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This Week's Sermon THE SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 20 September 2009 "True Christianity" Mark 9:30-37 LSB Series B Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

For the second time Jesus said that he would be delivered into the hands of men and that they would kill him, but that he would rise from the dead after three days. This was shocking news. After the first announcement Jesus had to rebuke Peter with the sharpest rebuke ever, calling him "Satan" [Mark 8.33]. Peter had confessed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the living God, only to be rebuked moments later for denying that the Christ should suffer and die. Suffering and death are heavy subjects. Most people do their best to avoid talking about them. "But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him." (Mark 9:32, ESV) So what did the Twelve talk about? Amazingly, they talked about themselves! Jesus again announced his suffering and death and his closest followers were preoccupied with their own ambitions, so much so that they were afraid to ask him what he meant.

Jesus called them to be his disciples but they didn't have much of a clue as to what it meant. As far as they were concerned discipleship was about what they could get out of it. They didn't listen to what Jesus had said about servanthood as the mark of the disciple. They sound very much like politicians who like to talk about "serving the people" when they are really looking for ways to enhance themselves. They didn't understand that discipleship first involves a downward movement, like a tree sending out roots, in order to reach skyward [Augustine].

Many disciples of Jesus give Christianity a bad name because they are milking the faith for their own purposes. For some, it's a matter of getting rich, just as Paul said [1 Tim. 6.5]. For others, self-made religion serves the purpose of putting one's self in good with God, that is, by doing good works for the purpose of getting something from God, whether it is salvation or the praise of men. For still others, perhaps more than all the rest, they see Christianity as a way of serving themselves. They see the faith as a way to make their lives better, to gain more personal satisfaction in life. In short, it's all about themselves and what the faith can give them and do for them. "What are you going to do for me?" they ask, and there is no shortage of churches which willingly cater to these selfish desires. Somebody once quipped, "Most people go through life in the self-service line." Sadly, that happens also in the Church.

Jesus connects the right confession of his name and service to others. Service of others in Christ's name connects the disciple to Christ. The Twelve thought that True Christianity meant ruling others, being large and in charge. If they needed to sacrifice to get it, they were more than willing to do this, just as Peter said when he said he was ready to die for Christ. It was great risk but great reward. Peter the others didn't understand, and neither do we most of the time.

What we're talking about here is good works. Like the rest of the world we often get it wrong, but in a different sort of way if you have always been a Lutheran. You see, real Lutherans know that one cannot be saved by good works. Good works don't enter into the equation at all. It's all "by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith." The faith that receives what Christ has done leaves out any works as a cause of one's salvation, but that faith had better not sit there doing nothing or it is not true faith. Faith without works is dead, the Apostle James tells us [James 2.14-17]. Some confused Lutherans think that having faith is merely agreeing to a set of doctrinal statements. These are the people who seldom set foot inside the door of the sanctuary because "I believe like I always have," they say. And that's what always bothers me. That's a dead faith.

Good works are not optional. That would be a fundamental misunderstanding of the Christian faith, to say nothing of the Lutheran confession of it. Good works simply spring up out of faith. It's what we call Christian Vocation. The Gospel moves you to act in the name of Christ for the benefit of others. True Christianity can never divide the two. They must always be together if you are going to confess real flesh and blood Christianity.

There can be no doubt that the failure to match words and actions has driven many people away from Christ. They are completely put off by the hypocrisy of those who call themselves Christians, profess love for others but never show it. Something is out of joint. Something doesn't connect. There's a short circuit somewhere, and that means that something isn't grounded.

"Who is the greatest?" was the question that the Twelve were arguing. Jesus brought them all up short when he placed a child in his arms and said:

"Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me." (Mark 9:37, ESV)

A child! A child was considered the lowliest of all persons in the ancient world. A child couldn't advance your career, make you rich, or get you on the cover of People. A person could use a child for that, but that isn't serving that child. You see, that's what we often do. We use other people for our own purposes, either in God's eyes or in the eyes of others. Any mention of selfless service will not be valued by the world, but God values what the world does not.

Too many Christians think that True Christianity means having some kind of "spiritual" experience, some emotional feeling that makes one feel good or makes one feel closer to God, but that's pretty self-serving. True Christianity isn't that cryptic. It isn't mystic or even mysterious. It is fulfilling your vocation. Yet, we sin when we lay a guilt trip on your if you aren't involved in some activity here at Immanuel. Most Christians think that unless the parking lot is filled with cars and there is a long list of available activities, the congregation isn't doing her job. There's too much talk about programs and what congregations supposedly offer visitors or their members. That has nothing whatsoever to do with real spirituality.

