Reformation Day (Observed) [Jeremiah 31:31-34] (27 October 2013)

This sermon was preached at Trinity Lutheran, Tailem Bend (9 am).  

You know what my favorite topic is? Myself. Oh, but not me talking about myself, that's not so fun – other people talking about how good I am, that's my favorite topic. And that makes it very hard to celebrate Reformation day, to make it a day to talk about ourselves and how Lutherans are or to have some sort of German festival (which doesn't even accurately describe how Lutherans are). Just is bad is to talk about how good we are that we've “moved past” the Reformation and are sorry that it ever happened. None of those can match the unbridled comfort and joy of the enduring significance and message of the Reformation, which isn't about you but Christ for you. And for that we have God's Word from the prophet Jeremiah:

The Reformation faithfully confesses the new covenant of forgiveness by the blood of Jesus.

To celebrate the Reformation is to confess its teaching, as Luther did. Luther's legacy is how he confessed the faith, which means his legacy isn't about what type of person he was, but about who he pointed to up to his dying breath. And we have this confession, even down to what you can sing. He wrote this hymn, and in a lot of ways it's his life's story, it's about the things that he went through. But most importantly it's about the love of God in Christ Jesus for sinners. Let's take a look:

1 Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice,
With exultation springing,
And with united heart and voice
And holy rapture singing,
Proclaim the wonders God has done,
How His right arm the vict'ry won;
What price our ransom cost Him!

 

2 Fast bound in Satan's chains I lay;
Death brooded darkly o'er me.
Sin was my torment night and day;
In sin my mother bore me.
But daily deeper still I fell;
My life became a living hell,
So firmly sin possessed me.

 

3 My own good works all came to naught,
No grace or merit gaining;
Free will against God's judgment fought,
Dead to all good remaining.
My fears increased till sheer despair
Left only death to be my share;
The pangs of hell I suffered.

 

4 But God had seen my wretched state
Before the world's foundation,
And mindful of His mercies great,
He planned for my salvation.
He turned to me a father's heart;
He did not choose the easy part
But gave His dearest treasure.

 

5 God said to His beloved Son:
"It's time to have compassion.
Then go, bright jewel of My crown,
And bring to all salvation.
From sin and sorrow set them free;
Slay bitter death for them that they
May live with You forever."

 

6 The Son obeyed His Father's will,
Was born of virgin mother;
And God's good pleasure to fulfill,
He came to be my brother.
His royal pow'r disguised He bore;
A servant's form, like mine, He wore
To lead the devil captive.

 

7 To me He said: "Stay close to Me,
I am your rock and castle.
Your ransom I Myself will be;
For you I strive and wrestle.
For I am yours, and you are Mine,
And where I am you may remain;
The foe shall not divide us.

 

8 "Though he will shed My precious blood,
Me of My life bereaving,
All this I suffer for your good;
Be steadfast and believing.
Life will from death the vict'ry win;
My innocence shall bear your sin,
And you are blest forever.

 

9 "Now to My Father I depart,
From earth to heav'n ascending,
And, heav'nly wisdom to impart,
The Holy Spirit sending;
In trouble He will comfort you
And teach you always to be true
And into truth shall guide you.

 

10 "What I on earth have done and taught,
Guide all your life and teaching;
So shall the kingdom's work be wrought
And honored in your preaching.
But watch lest foes with base alloy
The heav'nly treasure should destroy;
This final word I leave you."

And that last verse, even though he has Jesus speaking these words, they are words that he himself echoes down through the ages. The base alloy, the cheap metals you'd get mad if someone tried to sell you, don't let that type of teaching ever sneak in. Hold to Christ, because I'll tell you, I've found no one else to hold on to. So hold on to his Word for dear life. This final word I leave you.

