Slogans are not faith. . .

Sermon for Reformation Day Observed, preached on Sunday, October 27, 2024.

Slogans are great for advertising.  Everyone of us knows that America runs on Dunkin or Eat More Chikin or We have the meats or I’m loving it or better ingredients, better pizza.  But a slogan cannot make up for what is missing – good food.  Slogans can pique your curiosity and bring you in the door once but they cannot keep you coming back.  The same is true for church slogans.  A slogan cannot replace the truth.

We Lutherans are good at slogans.  We have the solas – sola Scriptura, sola gratia, sola fidei.  We have Law and Gospel.  We have Word and Sacrament.  We have means of grace.  We were once known as the Church of the Lutheran Hour.  But slogans cannot make up for unfaithful doctrine or unfocused preaching or music that feels good but says nothing of Christ and His work.  In order to have a reason for coming back, we need something more than a catchy slogan.  We need the truth that endures forever.

In the Gospel today is a phrase that has become a slogan.  The truth will set you free.  We all know how that slogan has been used and misused by every group or cause looking for a snappy phrase.  Jesus does not give us a slogan.  We should not be content with a slogan. Jesus gives us Himself and we should not be content with anything less.  His words are truth you can take to the bank.

St. John says that Jesus spoke these words to the Jews who had believed in Him.  These were not Christians who had believed but had stopped believing.  Nor were they Christians who believed so profoundly that they had no doubts or fears or worries any longer.  These were a people who believed but whose faith was constantly challenged, whose hearts were troubled by things that did not seem right, whose minds were anxious over things that did not make sense.  Their faith was young and therefore their faith was in danger.  Jesus does not speak to condemn them or even to tell them not to worry.  Jesus loves them and He addresses them so that their faith might be strong, they might be strengthened in Him, and brought by His grace to everlasting life.

Jesus is not talking to an arrogant crowd of people who denied the obvious.  He is not talking to people who reject the truth for the lie of their history as they remembered it.  It is not about if they had ever been slaves or not or who were the legitimate sons of Abraham.  It was about people just like you and me who live for the high moments when faith seems easy and life in Christ a snap.  People like you and me who dread the valleys of the shadow and the struggles that make Christian life hard.  Jesus is warning them and warning us.  You will fall away unless you remain rooted and planted in Him.  Only those who abide in Him and in His Word will remain His disciples.  The rest will wither and die and fall away at the first sign of trouble.

Faith is hard enough in Christ.  Apart from Christ it is impossible.  This is as true today as when Christ addressed a crowd that had become disillusioned by all His talk of the cross and His description of their lives of faith bearing their cross and following Him.  It is the same as when Luther woke up to find the Church had remembered everything except the truth of sins forgiven, life restored, and salvation freely bestowed in Christ.  It is the same as when you turn on the news or get the bad news from the doctor or struggle to make the financial ends meet or keep your marriage and family together.  Bette Davis once said that old age is not for sissies.  Faith is not for sissies either.  It is hard and we endure not because we are strong or mighty or right – no we endure only because we abide in Christ.

We have two temptations.  Either we think we are mighty oaks who will always survive the storms of life or we fear we are little saplings vulnerable to the slightest breeze. We are neither.  We are the planting of the Lord and He has promised that we will endure.  But we will only endure as long as we are rooted and planted in Christ and His Word.  We are not as weak as we think for in Christ we are the strongest of the strong – not even death can steal from us the life our Lord has planed in us by baptism.  Nor are we strong apart from Christ.  Faith without anchor in Christ and the nourishment of His Word and Sacraments will die.  Faith in Christ is anchored in the eternal love that once in time suffered and die for our salvation and His refreshment turns the weak into the mighty.

Everything depends upon Christ and His Word.  Slogans will not save us, nor will bravado.  Our enemies cannot steal us from His grasp nor keep from us the gifts of God appointed for us in Christ -- so as long as we abide in Him and in His Word.  Our kinship with Abraham is not a matter of DNA but of faith – faith that trusted in aged bodies to give birth to the son of promise.  Faith is what saves us -- faith in Christ alone.  In order for faith to live in us, the Word and Spirit must give it birth.  In order for faith to endure, we need to be connected to Christ through His Word and Sacraments, living close to Him where He is.

These are good words for youth ready to confess their faith and make an adult sized promise to remain in this faith and church as long as they live.  These are good words for Lutherans tempted to make a deity out of their heritage instead of heeding the example of the faithful in trusting Christ alone.  These are good words for a people who believe but who find believing hard and the Christian life an obstacle course.  Abide in Christ.  That is no slogan.  That is the font that washes clean the sinner, the absolution that lifts sin's burden of guilt and shame, the Gospel Word that speaks the Good Shepherd's voice, and the altar that feeds the sinner upon Christ’s flesh and blood.

