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This Week's Sermon THE EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY after PENTECOST 04 October 2009 "What Is the Church's Duty?" Mark 10:2-16 LSB Series B Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

The age in which we live is not much different than the world in which the Christian Church got her start. That age, like ours and others, is sex-obsessed. The ancient world was filled with sexual sins. Places with names like Sodom, Gomorrah, and Corinth became bywords for the very worst that the ancient world practiced. Thousands of years separated them, but sexual sins did not, and the years separate us from them chronologically, but not morally.

At the very beginning of the New Testament age, the Church spoke with one voice. There were no disagreements among the Church fathers when it came to sexual sins. These sins were labeled for what they were and the Church stood out in bold contrast to the cultural standards of the Roman Empire. While the world has not changed, unfortunately, the Church has because the Church has gotten to be more and more like the world.

In what we might like to call "the good old days," the Church was concerned mostly with fornication, adultery and divorce. Now we have a scourge that is much worse. We have open homosexual union not only in society, but within the past few years it has invaded the Church like a deadly virus. It threatens to become a pandemic, threatening the very core of the Christian faith. Without question, the decisions of some denominations, even one calling itself Lutheran[!], to permit and even encourage same-sex marriage, bring them to apostasy, that is, an outright denial of the Christian faith. Some think that such denominations have already apostasized. To make matters even worse, if that were possible, the ELCA has endorsed homosexual clergy and homosexual unions of its clergy!

Dear friends, it will get worse, much worse. It will make adultery seem tame. You may even let out a sigh of relief when you hear that it's merely[!] adultery or divorce! You may find yourself saying, "Well, at least they're heterosexual!" This is small comfort because, at least, they have not attempted to overthrow God's created order when it comes to gender. Like an advance scout surveying the enemy's troop movements, let me tell you that merely endorsing and approving same-sex marriages is not the end of things. Six years ago, a news report told of a group that calls itself "sexually inclusive Christians," met in Philadelphia to endorse what they call "polyamorous relationships." They met to push their agenda of what they call "non-traditional sexual behavior." It is an attempt to legitimize the next step, sexual relations between more than two people. One of the leaders of the group claimed, "There can be fidelity in threesomes." There are triads, quads, and groups. The most common symbol is a red and white heart combined with a blue infinity sign. We aren't talking about polygamy here, or more properly speaking, polygyny, that is multiple marriages of one person to many husbands or wives. This group has enlisted support from those who call themselves Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, United Church of Christ, and United Methodists. We may presume that some Lutherans are also in this category. A local congregation-name withheld to protect the guilty-has had on its sign this slogan: "Celebrate the growing inclusive love of Jesus." Presumably, this includes matters of which I have just spoken. Jesus' words in our Gospel are much less inclusive, condemning divorce.

"No fault divorce" came into vogue and the Church found herself hard-pressed to deal with so many marriages in crisis. We clergy dutifully immersed ourselves in the clinical model of pastoral counseling, attended seminars and workshops, all in the hope of saving troubled marriages. And what happened? Did we save our society from itself with regard to sex and marriage? Did we even save the Church? Sadly, we now have more divorce among Christians than ever before. God's teaching seems to be on the ropes.

The world of Jesus' day is not really different because people are not different. The same rebellious sin that infected them infects us, too. We simply have not loved God as we should and we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. Like the Pharisees, we have looked for loopholes in God's law with regard to marriage and sexual matters. Far from rescuing marriages, the Church has often become the agent through whom greater sin has come. Our Lord warns of that, as we heard in the Holy Gospel last week:

"Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!" (Matthew 18:7, ESV)

It seems so simple, doesn't it? One man and one woman in one union for life? I found something interesting in Tertullian [ca. 160-ca. 220 a.D], one of the Church Fathers, about marriage and monogamy. It also speaks to heterosexuality.

But again: the reformation of the second human race is traced from monogamy as its mother. Once more, "two (joined) into one flesh" undertake (the duty of) "growing and multiplying,"-Noah, (namely), and his wife, and their sons, in single marriage.? Even in the very animals monogamy is recognised, for fear that even beasts should be born of adultery. "Out of all beasts," said (God),? "out of all flesh, two shall thou lead into the ark, that they may live with thee, male and female: they shall be (taken) from all flying animals according to (their) kind, and from all creepers of the earth according to their kind; two out of all shall enter unto thee, male and female." In the same formula, too, He orders sets of sevens, made up of pairs, to be gathered to him, consisting of male and female-one male and one female? What more shall I say? Even unclean birds were not allowed to enter with two females each.¹

It is at this point that you might think that I would call for you to help change our culture, but I won't. The world is hopeless. The world cannot right itself, straighten up, and do right because it is corrupt. Human flesh and blood is so corrupt that it cannot do what is right. Our catechumens know this condition as "natural concupiscence," that is, the tendency of the human heart always to choose the evil over the good. We live in a world cursed by the sin of many generations. The sins of the fathers are visited upon their children to the third and fourth generation. So states God himself through Moses at Sinai. This corruption will be with us to the Last Day. We will not reform the world because the world will always make sin more attractive than we can make it unattractive. We will not save the world because the world cannot be saved.