 

Transition: Dr. Hermann Sasse said that when what Luther taught was forgotten, that's when the celebration of Luther the man and Luther the hero really took effect. So that's why Reformation Day can't be about that, and especially not in the pulpit, where Luther is not to be preached, where even the Christian is not to be preached, but where Christ is to be preached. And so,

 

It's not a celebration of the Reformation to take up false views of the Reformation that deprive you of the comfort of the Gospel but leave you with man-made anythings. False views of the Reformation talk about “flavors” of Christianity instead of confession and truth. False views of the Reformation talk about being brave like Luther to get rid of old things and do something new. They talk about the Reformation as a “movement” that gives you permission to try “different things”. They talk about the Reformation as an example to go against authority and things like that. All these things have in common the Reformation as an example, not as a confession of faith.

 

And here's how that way of thinking deprives you of the comfort of the Gospel by substituting man-made anythings: it lets you wind up under the thumb of whatever is new and trendy rather than the Word of God which is eternal. It lets you end up with whatever change the surrounding culture decides is good, rather than the words which come from the mouth of the Lord to his Church. It gives you an equality that is against the authority of God's Word. The Reformation in fact builds on the solid rock of Christ by restating and recovering the Gospel where error had snuck in, both in errors that were a few hundred years old to errrors that sprang up new around the Lutheran reformers. It's confessing the Christian faith, the faith once and for all delivered to the saints.

Transition: That's why Luther's confession is a good confession of the new covenant. Jeremiah writes the words of the Lord, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah” This teaching is the new covenant in Christ for your justification by grace alone through faith alone. But if there's a new covenant there must be an old covenant. The Lord mentions this too, “not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD.”

 

The old covenant was broke by the sinfulness of the people. The Old Covenant is God's Law, which is broken by sinners who are sinful and unclean from birth. This is what the 10 commandments given at Mount Sinai do. But the old covenant is not like the new. And the difference is the coming of the Christ. The old covenant was given at Sinai, the new covenant given by Christ in person. The old covenant looked ahead to God taking flesh in Christ Jesus. The new is what happens when Jesus has come. And so make no mistake, the Old Testament saints were saved the same way as the New Testament saints, through faith in the Messiah, the Son of God.

The new covenant is Jesus in the flesh. In Jeremiah 33 we hear two interesting things. First, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ¹⁵ In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ¹⁶ In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: 'The LORD is our righteousness.' ” and then “Thus says the LORD: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night will not come at their appointed time, ²¹ then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken”. The Lord has neither broken his covenant nor abandoned his promises! That's why you have Jesus.

Jesus is how God deals with you. Jesus is the one who said his blood is the new covenant, the new testament. The new covenant is Jesus on the cross for you.

 

The new covenant is why Jesus shed his blood – for your justification by grace alone through faith alone. Let's break it down word by word: Justify – like your accountant calls you in to justify an expense, to prove why its right and good; by = why; grace = how God looks at you as an undeserved gift, through = how he does it; faith = the heart that receives these gifts as gifts, which is itself a gift; alone – nothing of my own I claim but solely lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand.

 

This is the comfort of the Gospel. Your sins can't harm you, for they have harmed Jesus to the point of death, so that you may have his life. This is what is splashed on you in holy Baptism. This blood is what you drink in the Lord's Supper. This is what gives the word of Absolution its power. These are yours, what the Holy Spirit brings to you from Christ to the joy of the Father – always his to give, and always yours to receive, not by works but by faith.

 

This is what the Church must never let go of, suffering death rather than falling away from it. This is the comfort, and what makes that hymn such a good funeral hymn.

Conclusion: The enduring significance and message of the Reformation is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the new covenant by his blood. Those who hold to it will add nothing to this message so that no comfort will be taken away. It rejoices when the Lord says, “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Amen.

Pentecost 22 [Genesis 32:22-31] (20 October 2013)

This sermon was preached at St. John's Lutheran, Karoonda (9 am) and Trinity Lutheran, Tailem Bend (11 am).  

