Proper 22
Preaching
Preaching and Reading the Old Testament Lessons
With an Eye to the New
Object:
Our story of Israel has brought us to Mount Sinai, where Israel has heard that she is God's elected people, his kingdom of priests and his holy nation, set apart for God's purpose. Upon hearing of her election, she has promised, "All that the Lord has spoken, we will do" (Exodus 19:8). Now she learns what that promise entails. She is given God's commandments in this famous passage of the Decalogue (cf. the parallel in Deuteronomy 5:6-21), and these ten commandments form the absolutely necessary requirements for the life of the people of God. As a result, Jesus quotes some of the commandments (Mark 10:19 and parallels), and lays all of them upon us Christians also, so that the Decalogue forms a summary of how we are to conduct our lives in responsibility to God.
It is exceedingly important that we include verse 2 of our text. Apart from it, the place of law in the scriptures cannot be understood. In that verse, the Lord reminds Israel of what they have seen and experienced: he has delivered them out of their slavery in the land of Egypt. In short, God's merciful act of grace has taken place first before any commandment is given. Obedience to God's commandments therefore is to form Israel's grateful response to what God has already done.
In the same manner we Christians have been delivered from our slavery to sin and death by the cross and resurrection of Christ. Our obedience to Christ's commandments therefore rises out of our gratitude for what God has already done for us. God's grace is always prevenient. God's merciful act always takes place first. And Christian living is then a grateful and answering reply to God's love. "We love because he first loved us."
But, someone may ask: "Why should we be required to obey any commandments at all? Are we not justified and made acceptable to God by faith alone? We cannot work our way into God's favor. That acceptance is given as a free gift to those who believe. So why are we given commandments to obey?"
The answer is twofold, and again it concerns God's grace. We are indeed justified and assured of our salvation through the work of Jesus Christ. We now have a new status and a new life in relation to our God. But how are we to act in this new life which God has given us? How are we to act toward others, and how are we to act toward the Lord? Thanks be, God does not let us wander around in the dark, making up the answers as we go along. Instead, in his love, he continues to guide us. He points the way. ("To point the finger" is the basic meaning of "torah" in the Bible.) He says, "This is the way; walk in it. This is the way you can have abundant life. This is the way to joy and love and peace that passes understanding. This is how it will go well with you" (cf. Deuteronomy 5:29). God wants it always to go well with us, and so, in his love, he guides us by the paths that will lead to our highest welfare. For example, God knows that no marriage in which adultery occurs can be happy or good. And so he says, "You shall not commit adultery" (v. 14). That is a gift of his love and concern for us. And all of the commandments are given out of that concern.
How can we have abundant life? We can rest one day of the week, instead of working ourselves to a frazzle. How can we get along with our parents? We can honor them and respect them. How can we have goodness in our community? By being honest and not stealing and not testifying falsely in court against our neighbors. How can we preserve peace among all humankind? By not killing and not coveting others territory or power or goods. How can we thank and serve God truly? By worshiping only him and by not making idols of anything or anyone else in all creation; by not trying to make him less than he is in accommodation to our thoughts and ways. God wants it to go well with us.
Another fact enters in. As with Israel, God also wants to use us Christians as his holy people, as his instruments to spread the good news of his love and to bring blessing on all the families of the earth. God has loved us because he loves all people, and he wants us to be his witnesses who tell others of that love. So God gives us instructions that will form us into a people who manifest his love. Then all of those around us can see and know what it means to be God's people. And they can be drawn into that community that lives by the life-giving love of God.
God has poured out his grace on us by redeeming us and by giving us his commandments. We respond in obedient gratitude to his mercy.
Lutheran Option: Isaiah 5:1-7
God's prophet Isaiah, of the eighth century B.C., plays the part of a troubadour in this song of the vineyard. Like troubadours everywhere, he sings a love song, thereby drawing the attention of his listeners in Jerusalem. His song concerns a friend who planted a vineyard with great care, clearing it of stones, planting in it the choicest of grape vines, and setting a watchtower in its midst to ward off ravaging animals and thieves. The friend even hewed out a wine vat in a stone, expecting a yield of the choicest grapes ('anavim). But he was deeply disappointed. The vineyard yielded only rotten, stinking wild grapes (b'ushim).
Was there anything else the friend could have done? Isaiah's listeners are required to answer the question. And surely, they all agree -- "nothing." So the only solution is to pull up the vines and to let the weeds and thorns take over. The vineyard has proven useless. It deserves only to be destroyed. The listeners all concur. But suddenly they are drawn up short by the troubadour, whose song tells them that the friend will not even let rain fall on the vineyard. Rain? What human being can command the clouds and rain? Obviously, none. And so Isaiah can drive home his point from the Word of God.
The vintner is God, and the vineyard is Israel, his "pleasant planting." God showed every care for Israel, bringing them to a land flowing with milk and honey, guiding their life with his commandments and prophets, defending them from their enemies, pouring out his love and forgiveness repeatedly upon them. And God expected that in gratitude, Israel would respond to his love by forming a society of justice (mishpat) and righteousness (tsedekah). Instead, Israel's society is shot through with injustice and bloodshed (mispach), with cries of violence and alarm (ts'akah). All of God's loving care for Israel has been in vain, and God's only recourse is to do away with her rottenness by subjecting her to destruction by the armies of the Assyrian Empire.
