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This Week's Sermon The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost 01 July 2007 "Is There a Crisis?" Luke 9:51-62 LSB Series C Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

Sometimes it just happens that after I have been working on preparing a sermon I come across something that speaks specifically to my theme. This is one of those occasions. I had worked on this sermon a bit before I left for Pastor Sutton's ordination and installation. As I read through the complimentary copy of USA Today at the hotel I found an interesting item in The Forum section. It was entitled, "Faith's Civil Wars." The author was asking the question that many are asking, albeit he was asking the wrong question. He was asking, "Will the god [sic] of love and mercy triumph over the god of battles?" He focused primarily on Islam, of course, but also on Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity. He sees a common thread running through all of them, namely, that there are those who "promote a punitive, disciplinary deity and those who worship a merciful, loving god"[sic]. While he admits that not all will be violent, he warns that "many will be venomous."

On the surface of things he seems to be partially right. That there are extremists in every religion doesn't seem to be far from the truth, especially as he lists the recent acts of militant Islam and violent protests by Buddhist monks and Hindus destroying mosques. He hits the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, a conflict I am not ready to so easily lump into a religious conflict. Yet, when he comes to Christianity, this is the best that he can muster: " . . . American Christians seek to legislate the behavior of fellow citizens." That hardly rises to the level of violence that we see from others.

Yet, the question he raised is a good question, even if the author can't reconcile important Christian concepts. It's the same question raised by James and John in our Gospel today when they asked Jesus,

"Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" (Luke 9:54, ESV)

It is a gross misunderstanding to judge Christianity as being genuine when one sees this kind of vindictive attitude on the part of those who profess Christianity. At the same time, it is a perversion of the Christian faith to conclude that we may only proclaim a God of love without proclaiming the justice of God. Think of how horrible that would be! Those who commit all sorts of atrocities against other human beings would never be punished. There would be no right and no wrong. There would never be a day of reckoning if one says that God does not punish sin. Such persons as this newspaper columnist are caught on the horns of a false dilemma.

But we must be very careful here not to mix the two. We Lutherans know that this is called Law and Gospel. James and John wanted Jesus to show the Law in all its severity to these unwelcoming Samaritans. It's true, the Samaritans were very wrong. They had acted in a very prejudiced way once they found out that Jesus had set his face to go to Jerusalem. By now they had heard that Jesus was to be a Jewish Messiah-King, something they would never agree to help and aid. If he were going to set up a kingdom in Jerusalem, they wouldn't even give him the necessities of life. This made James and John very angry, to the point of wanting Jesus to call down fire from heaven to consume them.

Even James and John misunderstood Jesus and the Gospel. The Incarnation of Jesus involves him in salvation, not in judgment. The Incarnation of Jesus is not necessary for God's judgment because God had judged sin without an incarnate Jesus centuries before. No, the Incarnation of Jesus is about the payment for all human sin, for propitiating God's anger over man's sin, for earning man's forgiveness and life. That is why Jesus had come and why he was heading for Jerusalem.

The world simply does not understand Jesus. It does not understand God. The world understands only one part of it, as these Islamists, Buddhists, and Hindus ably demonstrate. They are angry over what they perceive to be the sins of others. They are very much like James and John who want God to punish all such people, consume them in a fiery bomb which they themselves will set off, consuming themselves in the process.

The writer of the article does not have the answer, either. One simply cannot dismiss the judgment of God as being unworthy of religion in general. One simply cannot kid one's self into believing that God does not mean what he says about sin. One cannot dismiss sin as though it does not matter. The proper distinction between Law and Gospel takes us somewhere else.

C. F. W. Walther, one of the founders of our Missouri Synod, wrote a marvelous book about this important, critical, vital distinction. In one part he says to pastors:

A sermon on the Law which you deliver from your pulpit, to be a proper preaching of the Law, must measure up to these requirements: There is to be no ranting about abominable vices that may be rampant in the congregation. Continual ranting will prove useless. People may quit the practices that have been reproved, but in two weeks they will have relapsed into their old ways. You must, indeed, testify with great earnestness against transgressions of God's commandments, but you must also tell the people: "Even if you were to quit your habitual cursing, swearing, and the like, that would not make you Christians. You might go to perdition for all that. God is concerned about the attitude of your heart" [Law and Gospel, 81].