 

I remember as a child looking around a Christian bookstore, and they had posters for sale. And one of them, as long as I'm remembering right, was that poster of a cat hanging from a branch with the caption “hang in there”. Even as a child I thought that was out of place there. But if you ever see a poster of Jacob wrestling with the Lord, and the caption reads, “hang in there” - leave that place immediately. That's not why Jacob wrestled with the Lord. But because you have the words that he did, you can say:

Holding on to Christ is seeking forgiveness of sins only and always from him.

Transition: Yes, this reading is all about Christ.

To start, the man who wrestled with Jacob was Christ. But this is Christ, the eternal Son of God, before he became incarnate in the womb of the virgin Mary. There he assumes the form of a man for a time, but that's not what he does in the womb of the virgin Mary. In that womb he receives his human nature, which is taken up into his Godhead – his being completely and eternally God. Because of this, wherever his human nature is to be found his divine nature is to be found, and vice versa, not just for a time, but everlastingly. This is what we confess in the Nicene Creed, that Jesus, who is “very God of very God, begotten not made” is the same Jesus who “was conveived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.”

And Jacob confesses this, that he has wrestled God. First off, he has previously seen God in a vision, the one we call 'Jacob's Ladder', where the Lord is at the top of the ladder and makes promises to Jacob. And he has seen God's angels just earlier on the same trip he was now on. He knows this is possible. Second, he has seen that this man very easily pops his hip out of place with a touch. Third, at the end he names the place Peniel, which means the face of God, and he says, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”

But he holds on to Christ in a very surprising way. “When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. ²⁶ Then he said, "Let me go, for the day has broken." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." ²⁷ And he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." ²⁸ Then he said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed." ” For holding on to Christ happens when it seems Christ himself is against you. It seems as if God himself is against Jacob. He is returning home with the family he received, returning home to where his brother Esau is. That's the brother he cheated out of the blessing from their father Isaac. That brother. And he has just heard that Esau was coming to meet him with four hundred men. Jacob was “greatly afraid and distressed.” At that point it seemed like all of God's promises to him would come to nothing. And so he divides his camp, sends his family across the river, and is left by himself. But not for long. And yet it seems like things go from bad to worse, as this man wrestles with Jacob all throughout the night. It's as though even God is out to get him. But Jacob doesn't fight with his strength; he fights with God's promise. 

This is the same Jacob who had heard directly from God's mouth in the vision of the angels ascending and descending on the ladder that, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. ¹⁴ Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. ¹⁵ Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” He had that promise. So he knew whatever he was experiencing was no reason to look elsewhere than that promise. But he does this in great weakness, and not by physical strength (for how can God defeat you when you hold him to his own word? Isn't this exactly what pleases him?)

That he does this is no reason that you should look for blessing apart from Christ. You have no greater terrors than he had, no greater anxiety, and it can't seem that God is against you more than it seemed so to him. This is called when God is against God, and it exercises the saints in their faith. For when God seems to be dealing with you in a way that goes against the promises you have in his Word, your sinful flesh would trust what you can see, and with great moaning as well. But, and this is how Luther describes this, it's just at these times that God is in fact playing with you most kindly and gently. This is the play of a father with a child, who holds an apple before the child just out of reach. The child doesn't turn away or fall into despair, because they know despite appearances, that the father means only good. When your heavenly Father sends his own Son to take flesh for your sake, you know the same. You know Christ your dear Lord wants to bless.

But your sinful flesh doesn't know that rightly. Your heart defines a blessing as something you want which God had better give. But it's not a blessing because you want it. It's a blessing when it's what God wants to give. So when it comes to wanting total happiness all the time, or amazing spiritual feelings and experiences, these aren't blessings you're called to look for, because these aren't promises given to you in God's Word.

Beyond appearance, Christ your Savior deals with you in a familiar and kind way. Jacob confesses that he has seen the Lord face to face? Well, Christ our Lord came to dwell face to face with his creation, so that he might be able to die in your place with your sins (and because he has done this, he deals with you face to face, and yet you still live).

