by receiving
it in the divine service of the Old Testament – the one that
pointed forward to Christ by the guilt offerings. And you? You are
holier than God when you have no sin, no death. You don't go around
saying so, but what about your thoughts and actions? What do they
say? Listen to how Luther puts this in regards to the Sacrament;
just, be prepared:
“If
you say you feel no sin, death, world and devil and have no battle
and strife going on against them and why this struggle forces you to
go to the Sacrament (I.e. to the Holy Supper), to that I say this: I
hope you are not serious, that you alone among all the saints and
people on earth are the one person who does not feel these things.
And if I knew that you are serious about this, then I would
want to order that, on all the streets where you would be going, all
the bells would have to ring out and shout out before you:
“Here
enters in a new saint above all the rest of the saints who feels and
has no sins!”
However
I would without joking tell you: “If you actually no longer feel
any sin, then you most certainly are dead in sin, and this is already
such an over the top huge sin; namely, that you really think you have
no need or desire for the Sacrament. You then have no regard for
God’s Word and have forgotten about Christ’s suffering. You are
stuck and filled with ingratitude and suffering from all sorts
of spiritual problems.”
1”
No wonder God says, “Behold,
it is written before me: "I will not keep silent, but I will
repay; I will indeed repay into their lap 7
both your iniquities and your fathers' iniquities together, says the
LORD; because they made offerings on the mountains and insulted me on
the hills, I will measure into their lap payment for their former
deeds." ” This is
the punishment that breaks God's heart, but it is just.
But don't for a second think that this is the last word.
In spite of idolatry, Christ establishes a holy place. You'd think
that if the people who did know God's name and God's Word do this,
how is it possible for God to have a people? Because God breaks
idols of the heart. That's another place where Jesus helps explain
this text in today's Gospel. At the end, the man who had the demons
goes and tells what Jesus has done for him. Before that, he's
sitting at Jesus' feet, which is what a disciple does. But first
Jesus had to get rid of the demons who had a grip on him. His Word
exposes your idols, shows that they don't live up to their promises,
that they have not created you and are not strong to save.
He establishes a holy place because he doesn't just break idols, he
stretches forth his hand all the day long. First, what love, that
God appeals to you like that even though you are the one who has
sinned. Second, there is One who stretched out his hands all one
particular day long, on the cross for you. He stretched out his
hands in invitation to you, at great cost to himself. When idols
turn to the dust that they are, Christ's cross is free to be the gift
that it is – the forgiveness of your idolatry.
And the holy place is the place where Jesus is for you, the place
where he's the true God and you are his people, the place you can
inquire of him, which means to trust him and set your conscience
according to his Word (not inquiring of the dead but listening to the
living Savior by trembling at his word as the only Word that has
eternal life). The holy place is worship according to Jesus' word.
That holy place is the Church (even if idolatry is pounding at the
door, from both sides). The Church is where there is right praise,
the praise of not being holier than God, but carrying our sin and
death to the place where his Word and Sacrament put our death to
death by the forgiveness of sins which counts his holiness for you.
It's a praise that takes place by receiving the forgiveness of sins
and that sings thanksgiving for that forgiveness of sins. The Church
is where there is right praise even when idolatry pokes its head in
the Church by saying “you're too holy for God or his Word, too holy
for sin, too holy to tell people that something's true, especially
Christ, his death, and his Church”. Even so, God continually
breaks idols.
The Church is the holy place for unholy Jews and Gentiles, even when
idolatry breaks in and says it would be better if the Church was made
up of people of the same culture or race as you. Even so, God
continually breaks idols.
The Church is the holy place where Christ puts his people by the
forgiveness of sins [even when people would rather ignore that to
keep the Church at arm's length. This is the grief that we carry.].
But Ap IX still rightly says, “Christ's kingdom exists only with
the Word and Sacraments.” The Church is the holy place where
Christ the holy One by sending his Holy Spirit gives you the holy
things, the communion of the holy things, by giving you his Holy
Word, Holy Absolution, Holy Baptism, and the Holy Communion of his
Holy Supper. If Isaiah 65 lists an overload of unholiness, the
Church is the place where God gives an even greater abundance of his
holiness, and where you can save the holier-than-thou act for the
pagans to do, because forgiveness comes from outside of you, and in
doing so Christ continually smashes your idols too.
Conclusion: Hands that cling to false gods don't remain empty once
those gods are smashed. They are filled with God's Word and
Sacraments. Idolatry may pound and pound on the Church, but one
pound of a nail into a cross pounded the gates of hell to dust for
you – all so that you may dwell with him. Amen.
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