All efforts to reform the world belong in the Kingdom of the Left Hand, as we Lutherans are fond of calling it. Without question you have a duty as a Christian citizen to contact your legislators about legislation which upholds and respects marriage and the family. You sin if you say nothing while it happens because you acquiesce by your silence and lead others into sin by your silence echoing last week's Holy Gospel. You should likewise be active in groups that promote family values and life. In the early Church, adultery and abortion were always linked together. In almost all cases, when murder is mentioned by the Church fathers, abortion is meant. Such sexual sins broke the holy communion of the Church, the bond Christians have with each other through Christ.

What is the Church to do, then? What is our duty here at Immanuel, in this place, in this time? To a world steeped in sexual sin and perversion we must proclaim God's eternal Word. We must not flinch to speak God's unequivocal "No" to these sins against marriage and the family. The Church must speak the clear Word of God when it comes to these matters. Christians must be good examples of love and faithfulness.

Why? To reform the world? Such speaking probably won't reform many people, but it will call Christians to repentance. Notice that Jesus focused on the "hardness of heart" on the part of the Pharisees. Again, we come back to the sinful human heart as the cause of many sins, especially adultery, fornication, and other sexual sins, along with murder. Jesus calls us back to God's standard:

"But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."" (Mark 10:6-9, ESV)

Here is God's good creation: One man and one woman in one union for life. Period. No same sex unions, no divorce, except for unfaithfulness. Any other reason becomes part of the adultery.

And here we are with those sins among us. Divorce rears its ugly head even in Christian families. And we cannot unring that bell. Sins against God's commandment have happened and happen also among us. We must repent.

We are not here in this place to reform a society, which honestly, cannot be reformed except by great repression. We could mimic Islam and stone suspected adulterers, but for what purpose? The Church has a different task, and that is life. She must always see, as her main purpose, the distribution of Christ's forgiveness to those who repent, having been convicted of their sin by the Word of God. She must see that that the Kingdom of God is the main thing, that is, the Kingdom of God's Right Hand, his grace and his mercy.

Do not confuse grace and mercy with permission! To do that is to cheapen Christ's innocent suffering and death on the cross. It is to treat it with contempt, as though he paid too high a price for your redemption. God's desire is not to condemn sinners, although there are some denominations which actually confess that, but to rescue sinners. That involves confession of sin first of all. The sinner must know where he stands with God. He must know that his desires and actions have earned him God's wrath and damnation. He must confess that he has indeed sinned by "thought, word, and deed." He must despair of himself before God. He cannot plead any excuses because he has none [Romans 2.1]. He can plead only the mercy of God in Christ.

The Church must call sinners to repentance so that she can give them the Absolution. Take David, for example, who was guilty of adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband, Uriah. When reprimanded by the prophet Nathan, David confessed, "I have sinned against the Lord" [2 Samuel 12.13]. He said the same thing as God said, that is, he confessed. Then Nathan brought God's Absolution to David's ears, "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die." (2 Samuel 12:13, ESV). God's Absolution justified David, saved him, revived him. Or take the woman who had been guilty of adultery and came to Jesus, washing his feet with her tears. Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven" [Luke 7.48].

The Church does not aim at reforming the world because that will not happen. We aim at proclaiming repentance and forgiveness. Our delight is to place God's Absolution into your ears and into your mouths. We direct sinners who are troubled because of their sins to Christ, to where Christ is present, in Word and Sacrament. And we say to you what Jesus said to the woman in John 8, "Go and sin no more." [John 8.11]

Sinners come to the Lord's Table because here is forgiveness for sin, even your sin of divorce, adultery, fornication, and other sexual sins. Here is life in Christ's body and blood. Here is renewal to amend your sinful life. Here alone is your comfort. And here in the grace and mercy of Christ is the only power for positive change in our lives and in our world.

The Church's role in the world is clear. She does not seek to reform the world through political muscle. That is left to the Kingdom of the Left Hand. Rather, she proclaims clearly and boldly the Word of God which not only condemns sin, but she even more fervently proclaims the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins for Christ's sake.

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

¹Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and A. Cleveland Coxe, The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. IV : Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325, Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen, Parts First and Second., 61 (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, 1997).