And we will see him face to face, but he is no less present for his Church now. You will see him face to face in heaven, despite your death. In fact, despite all appearances, death is, as the hymn says, “but the gate to life immortal”. And yet he is still present for his Church now (despite all appearances) according to his Word, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper.

Holding on to Christ seeks forgiveness only from him and always from him. Holding onto Christ seeks forgiveness only from him. As I said, this is his favorite game. Luther said, “To the flesh it cannot seem otherwise than an evil, troublesome, and gloomy will [when God seems to be against us], but when we are weeping, God is smiling in a most kindly manner, and He takes pleasure in those who fear Him and hope in His mercy” Your Lord wants you to hold him to his words, to hope only in him, because that's when he's beaten at his favorite game – that you look only to his blood and cross for the forgiveness you need. The blood of Jesus is thus the best news you can hear, that it was shed for you. No other news is as good.

Holding on to Christ seeks forgiveness always from him. Holding on to Christ is not the same thing as “hanging in there”. It's very specific, as specific as saying “I am baptized, I have been absolved.” Again, Luther says, “If God Himself appeared to me in His majesty and said: “You are not worthy of My grace; I will change My plan and not keep My promise to you,” I would not have to yield to Him, but it would be necessary to fight most vehemently against God Himself. It is as Job says: “Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him”. If He should cast me into the depths of hell and place me in the midst of devils, I would still believe that I would be saved because I have been baptized, I have been absolved, I have received the pledge of my salvation, the body and blood of the Lord in the Supper, Therefore I want to see and hear nothing else, but I shall live and die in this faith, whether God or an angel or the devil says the contrary. I think that this is the true treatment of this passage. For Jacob himself will explain it in this way in the end when he will say: “And yet my life is preserved.” This picture of the conflicts and struggles in the saints is full of consolation.”

So it's not about what your heart decides that it wants. But Christ gives the heart that says, “Of course I want this forgiveness. What else could I want but that? What is more valuable in heaven and earth than his blood shed for me?” [Aside: this heart also says the same concerning every good work and every Word from his mouth.]

And this is worship: receiving from him, seeking forgiveness only from him, faith fighting against despair. This is the receiving that is lifelong (just like the garden dries out without water, you can dry out by not receiving.) This is so much better than “Why don't you go to church?”, because it's saying, “Dear Christian flowers need lots of watering.”

Holding on to Christ makes a confession about him, the Father, and the Spirit. To hold on to Christ is to confess who he is that you're holding on to. And to confess him is surrounded by confessing the Father and the Spirit, just like we confess in the Creed.

He keeps his promises, despite what you see. This is a confession that you know what God thinks of you. You don't know how God thinks about you? Just quote Once in Royal David's City: “He came down to earth from heaven, who is God and Lord of all, and his shelter was a stable, and his cradle was a stall. With the poor, and mean and lowly, lived on earth, our Savior holy.”

To confess him is to confess: He is hands on with you: The Lord lets you grasp him as well, and when you won't let him go without blessing you, you're playing his favorite game (listening to the Scripture, receiving and grasping the Sacrament by eating and drinking, and looking for blessing by what his Word says and not by what you see and feel (like an out of socket hip – it only made him dig in more; because that's a confession that the Lord does keep his promises of forgiveness of sins, life and salvation).

Conclusion: Despite how things look, Christ your Lord remains true to his Word that he is present to be grasped by faith. Amen.

Pentecost 21 [Luke 17:11-19] (13 October 2013)

This sermon was preached at Trinity Lutheran, Tailem Bend (9 am) and St. John's Lutheran, Karoonda (11 am).  