What does Walther mean? Let's take the Fifth Commandment, for example, the one that says, "You shall not murder." It doesn't let you off the hook because you haven't actually murdered someone with your own hands, like some drug dealer getting back at people for not paying. You should not think that you have kept the commandment if you have simply refrained from physically murdering someone. The Law of God takes aim at the heart of man. This is where all these other religions have failed, and where a great number of those who call themselves Christians fail. They see the proclamation of the Law as coming from a vengeful God. They fail to see what is in their own hearts. They don't judge them rightly. The Law in this case extends to what you feel in your heart against your neighbor. Have you hated him? Have you said hateful words to him, ridiculed him? Have you neglected to feed or clothe him? Have you withheld compassion and comfort from him? Have you avoided getting involved in his troubles? You see, it is much more than refraining from murdering him with your hands! When the Law of God is proclaimed like this, one sees that he is not the kind of person God wants him to be. It falls far short of what our Collect today describes as loving and serving our neighbor. If you have not done that, then you have sinned and fall under God's wrath and condemnation.

One more point here is very important. The Apostle Paul reminds us in writing to the Romans:

"For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin." (Romans 3:20, ESV)

Without the knowledge of sin one has no need for Christ. Everybody is just a good ole boy and God simply overlooks all of our sins. But that's just whistling past the graveyard. No, it's worse than that! It's self-deception! It is self-deception to believe that God doesn't punish sin! It is self-deception to believe that God only loves and never judges sinful thoughts, words, and actions!

The whole reason that Jesus became Incarnate was to take all of the wickedness of human beings into his own body and carry it to the cross where he made an end of it by dying innocently in place of the whole world. When Jesus dies as the Lamb of God, the sacrificial Lamb, the Scapegoat, he absorbs in himself all the punishment that you deserved, that everybody else deserved. God did not set aside his justice and simply write off all sin as inconsequential behavior, no, he punished it, just as he said he would. But he didn't punish those who committed these sins; he punished Jesus Christ instead.

This substitutionary work of Christ much of the world simply doesn't comprehend because the world doesn't comprehend the seriousness of sin. Even James and John don't get it yet. They didn't see themselves as just as deserving of divine judgment as did the Samaritans, but they would once Jesus finished teaching them and Pentecost came when the Holy Spirit enlightened their hearts and minds. Only then did they realize what the Incarnation of Jesus really meant.

The writer of the article I cited also said that human beings want certainty in their lives, especially in times of upheaval. People have always wanted that, but calling down God's wrath on others can be a dangerous practice! The only certainty is the Gospel of Jesus Christ which states that you are forgiven through the blood of Christ, that his blood has propitiated God, satisfied his justice. This once-for-all payment of Christ's innocent life on the cross has earned a permanent peace with God. God is not angry with you, not because you are somehow better or more deserving than these other people, but because of Christ. Because of Christ going to the cross in your place, you are assured of the love and mercy of God.

How can you be sure? Look where God has placed the proofs of his love! Look to Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, Holy Communion and you see that God's heart toward you is one of forgiveness. Jesus was training these twelve men for the mission of taking this good news out to the world. He commanded them to "make disciples of all nations by baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the ( Son and of the Holy Spirit." The fire of judgment did indeed come down from heaven, but its target was Jesus, not you. You receive not judgment but the love and mercy of God in Christ Jesus himself. And that love and mercy of God is what Christ's Church proclaims after she has correctly laid the foundation with the Law of God. So, the article's false dilemma is resolved. The God of love and mercy, the Holy Trinity, has indeed triumphed in Christ. There is no crisis to be resolved by us because God himself has already resolved it.