Trinity 4 BulletinNo Videos this week.
↓ Our Savior Lutheran Church, Grants Pass, OR
↓ Faith Lutheran Church, Medford OR
TRINITY-4/B Luke 6:36-42 BEING LIKE THE TEACHER
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, & our Lord Jesus Christ.
[FAIR] KARMA?! Jesus said, “With the same measure that you
use, it will be measured back to you.” That sounds pretty fair, doesn’t it? We
often say the same thing in different ways. “You reap what you sow.” “You get
what you deserve.” “What goes around comes around.” What you dish out to
others, that’s what God will dish back to you.
FAIR, BUT HORRIFYING But such a statement, while it may be
eminently fair, is also absolutely terrifying. Think about it: God’s going to do to
you as you’ve done to others. Unless you’re being dishonest with yourself, that
doesn’t sound comforting but threatening. For we know that we’ve sometimes
treated others with disrespect or even hostility by our words and actions. We
know how it is in relationships to prefer taking over giving. We know what it’s
like when we’ve been wronged not to want to show mercy but to get revenge.
What we’ve been measuring out, even if only in our hearts, isn’t always good.
GOOD FOR BAD/WRONG REASONS And the good we have been
dishing out doesn’t always have pure motives attached to it. People often do
good because it makes them feel good about themselves, or because they
have some sort of self-interest in the matter, or because they hope to put
somebody in their debt, or because they hope to get something in return, even
if it’s a non-material reward like status or prestige.
DUST & TWO-BY-FOURS This is the “love” of the hypocrite about
which Jesus speaks. It’s a love that sustains itself as long as the other person
is responding in the right way. But as soon as the other doesn’t reciprocate
appropriately, then it is quick to judge and condemn. “After all I’ve done for you,
this is the thanks I get?” It sees others’ specks of sawdust and misses its own
2x4s. It easily identifies the neighbor’s flaws but is unable to recognize its own
inherent lovelessness. It is a truism of humanity that we tend to project our
shortcomings onto others. We recognize most easily in others the evil that we
ourselves are all too familiar with personally.
LOVE THE SINNER/S In the verses just before today’s Gospel Jesus
tells us the depth of what is required of us, “Love your enemies, do good to
those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who
spitefully use you … If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?
For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do
good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if
you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to
you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your
enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will
be great, and you will be sons of the Most High.”
DOC CUTS TO HEAL Such words [must] crush us. We have no
strength whatsoever to keep or fulfill them. We have no power of ourselves to
be sons of the Most High. But if such words do crush us, then that is good. For
our Father is One who crushes us so that He might put us back together, who
accuses us so that He might forgive us, who strikes us dead so that He might
raise us up–not that our God is pleased when we are brought low. But our God
is like a good surgeon who does not hesitate to cut into us so that He might
heal us. He brings us to nothing in order that He might recreate us in Christ.
HE GOT DOWN ‘N’ DIRTY That is why our Heavenly Father sends His
Son into our flesh. Jesus comes not merely to show us how we should be,
not to give us a standard to live up to, but to bear our sin and redeem us and
be our very Life. So our Lord takes into Himself our human flesh and
blood. He endures our unmercifulness and suffers the judgment we deserve,
so that He might give us His mercy and take us out from under judgment. Our
Lord Jesus comes, not to demand that we get better, but to give us His
“betterment,” to do what we are unable to do, to live and die and rise again
so that He Himself might live and arise daily within us.
HE DIDN’T HAVE TO… There is the mercy of the Heavenly Father
toward us. Although He doesn’t have to be, He is merciful and gracious, slow
to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He has lived and done it all for us in
Christ. And He plants it within us fully and freely through preaching and the
Sacraments. Our Father put His Own Son to death and raised Him again
so that we might be forgiven and restored to Him, so that we might have a new
life in Him, and so that the Son of God Himself might live and breathe and do
His works within us and through us.