There's a reason I don't go around to people saying, “how many times did you go to church last year?” It's not because I don't want to offend, or that it's not important to attend the divine service, because it's very important. It's because a question that requires a number in the answer is a question of God's Law. And “Most of the time” is never an answer that satisfies the Law – you've either kept it all the time or not at all. Jesus doesn't ask a 'how many' or 'how often' question, but it exposes unbelief all the same. Jesus asks his question, “And the nine – where are they? Were there none found returning in order to give glory to God except this foreigner?” - found where Jesus is?

Transition: And these ten lepers who met Jesus, they knew they weren't sick with leprosy 'most of the time', but all of the time. They knew something was wrong.

1. Sickness always reminds that the creation is fallen, just as someone who's mostly thankful is totally a sinner (reminds us of this too).
   1. The lepers knew something was wrong with them, which is why lepers usually shouted “unclean” to make people stay away, but where these lepers see Jesus they say “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us” (like the beggar and like the one leper from chapter 5).
   2. But you would rather treat sickness as if it showed that nothing is wrong (health can also be an idol, because all idols abuse a good gift).
   3. Yet worse than that, nine of the lepers had a thankfulness problem. All of a sudden, they don't care one bit about Jesus.
   4. You'd say you're thankful, most of the time. “Most of the time I'm thankful, most of the time I would do what the Samaritan did”. But most of the time isn't all the time. And it's funny how many definitions can be given for 'most of the time'. Do you eat well? Most of the time. Have you kept your hands free from idols? And your heart? Most of the time. But if the answer isn't all the time, you're a sinner. Something's wrong with the creation, something unfixable, something's wrong with you, something unfixable.

Transition: But what was unfixable, Jesus fixed.

2. Jesus purifies because of his mercy by his cross, not most of the time but all the time.
   1. For God to dwell among his people in his grace, he must be the one to purify (and the surprise is that Jesus not only makes it possible for the unclean lepers to dwell with others, but that by his complete purification he makes it possible that he dwells with you.)
      1. God established the way to dwell with his people in the OT, that they couldn't approach him outside of his purification. You can't approach God with un-atoned sin, all the time. And here Jesus shows that he's the only one who can cross that line (between the Father and your sin) when he approaches these lepers, not to burn them up, but to take away their leprosy. He overcomes by his cleansing.
      2. Jesus doesn't just heal but he purifies, gives a coscience that knows from God's word how you stand before God (by grace through faith). [Aside: so don't come away saying “I need to be more thankful”, come away saying, “I'm not thankful, but Jesus is faithful to me and keeps pouring out his love and grace when he purifies me by the forgiveness of sins given to me by his Word. And I'm pretty thankful about that.”.]
      3. Jesus does this because where he is, he cleanses his Church.
   2. The cross is so big that it is the sacrifice for sins, so Christ and his presence is always where forgiveness of sins is to be found. The way of the Law is to put numbers on things but the way of the Gospel is to point to Christ as the sacrifice for sin. The question isn't “how many times have you gone to church this year?”, it's “how is Christ's cross given to me here?”

Transition: And how surprising that the one who sees this, is a Samaritan. He's the last of the ten lepers who should have realized that Jesus is God in the flesh, come to purify and cleanse his creation. But he did. And the other nine, who were so familiar with the temple and its sacrifices, didn't. And so the Samaritan comes and gives true worship.

3. The Samaritan's worship is a confession of his faith.
   1. Even his simple giving of thanks is a confession: “Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; ¹⁶ and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷ Then Jesus answered, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? ¹⁸ Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" ¹⁹ And he said to him, "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well."”.
      1. The word 'give thanks' is always adressed to God, but here it is addressed to Jesus. That's a confession. Jesus is God. Only God purifies inside and out.
      2. [That word is where we get the word Eucharist, a name for Holy Communion, where we give thanks according to the Lord's words.] Your giving of thanks at the Eucharist is a confession of what the Lord's Supper is.
   2. Your worship confesses something.
      1. The Creed is an essential part of worship because all of the divine service is creedal in that it confesses what God is doing here and everything that we do is in agreement with this Creed because it is a true confession of what the Bible says.
      2. The Divine service confesses that Christ is really here by . . . (singing “holy, holy, holy” where Jesus is).
      3. When you pray the Lord's Prayer, you confess that the daily bread of health is good, but what's even better is the deliverance from death that Jesus promises and brings in the face of your own death, and is the reason we can pray “deliver us from evil”.