True Christianity is fulfilling your Christian vocation. We share the same confession of the faith, but you and I don't have the same vocations. We're different even though we share some of them in common. What am I talking about? Luther explains it all very nicely in his Small Catechism when he lists the Table of Duties. Some of you know that I call this "the hats we wear." We don't all wear the same hats. Male and female differences mean different hats. Older and younger mean different hats, and so on. But each one of us has our calling from Christ to serve the neighbor by our works. Luther has the subtitle:

CERTAIN PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE FOR VARIOUS HOLY ORDERS AND POSITIONS, ADMONISHING THEM ABOUT THEIR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Luther breaks them down into four categories:
1) In the Christian congregation where we live as pastors or hearers.
2) In the civil realm where we live as citizens under authority.
3) In the family where we are husbands, wives, parents, children.
4) In the work place where we are employers or employees.

It's not rocket science. It isn't even complicated doctrinal formulae. It's pretty simple: you show your faith by what you do for others. Here's the amazing thing when you do these works: God is the one doing it through you. I love the story that Pastor Klemet Preus tells in his book, The Fire and the Staff, about changing his infant son's diaper at 3:00 AM in the morning. To paraphrase him, it's a dirty job, no one knows that you have done it, you won't get any thank-yous for doing it, and it's about as humble a service as one can do. But that is your Christian vocation if you are a parent. God uses you to bless somebody else even if you don't want to do it because that's the way God has ordered things according to his will.

What this means is simple. If you are a father or a mother, be a good parent to your children. Make sure you teach them about Jesus, that you show them by your own actions what confessing the faith really means. If you are a husband or wife, then take care of your spouse as God tells you to do. If you are an employer or an employee, then remember that everything you do should be done to the glory of God and the welfare of your neighbor, treating each other with the dignity and respect that God expects.

Luther often spoke about Christian vocation. Here is one such example:

To take a crude example again: If you are a manual laborer, you find that the Bible has been put into your workshop, into your hand, into your heart. It teaches and preaches how you should treat your neighbor. Just look at your tools-at your needle or thimble, your beer barrel, your goods, your scales or yardstick or measure-and you will read this statement inscribed on them. Everywhere you look, it stares at you. Nothing that you handle every day is so tiny that it does not continually tell you this, if you will only listen. Indeed, there is no shortage of preaching. You have as many preachers as you have transactions, goods, tools, and other equipment in your house and home. All this is continually crying out to you: "Friend, use me in your relations with your neighbor just as you would want your neighbor to use his property in his relations with you." In this way, you see, this teaching would be inscribed everywhere we look, and engraved upon our entire life, if we only had ears willing to hear it and eyes willing to see it.¹

When Jesus says,

"If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. . . ."

He was describing himself. This is exactly what Jesus did for us. He made himself servant of all. When this subject arose again, when James and John had their mother request special places in Christ's kingdom, Jesus responded by pointing to himself:

"For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Can you fathom that the eternal Son of God became man of the Virgin Mary in order to serve his sinful creatures? Here is the wonder of the Holy Gospel! Here the standards of the world are turned on their heads. The one who is first must become last and servant of all.

This Christ who was last has become first, but he still serves you. He serves you through the Word and the Sacrament as he gives you his body and blood. He serves you through the Christian vocation of others. Klemet Preus writes: "God wants us to look at everything we do as though he were doing it" [Fire and Staff, p. 207]. Christ is active in the loving acts of those who have been baptized in his name, those who have the sign of the holy cross on their foreheads and upon their hearts. Christ is present not merely in Word and Sacrament, but also in the loving actions of his people.

Jesus teaches us here that God values the lowly, the everyday tasks that you do in his name for others. It may be changing the baby's diaper or giving a cup of water to the thirsty or simply thanking someone for being kind to you. The more unnoticed these things are, the closer you get to the truth of what Jesus says here. It is true that your loving acts are unnoticed by you. That's the way it should be.

What about your failures to confess True Christianity by your actions? Confess your sins. So often I have heard some say that Private Confession is only for those who have "big sins." Really, I don't know that there are any sins which are smaller than any others. A sin is a sin. Don't you say in the Preparation,
"We have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves." Isn't this a confession that you haven't fulfilled your Christian vocation, that you have not practiced True Christianity?

The whole point of Jesus suffering, death, and resurrection [of which he speaks here!] is to redeem you from your sin, to forgive you, to give you a new start. He suffers, dies, and rises again so that you will have life, his life, a life lived for others. Isn't this exactly what defines Holy Baptism, the daily dying and rising with Christ? Isn't Confession and Absolution the practice of your Baptism?

Living out your Christian vocation by serving God through others is the best way to practice the faith. That's the essence of "True Christianity."

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

¹Martin Luther, vol. 21, Luther's Works, Vol. 21 : The Sermon on the Mount and the Magnificat, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther's Works, 21:237 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999, c1956).