God is warning us.  It is possible to fall away, to lose your way, and to substitute the legacy of a past for the living hope of the present.  If we live by slogans we shall surely die by them.  But if we are anchored in Christ through His Word, we shall abide in Him to everlasting life.

The Reformation insisted that the cross where Christ paid the price of our redemption could not be just one of the many things we believe and confess, it is THE thing on which the Church and every Christian stands or falls.  The reformers were calling us and every Christian to dig deep into the soil of God’s Word or risk being plucked from the faithful by the cares and distractions of this mortal life.  When we insist to those being confirmed today that they must worship and read God’s Word and commune we are not putting a rule upon their shoulders but teaching them how they will abide in Christ and where Christ has made Himself accessible and available to them and for them.  When we come with our faith in tatters because it is hard to be faithful in a faithless world, the Lord points us to the victory won upon the cross, sets us free from the prison of our worries and fears, and walks us to everlasting life.

Faith is not decision made once but daily and weekly living near the Word of God and nourished by the body and blood of Jesus from this altar.  It is nothing to know Jesus for a moment unless that knowledge endures and leads to everlasting life.  For this to happen, we need to abide in Christ.  Our call to God to save us is also a call to be daily and weekly kept by the power of His Word preached and the power of His body and blood to impart eternal life to us.  The Church, baptism, and faith are not accidents but God at work deliberately clothing us with Christ so that we may be in Christ and be kept in Christ to life eversting.  Intentions and slogans will always fail us but Christ will not.  Abide in Christ and you will endure as His children forevermore.  That is the message once spoken to Jews who believed in Jesus and that is the Gospel we hear today.  Those who abide in Christ shall live forever.  Amen

Leave me alone. . .

There seems to be a rather profound political division in America between those who think the government and our leaders are doing too much and those who think they are not doing enough.  It is a rather classic controversy between those who want to be left alone and those who insist upon being being noticed.  I am not sure how it falls along party line but I think it is pretty obvious that the folks who do not want an interventionist government are more on the Republican and Trump side than Democrat and Harris side.  Although it is a great divide of distrust, it is also a philosophical difference.

We all have people we do not trust in America.  As is rather obvious, I do not trust the experts whose expertise is driven by ideology nor do I trust the educational elite or the media elite or the entertainment elite or the big pharma/corporate medicine cartel.  Although I have not trusted them for a long time, after the pandemic I trust them even less.  I do not understand how thinking people could be corralled so easily by their fears to believe in masks, social distancing, or a vaccine that does not quite prevent what it was invented to prevent.  I do not impose my choices on others in this regard and you are perfectly free to disagree with me, thank God!  But I do not want to have the choices of others imposed upon me either.  And I refuse to grant that because someone makes gazillions in Hollywood or reads the news from a teleprompter or confuses ideology with education that person has a better opinion than mine.  Taylor Swift is free to vote for whom she chooses but we are all fools if we are influenced by her choice.  The same is true on every side for every political color or candidate.  Truth should not be red or blue.

Others do not trust industries or corporations, real estate tycoons or those who wear the uniform of a soldier or police, or those who hold to values we all once held a generation or so ago.  I get it.  The old establishment of politics, government, the ruling class, and such have let you down.  You do not understand why we would not use force to accomplish the good the people are not choosing for themselves.  For you society is not changing fast enough and you have had it up to your eyeballs with those who put a monkey wrench in the work of transforming America by executive order and governmental rules.  You are free to have your opinion.  But again, truth should not be red or blue.  Without truth in common, we are only our divisions and without a moral compass shared we are all over the page in our recognition of what ought to be done in the name of America.

What I do say is this.  America was founded as a place where the government was not our conscience or our God, where a minimal government was preferred over one that constrained too much of our freedom, and as a place where we all have a right to be left alone as long as we are not directly harming someone else.  I think the truth is that those on both sides are voting more against each other than for the standard bearer of their cause.  Harris may not be the spawn of Satan but neither is she the Messiah.  Trump may be an egotistic sleazeball but he is not the end of the world.  One candidate has made it clear that Christians may not be welcome nor will the freedom inherent in our land protect them from the grip of the government while the other wraps himself up in the fabric of religion in ways that are bound to make orthodox Christians uneasy.  In the end, however, I am more for the one who will leave me alone than I am for the one who promises to remake America and right all our wrongs in the name of progress.  Sure as shootin, progress will come at a cost and it may well be the liberty that protects my right to worship without fear or threat from the government.  If I need improving (and I surely do), the Holy Spirit is the agent to do it and not the government.  Of all the rights so valuable to us in this blessed nation, none is as valuable as the right to be left alone.  It is this that moves my heart more than political promise or fear.