Most of the time isn't all the time – when it comes to thankfulness and mercy.

Jesus is always, all the time full of mercy, even to those who are never completely thankful all the time. He has paid the price for your unthankfulness, cleansed and purified you, and given you the heart that says “Amen” to this.

Conclusion: So here's a number to focus on: one. As in, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism”. And the one Church rejoices that the unfixable problem of a fallen and unthankful creation is fixed where Jesus is, by what Jesus has done and the blood that he has shed and serves you with. And to confess Christ is to worship him, as to worship him is to confess him. Amen.   

Pentecost 20 [Luke 17:5-10] (6 October 2013)

This sermon was preached at Trinity Lutheran, Tailem Bend (11 am).  

 
In a sense, telling someone, “you have to have faith” is like telling someone “you have to have liquid”. Okay, that's great, but tell me more about this liquid. What type of liquid? Why do I have to have liquid? How do I get liquid? Faith is never far from the conversation when it comes to the Christian Church, so when no less than the apostles of our Lord cry out “Add to us faith!”, which is literally what they say, that's a good opportunity to preach Jesus. (Ah, you thought I was going to say a good opportunity to preach faith.) Well,

Your faith is never as big as your Savior. At least the apostles were paying attention to what Jesus was saying in the verses leading up to today's reading. He was saying, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! ² It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. ³ Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, ⁴ and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, 'I repent,' you must forgive him.” Notice their reaction, because they are honest enough to hear Jesus' words and say “We're not up to the task. Our faith isn't strong enough for that”. He had said these words to the disciples, which is the word that Luke uses for the 12 and the 72 and all the rest of Jesus' disciples. But it's just the twelve, as Luke calls them, the apostles, that respond back that they have recognized that they don't think their faith is strong enough to give limitless forgiveness or to keep from leading others into temptation. And it's very common today to hear, “I don't think my faith is strong enough; I don't think I have enough faith.”

And Jesus tells them that there is no such thing as enough faith, which is quite surprising. What he says is, “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.” He points them away from questions of size of faith and the like. Jesus is clear enough to show his disciples that if they were to look at the strength of their faith they would despair, but the person who gave them the faith that they do have is at the same time the person they believe in, he's bigger than their faith, and he is up to the task. This person is Jesus. They believe in him, and they have already been sent to preach the words of Jesus himself that are the very things that will keep Christians from stumbling. He's up to the task to save you. He's up to the task to give you a heavenly Father to whom you can pray, and to send you his Holy Spirit who works faith in your heart.

Transition: So trusting in your own faith then is like trying to jump off a building into a thimble of water.

This is especially true because the more faith you have, the more you lament your sin, and the more you do that the more you look at what you have done in faith and say “it is sin” and “I am an unworthy servant of God”. You see all the more that the poison in your heart is sin, and it breaks out with its fruit, which is sin. The more faith you have the more you see that faith isn't a work that can save! Even though you have faith, your heart at the same time is still full of this poison, so how can this heart do anything that you can ask God to praise?

So your only righteousness is the blood of Jesus, and faith receives this like empty hands receive a coin. Faith says, “I cannot trust my heart, but I can trust the One whose heart stopped, the One who died on the cross and was buried for my sake. Whether I am strong or weak doesn't matter, only his cross matters for the forgiveness of all my sins.”

Transition: So Jesus didn't bring up the topic of faith, his apostles did, so that when Jesus explains faith he does it in such a way that points them away from their faith to himself as the object of faith, the one who they and you believe in.