TRULY SON/S OF GOD Only in Christ, then, are the words of this
Gospel fulfilled. Only in Christ are we sons of the Most High. Earlier in the
Gospel of Luke, we heard this announcement to the Blessed Virgin, “Behold,
you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His Name
Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High.” Jesus is
the Son of the Most High with a capital “S.” Baptized into His body, living in
Him by faith, we then become sons [and daughters] of the Most High with a
small “s.” Apart from Christ God is not our Father. In Christ, however, we truly
are children of God.
NOW I[WE] GET IT With this understanding, the Words of Jesus
are no longer accusing demands but simply a description of our life in
Him. Love for the enemy is the way of the Baptized because it is the way of
Christ with whom we are one. Blessing those who curse you is the way of
Jesus’ disciples; He said on the Cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know
not what they do.” We do good to those who hate us and pray for those who
spitefully use us, because that is the way of faith. It requires faith to believe
that God will carry out His justice in the end on those who do evil against us. It
requires faith to let go of your desire for vengeance, to forgive, and to entrust
the whole situation to God, holding to His words, “Vengeance is Mine, I will
repay,” says the Lord. It requires faith to believe that your enemy is also a
candidate for God’s mercy just like you, that Christ bore your enemy’s sins
on the Cross, too. Our Lord felt that vengeance for us all.
IT’S HIS OR HER LOSS Therefore, it is written, “If your enemy is
hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap
coals of fire on his head.” Show mercy, do good to your enemy. Perhaps his
heart will be turned by your kindness, and he will no longer be your enemy. But
even if he does not, his punishment will be rejecting the mercy you show, which
is none other than the very mercy of Christ who dwells in you.
HIS MERCY ENDURES 4EVER Is this not exactly how our Heavenly
Father acts toward the world? It is written, “He is kind to the unthankful and
evil.” And again, “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and
sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” God the Father is no respecter of
persons, and He gives His earthly blessings freely to all, regardless of their
worthiness. But in the meantime people’s wickedness will never reach the point
where He lets the well of his goodness and care dry up.
WORLD FOOLISH/GOD GENIUS Now to the world this will seem weak
and foolish. It will often appear to be the defeat of the good and the triumph of
the wicked. But the world cannot see things from God’s eternal perspective, nor
can it grasp the way of the Cross. It is written, “The message of the Cross if
foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the
power of God … God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame
the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the
things which are mighty.”
ULTIMATE ?FOOLISHNESS? On the Cross our Lord appeared to suffer His
worst and most utter defeat. The powers of darkness seemed to have won the
day. And yet in that moment of perfect weakness Christ demonstrated His
greatest power. There in that ultimate demonstration of love, Christ won an
eternal victory, triumphing forever over sin and death and the devil for
us. His is not a quid pro quo sort of love – you scratch my back, I’ll scratch
yours. His is a love that the world can neither understand nor produce, a self-
sacrificial love with a view beyond this temporal world, a greater love marked by
forgiveness and generosity to the undeserving. Living in Christ and in that
reality of His Cross, we repay no one evil for evil but overcome evil with good,
with forgiveness and generosity and a willingness to suffer. For Jesus Himself
said, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained
will be like his teacher.”
SO, WHAT’S FAIR[?!] The Teacher, Jesus, has given Himself to
us wholly, so that we may be like Him, and so that these words of His might be
fulfilled for us: “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down,
shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom.” Such is the
abounding love of God. It’s beyond measure. It’s more than fair. It’s always
spilling over. And it’s here for you today in the grain which is His Body and in
the Cup that runs over with His mercy, His Holy Blood poured out for you for
the forgiveness of sins!
They are God’s truest Israel Who both believe and do live well,
A race by God’s true Word reborn, A Bride whom grace and truth adorn,
On earth a treasure hid from sight, And yet a light in this world’s night.
[Brorson v2] IJ’N, Amen. SDG
The Peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord to Life Everlasting, Amen.