Is the Reformation still relevant?

In case you were wondering if the Reformation was still relevant, here is one reason why it is:

I guess the Pope did not read where Jesus said He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life -- the only way to the Father in heaven.  In any case, despite his age, Pope Frank is pretty much in sync with the times and those who actually do agree with him.

If there was even a cause or reason for Lutheranism to remain vibrant and vital, it is in the strange and unChristian wonderings of this occupant of the throne of St. Peter.

To all my Roman Catholic friends:  This people is worse than an embarrassment.  He is a scandal to the faith and does more harm than good every time he opens his mouth.
 

It's embarrassing. . .

One of the reasons people sometimes give for not going to private confession is that it is embarrassing to say out loud your sins.  Guess what.  It IS embarrassing.  It is surely embarrassing to confess your private sins with someone else listening.  We have tried very hard to presume that sins are not that much of a problem and that sin is nobody's business but yours.  But it is still embarrassing.  That is not the worst of it, however.  The embarrassment lasts for a moment but the consequence of sin is eternal.  It is not the embarrassment that required Christ to become incarnate for nor is it the embarrassment for which He died.  Sin is a  much bigger problem than a little embarrassment.  You need to get your head wrapped around that. 

Pastors are seldom embarrassed by your sins (we have heard it all before and we have our own sins to confess).  Pastors are impressed with the courage of those who own their sins and name them before the pastor.  It demonstrates a deep and profound faith.  It means that you get that the problem with sin is far bigger than the embarrassment.  It means you know that sin is not some mere inconvenience to us but literally is the reason for death.  If you are afraid your pastor might be embarrassed by what you confess before him, you are letting a little thing get in the way of a big thing -- the comfort and consolation of absolution.

No, Lutherans do not have to go to confession.  We do not have to eat foods we enjoy or go places either.  But we do.  Confession is valuable because Christ is there forgiving the sins that we have trouble forgiving and leaving at the foot of the cross.  Confession is for all ages, too.  You are not too young to confess your sins and you are not too old.  Try it out.  Give it a chance.  Do not be stymied by the feelings of guilt or shame or embarrassment and skip something that is a real and blessed gift from God.  Confession is not something to admire but the most practical of blessings for our everyday life.  Yes, we confess our sins on Sunday morning but there the confession is sufficiently general as to make it easy not to name the sins that trouble our consciences.  In private confession we get to confess precisely those sins and the pastor pronounces clear and personal absolution.  And unlike a general absolution, the pastor speaks your name and applies the forgiveness to that particular sin.  

If embarrassment is the big impediment keeping you from the grace of this sacramental act, get over it.  Embarrassment is not the big problem with sin.  Besides, half the sins people are embarrassed about get broadcast over social media anyway.  Why would we be embarrassed about them within the context of private confession before the pastor when we seem unfazed by them on social media?  The problem with sin is not that it is secret but that its effects affect are not.  Honestly, if you have been thinking about trying private confession, why not go to your pastor and set up an appointment now.  He will be duly impressed with the seriousness of your faith and you will walk away with a new understanding of how grace works.  It is a blessing just waiting for YOU.

What he does. . .

Those of you who know me know that I hate to be political especially in an election year.  That said, there is something worth our attention as we consider people both in secular office and in the life of the Church.  It is the difference, perhaps distinction, between rhetoric and actions, between words and deeds.  

Over the last four years or more we have heard many words from Democrats about the centrality of the family and bringing America together over the political divide and working together across the aisle.  But in actions we have witnessed a profound shift to the left from Biden and Harris.  On the other hand, Trump seems always to find a way to embarrass us with his bravado, ego, and insensitivity but his actions as President were profoundly friendly to the cause of religious freedom and to the cause of life.  Sometimes you have to look past what people say to what they have done.  I think it is true for most conservatives that this is the only way we can support a man like Trump.  On the other hand, those on the left are in a similar predicament.  Harris keeps reminding people that she has a gun even though she is decidedly on the other side of the second amendment most of the time.  People who want to strip the people of their firearms are willing to look past the words of Candidate Harris to see what she does with it all.  