Your Savior who gives faith knows that faith receives great big gifts. And in order that the Gospel may be believed in its full comfort, we actually do go and define faith according to how it is taught in Scripture. Faith is the means and instrument through which we lay hold of Christ so that we trust in him as our Redeemer, because faith looks at Christ alone. Faith only receives the gifts. That's the type of faith that Scripture teaches. And why does it teach this? Because you are saved by grace through faith (note the prepositions; they matter). How do I get this faith? “This is not your own doing [the grace or the faith]; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” - that's Ephesians 2.

Transition: For sure there is no boasting. So if someone says, “Why should God save you?”, you can't say “Because I have faith”. Faith isn't the reason why God saves you; faith is the way that God saves you – through faith.

But your sinful heart wants to look at faith. Your sinful heart wants to redefine faith so it can do what it does: look at yourself and not Christ. You look at yourself rather than Christ when you want the Scripture to tell you what you want to hear, which is usually how good you are. But, and here's a good quote, “Faith will stagger if the authority of Scripture staggers” because Scripture doesn't say what your sinful heart wants but exposes your sin and brings the forgiveness of sins which it speaks. When you do not want to listen to the Scriptures, you mistrust the God who uses them to speak you to eternal life in Jesus, as a free gift.

You look at yourself rather than Christ when you say that this reading can't be addressing the apostles as pastors. But it does. The apostles are the ones who brought faith up, so Jesus answers them according to their specific calling as apostles and pastors. “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and recline at table'? ⁸ Will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink'? ⁹ Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? ¹⁰ So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.”. As apostles and pastors they will plow. And those who have the vocation of farmer know that there would be no plowing if there was no good land and no hope of sun and rain. These are from God. Same for shepherding. So to keep them from the pride in the great things they will do, Christ says these words to them, to remind them that they are the slaves and he is the good Master.

This reading then defines the gifts of pastors. When you don't want to define the gift of a pastor according to God's Word, you'll find some other way to define it. When you do that there is only one outcome: you mistrust the God who defines you as the one who receives God's holy gifts through the unworthy service of pastors who are sent by God and work by the authority of God.

You look at yourself rather than Christ when you define faith as your contribution to God for your salvation. Faith doesn't do; faith receives. Just like salvation isn't earned, it's a free gift of God through Christ Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit (and no other power). [Aside: Now when faith receives, we confess that we are saved through faith alone. But guess what, faith is never alone because when eternal life is already yours in Christ, you are then able to say “now what does my neighbor need?” - which results in good works. But that shows]

Faith doesn't look at yourself. Faith looks at the Word as reliable, holy, and active to save you. Faith receives, so it loves the means by which our Lord gives the gifts. Faith says with joy, “I am baptized. I have heard the Word of life read from the Bible and unpacked in preaching. I have been admitted to the Lord's Supper. All these deliver the forgiveness of sins to me. All these deliver the gifts of the cross to me. These continually work faith in my heart.”

Faith looks at pastors as men who are worthy of the love that they serve with*. Pastors serve both the Lord of the banquet and the invited guests, but their service is stamped with the cross. They are loved, not because they themselves are worthy, but because of the love of Christ which Christians share according to their vocations.

And just to be clear, this faith is impossible without the cross of Jesus Christ, because it is your greatest gift, that his blood covers your sins in the sight of the Father. The Scriptures are never separate from the cross, as 17:11 says, “On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.”, giving a reminder of Jesus' journey to his cross. For,

Christ provides the faith that receives marvelous though hidden gifts from him.

Conclusion: Where Christians cry for faith, there is where Christ must be preached. He must be preached because he, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is the only God you can believe in for eternal life. And that believing is nothing you do, but is itself a gift of God. And that gift of God is given through the Word and Sacraments. These create faith and are received by faith. And faith looks to Jesus, and your heart needs Jesus, even more than liquid. Amen.