[Sermon Archive]

This Week's Sermon Third Midweek Lenten Vespers 14 March 2007 "Salutary Warning" LSB Series C Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

The theme for the Third Sunday in Lent was all about bringing us to repentance. It is clear from Jesus' words that God wills our repentance. Why? So that he can forgive us and we can avoid the punishment due from our sins. Our First Reading this evening takes us to the beginning of things, God's "Salutary Warnings" which are meant to bring us to repentance. There are two parts that we must consider, first, the one that God ordains to deliver the warning, and second, the warning itself.

Ezekiel was a prophet whom God sent to warn Israel that unless she repented, disaster was coming in the form of the Babylonian conquest. God's call to Ezekiel's was very simple:

"So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me." (Ezekiel 33:7, ESV)

Warning people about their sins isn't a very attractive job. I think that any pastor would certainly agree with me. If it were not for my call into the Holy Ministry, I wouldn't want to do it at all, not even if you doubled my salary. Watching over your souls and giving you warning about your sins is not something I ever aspired to, yet it is part of the marching orders given to every properly ordained pastor. Luther himself complained about doing this. He said:

If this were not God's own order and institution, I would not want to preach another sermon to the end of my days. God says: "You must do this regardless of the consequences to you, you must remain in your office." If you are in the ministry and see that you have rascals and knaves, fornicators, adulterers, and robbers in your parish, you must say: "Since this is my duty, I will point out sins to peasants, burghers, and noblemen, and rebuke them for these without paying attention to their complaints when they say: 'Look here, you are defaming me!' " For if I held back, I would make myself guilty of your sin. And why should I go to hell for you?¹

What if we pastors failed to warn you about your sins? First of all, you would die in those sins because you wouldn't know enough to repent and find refuge in Christ. You would be eternally lost. It would certainly be easier to "let sleeping dogs lie" than to awakening a snarling pit bull. Not pointing out your sins is of no benefit to you before God. In fact, it leaves you in very deep trouble.

A couple of weeks ago, when the deadly tornado blew through Enterprise, Alabama, there were warnings given for a number of hours. The sirens went off and told people to take cover because danger was approaching. Many more people would have died had there not been the warnings to seek shelter. The same is true for railroad crossings. We hear the stories of people in rural areas where there are grade crossings and no lights or gates. Once someone is killed because of a lack of warning system, such systems are usually installed. People need to be warned about such dangers. It is our duty to do so.

Perhaps you have seen the yellow signs that are often put up in the entrance to our Parish Center. Those signs warn you that the floor is wet and that you might slip and fall if you didn't know that the floor was wet. Government agencies require us to warn you of imminent danger.

All of these are "Salutary Warnings," that is, warnings designed to keep you from hurting yourself or being hurt through ignorance. It is the duty of the pastor to warn you of sins that hurt you, just as Luther said. The proverb, "It's a nasty job but somebody has to do it" certainly applies here. It is much like a parent who warns a young child about dangers that the child cannot comprehend, like an electrical outlet, a stairway, a stranger.

Very often you who are on the receiving end of such warnings about your sins don't like it. No sinner wants to have his sins pointed out to him. Last week we heard about Jeremiah doing what Ezekiel was sent to do. Jeremiah warned that Jerusalem would be destroyed and the people wanted to kill him. They were angry with the messenger. "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be" in the Church when pastors point out sins. In my 36 years in the Office of the Holy Ministry I have yet to have someone say to me, "Pastor, thank you for warning me about my sin and my impenitence! Thanks for doing your God-given duty." I'll admit that I would be more than stunned if someone did that because we sinners, self included, don't want others pointing out our sins.

Second, if I did not point out your sins and call you to repentance I may be very popular with you but I won't be popular with God.

"If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand." (Ezekiel 33:8, ESV)

To a certain extent this also applies to you as a Christian. You, too, have a duty to warn your brother or sister of sins should you see that they are destructive. Be aware, though, that you won't get any better reaction that I get when I point out sins! You too, fall under God's judgment for failure to warn the brother or sister of sin. Perhaps one of the sins of Christians these days lies in not speaking up when great sins are ignored, such as homosexuality, abortion, and the like. It's not easy to speak up when others are ready to accuse you of bigotry and hatred, sins deemed to be far worse than the failure to warn you of God's eternal judgment!

The real hatred comes in not speaking up, of not caring. The real hatred comes in letting the brother go to his death without warning.

"Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?" (Ezekiel 33:11, ESV)

Hear again the glorious Gospel message in this text:

"'How then can we live?' Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?" (Ezekiel 33:10-11, ESV)

Life comes from God. Your life comes from Christ, from his innocent life, suffering, and death on the cross. That life he gives you in Holy Baptism. You were baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ. In Holy Baptism you got the whole dying thing over with. Repentance is nothing more than returning every day to your Baptism where you drown the Old Adam in contrition and then take hold again of Christ, putting on the New Adam, the new man. This righteousness of Christ delivers you from all sin and death.

And so the warnings about your sins do not mean that God hates you but that he loves you and wants you to flee every day to Christ. These warnings are really the evidence that God does not want you to be lost. Perhaps I'll have some very sweet words placed in my ears sometime: "Pastor, thanks for warning me about my sin, and thanks for distributing the life of Christ at every Divine Service." Then I'll know that you really do regard the preaching of the Law as "Salutary Warnings." And that will make my day!

¹Luther, M. (1999, c1957). Vol. 22: Luther's works, vol. 22 : Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 1-4 (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (22:372). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.