The interesting thing here is neither Trump nor Harris.  They are both old news in a sense.  What I find most intriguing is how this same idea relates to a guy like Pope Francis.  His words have been sometimes a comfort to people who take the Christian faith seriously but his actions have been shockingly liberal.  He appoints people to leadership positions in the Roman Catholic Church who have challenged and even ridiculed the faith the Catechism of that body confesses.  Prime is the example of the Roman Catholic position on homosexuality and gender identity.  Yet even here Pope Francis is an enigma.  He publicly admits what appear to be his own doubts about the traditional teaching on such matters.  Even when his words have been good (on surrogacy, for example) his actions have been downright scary to orthodox Christians of all stripes.  He has appeared to be a breath of fresh air in the sale Vatican and yet he is the most controlling and vindictive of the modern popes and though he speaks of synodality he runs his part of the enterprise with a very heavy and centralized hand.

It is all a reminder that words matter but sometimes what matters even more are what people do.  This is especially true of politics but it is also true of religion.  I fear that this is the wave of the future -- political figures and religious leaders whose words and actions are not at all in the same vein.  If that is the case, we are in trouble.  We have little to judge our politicos by except their words and, when elected, their actions.  We have little to judge our religious leaders by except their words and, as we can see them, their actions.  It is a tragedy that our leaders in church and in state seem to say one thing and do another.  Even when the doing is better than their words, it leaves us more cynical than ever and more apt to disengage from both religion and politics.  And that is a bad thing!

It is time for us to take off the masks and to be who we are.  This would better serve the political process but it would also better serve our trust in people and institutions all around us.  Consistency is what we are looking for.  Without it we continually feel that we have been mocked, deceived, and bulldozed and have nothing to show for us except the scars.  There was a time when politicos were fairly reliable and consistent, when governing and religion were defined by principles and when a handshake actually meant something.

Curious. . .

I am a product of the old system of educating pastors in the LCMS.  Junior college, senior college, then seminary -- all steeped in a classic liberal arts curriculum heavy on languages.  Hebrew was one of the hurdles to go through in order to find your way through the Senior College and into Seminary.  I wish I could say I was a star pupil.  I was not.  But enough of it seeped into my brain to make it through and I am rather grateful for that.  What is interesting, however, is that Hebrew is a bit like text criticism.  We do that stuff but I am not sure our heart is really in it.  Yes, it does matter what the text says and in order to know that you need to establish what that text is.  But, no, Christendom did not receive the Old Testament in Hebrew but largely through the Greek translation of the Septuagint.  And whatever you think of the text, we are bound to the accepted text as the Word of God (complete with the ending of St. Mark's Gospel).  So it has made me wonder why we spent so much time learning Hebrew and deal with textual criticism.

As others have said well before me and better than I, the early Christians knew Christ through the Greek text of the Septuagint.  Theirs was, after all, a Greek world of thought and the New Testament is a book in Greek, albeit Koine.  From what I am able to discover, most New Testament quotations seem to have their roots also in the Septuagint more than in the Hebrew text.  Yet I have this large volume of the Masoritic Text of the Hebrew Old Testament on my shelf in testament to the idea that this nuance did not matter -- we learn the text in its original tongue.  If all else fails, buy yourself and interlinear (aghast, you say, that I would even mention such a thing!).  

All of this is a way of reminding ourselves, no matter how interesting or compelling the arguments over the text, we are bound to a text that we do not prove to be original or authentic every time we open the pages of the Bible.  Even Rome holds up a translation as the most authoritative text -- in this case neither Greek nor Hebrew but Latin!  St. Jerome continues to be fairly persuasive, it would seem.  It is not without merit to know how we got to the text we have but we do not get to pick and choose in this text which parts we agree with or which we do not.  We might argue with the translator over which word accords best with the original but these are side arguments to the basic truth that we deal with the text we have.  That said, the New Testament and the Septuagint are replete with Greekisms that cannot be denied and they have made their way into the Creed as well as Scripture.  All in all, it is not such a big concern.  We are not conspiracy theorists like Dan Brown.  It is what it is.

Though we love the Latin phrase, ad fontes, the text is not quite an open question.  Even if we have not numbered in our confessional documents the number of books, we have accepted the canon as received and work from that to get where we are.  What we decidedly do NOT do is read back into the past modern presuppositions and conclusions.  Though this is difficult, it is not our job to read back into Scripture the modern lens with its vision and values.  Curiously that does not prevent the occasional preacher from actually saying "If Jesus were alive today...."  May I argue with you, sir?  So there we are.  Some things interesting are not essential and some things essential are not quite as interesting as the old arguments over which words of the Bible belong there.