Whom can you trust?

Sermon preached on Sunday, August 10, at St. Paul Lutheran, Paducah, KY, the propers for Trinity 8.

What a day to hear Jesus warn about false prophets and in your pulpit is a stranger.  While I may be a strange to you, you are not to me.  Your Pastor Donner has been friend for 33 years.  He installed me in Clarksville in 1993, preached at the dedication of our new building in 2002, and remains a cherished colleague.  Your Pastor Appold has been my friend and co-worker ever since he came from Seminary to you in 2014.  But you know as well as I that the greatest danger comes not from strangers but from those professing to be your friends.

You have learned to be suspicious of emails and text messages promising the world but filled with legitimate danger.  You do not answer the phone like you did once when a phone call was a welcome distraction.  We have all hunkered down before the threats all around us in our world, in our nation, in our community, and even in our churches.  The Gospel for today is a sign of the times but it is an obvious warning.  Even those outside the faith know enough to warn their children to be wary of strangers.  Jesus knows to tell us to be even more wary of those who claim to speak in His name.

The parent may not quite know how to identify which strangers are the biggest dangers so parents warn their children against all of them.  It is not very efficient and even less effective.  As soon as children learn that not all strangers are bad, they become vulnerable to the ones who truly are evil and bent on their destruction.  Jesus does not leave us to our own wits.  He does not merely warn us against the stranger or even the familiar face but gives us the tool to mark truth from error, authenticity from falsehood.  He gives us His Word.

Life is not easy but hard and the greatest danger is that we tire of the fight and fall victims to those who promise us an easier path.  But do not be fooled.  Our enemies are strong and powerful while we are not.  Our enemies are clever and crafty and we are not.  On our own we would surely become their victims but we are not on our own.  We are in Christ.  He is our Good Shepherd who has placed Himself between us and our enemies – even to the point of death on a cross.  We cannot stand alone but in Christ we will not fall.  That is His promise.

In Christ, we are safe. They can kill Jesus but He will not stay dead.  They can afflict us but they cannot steal us from Him.  They cannot kill us but we will rise. You already know this.  You have had faithful undershepherds who have stood in this pulpit and reminded you of this. You call them pastor.  The pastor is not the mighty warrior whom you can trust but the pastor preaches the mighty Christ and this Christ cannot fail you.  The danger is not from the outside but right in our midst for the devil loves nothing more than to infiltrate the Church and corrupt her and all God’s people from the inside out.

Pastors cannot be trusted.  Wolves know how to dress up in clerical collars and vestments and sound holy better than anyone.  Pastors are not superheroes.  They are men who can be weak and vulnerable like the rest of us.  They can screw up and they break their promises just like the rest of us.  But you know how to judge a pastor.  God has given you His Word.  You are to know that Word well enough so  that you can judge the shepherds who are faithful from the wolves who seek your destruction.  If you know God’s Word, you will know which pastors to trust.

God’s Word can always be trusted. As sheep, you do not judge your pastors on the basis of their looks or their jokes or their homespun wisdom.  You judge them by what they preach and teach. If they preach Christ and teach His Word,follow them. 

That is what Jesus means when He says: “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”  More than merely warning you, He gives you His Word so that you can know if their fruit is good or corrupt, if their words are faithful or self-serving.  Judge them by who they preach and teach – not by how much you like them or they appeal to you.  Listen to them so that you can hear Christ and follow them or if you do not hear Christ you must flee them..

Scripture is the judge.  Pastors are held to a high standard, to be sure, but we do not trust in them.  We trust in the Lord Jesus – whom they preach.  We listen to them because they speak Christ and His forgiveness to us.  We judge them on the basis of God’s Word, from the creed we profess, and by the Confessions which are faithful to that Word of God.  You have such a man in Pastor Appold and you had one in my old friend Pastor Donner.  You are blessed to have such good pastors.

Pastors are not smarter than everyone else nor are they always right.  But there is only one Word that endures forever, only one Word that gives life, and only one name under heaven by which any will be saved. This is the Word you use to judge.

The voice that gathers you hear each week is Christ’s voice spoken through the mouth of the pastor.  The absolution is spoken in the pastor’s voice but the forgiveness is Christ’s.  The water is applied by the hands of the pastor but its power to give new life belongs to Jesus.  The bread and cup that feed and give as drink the body and blood of Jesus are held in the pastors’s hands but they belong to Christ and are given according to Christ’s own promise, the foretaste of the eternal feast to come.

The point is that you cannot stand alone and on your own.  No sheep can.  No sheep were ever meant to be alone.  We all must live under the care of Him who is able to protect and defend us in this mortal life and deliver us to everlasting life - to rich green pastures and still quiet waters.  In order to stand, we must stand in Christ.  Every sheep has to be under someone’s care.  You are either under the care of God or you are under the care of the devil.  There is no neutral zone.  And yYou are under Christ’s staff, exercised by the pastor and you know the pastor by his fruits – his preaching and teaching.

God has made You His own in your baptism.  He daily reclaims you as His own by contrition and repentance.  He weekly addresses you with the voice of His Word preached and taught.  He sets His table before you in the presence of your enemies.  God will not abandon you or leave you to battle the devil on your own.  Do not abandon Him.  Here is where the Lord is working, through faithful pastors to mark you as His own, to guard you in all your ways, to come after you when you are lost, to awaken you when you fall asleep, to feed you the taste of heaven, and to deliver you safely to His eternal home.  There is no greater glory for a pastor than to serve such a God and there is no greater privilege that to be served by such a faithful man.  Learn God’s Word so you can discern the good shepherds from the false ones and so that you can appreciate the one who serve you in Christ’s name.  And while you are at it, give thanks to God for the faithful man who stands before you every week.  Every Christian should be so blessed!  Amen.