That immediately raises burning questions for us, doesn't it? For we too are God's vineyard (Mark 12:1-12 and parallels). "I am the vine, you are the branches," Jesus tells us. And he warns us that every branch of his that bears no fruit is taken away (John 15:5, 2). In other words, God's patience with us can be at an end. God is not mocked, as Paul tells us, "for whatever a man (or woman) sows, that he (or she) will also reap" (Galatians 6:7). We cannot impose on the forgiveness and mercy of God forever. He can destroy us. And we risk our eternal lives when we believe that God only forgives and forgives and overlooks our disobedience and indifference toward him.
To be sure, God has no pleasure in the death of anyone (Ezekiel 18:32). He wants us to live eternally. And he has provided the way to life through his son Jesus Christ. But perhaps this word from the prophet Isaiah tells us, before it is too late, that our repentance and turning are overdue.
It is exceedingly important that we include verse 2 of our text. Apart from it, the place of law in the scriptures cannot be understood. In that verse, the Lord reminds Israel of what they have seen and experienced: he has delivered them out of their slavery in the land of Egypt. In short, God's merciful act of grace has taken place first before any commandment is given. Obedience to God's commandments therefore is to form Israel's grateful response to what God has already done.
In the same manner we Christians have been delivered from our slavery to sin and death by the cross and resurrection of Christ. Our obedience to Christ's commandments therefore rises out of our gratitude for what God has already done for us. God's grace is always prevenient. God's merciful act always takes place first. And Christian living is then a grateful and answering reply to God's love. "We love because he first loved us."
But, someone may ask: "Why should we be required to obey any commandments at all? Are we not justified and made acceptable to God by faith alone? We cannot work our way into God's favor. That acceptance is given as a free gift to those who believe. So why are we given commandments to obey?"
The answer is twofold, and again it concerns God's grace. We are indeed justified and assured of our salvation through the work of Jesus Christ. We now have a new status and a new life in relation to our God. But how are we to act in this new life which God has given us? How are we to act toward others, and how are we to act toward the Lord? Thanks be, God does not let us wander around in the dark, making up the answers as we go along. Instead, in his love, he continues to guide us. He points the way. ("To point the finger" is the basic meaning of "torah" in the Bible.) He says, "This is the way; walk in it. This is the way you can have abundant life. This is the way to joy and love and peace that passes understanding. This is how it will go well with you" (cf. Deuteronomy 5:29). God wants it always to go well with us, and so, in his love, he guides us by the paths that will lead to our highest welfare. For example, God knows that no marriage in which adultery occurs can be happy or good. And so he says, "You shall not commit adultery" (v. 14). That is a gift of his love and concern for us. And all of the commandments are given out of that concern.
How can we have abundant life? We can rest one day of the week, instead of working ourselves to a frazzle. How can we get along with our parents? We can honor them and respect them. How can we have goodness in our community? By being honest and not stealing and not testifying falsely in court against our neighbors. How can we preserve peace among all humankind? By not killing and not coveting others territory or power or goods. How can we thank and serve God truly? By worshiping only him and by not making idols of anything or anyone else in all creation; by not trying to make him less than he is in accommodation to our thoughts and ways. God wants it to go well with us.
Another fact enters in. As with Israel, God also wants to use us Christians as his holy people, as his instruments to spread the good news of his love and to bring blessing on all the families of the earth. God has loved us because he loves all people, and he wants us to be his witnesses who tell others of that love. So God gives us instructions that will form us into a people who manifest his love. Then all of those around us can see and know what it means to be God's people. And they can be drawn into that community that lives by the life-giving love of God.
God has poured out his grace on us by redeeming us and by giving us his commandments. We respond in obedient gratitude to his mercy.
Lutheran Option: Isaiah 5:1-7
God's prophet Isaiah, of the eighth century B.C., plays the part of a troubadour in this song of the vineyard. Like troubadours everywhere, he sings a love song, thereby drawing the attention of his listeners in Jerusalem. His song concerns a friend who planted a vineyard with great care, clearing it of stones, planting in it the choicest of grape vines, and setting a watchtower in its midst to ward off ravaging animals and thieves. The friend even hewed out a wine vat in a stone, expecting a yield of the choicest grapes ('anavim). But he was deeply disappointed. The vineyard yielded only rotten, stinking wild grapes (b'ushim).
Was there anything else the friend could have done? Isaiah's listeners are required to answer the question. And surely, they all agree -- "nothing." So the only solution is to pull up the vines and to let the weeds and thorns take over. The vineyard has proven useless. It deserves only to be destroyed. The listeners all concur. But suddenly they are drawn up short by the troubadour, whose song tells them that the friend will not even let rain fall on the vineyard. Rain? What human being can command the clouds and rain? Obviously, none. And so Isaiah can drive home his point from the Word of God.
The vintner is God, and the vineyard is Israel, his "pleasant planting." God showed every care for Israel, bringing them to a land flowing with milk and honey, guiding their life with his commandments and prophets, defending them from their enemies, pouring out his love and forgiveness repeatedly upon them. And God expected that in gratitude, Israel would respond to his love by forming a society of justice (mishpat) and righteousness (tsedekah). Instead, Israel's society is shot through with injustice and bloodshed (mispach), with cries of violence and alarm (ts'akah). All of God's loving care for Israel has been in vain, and God's only recourse is to do away with her rottenness by subjecting her to destruction by the armies of the Assyrian Empire.
That immediately raises burning questions for us, doesn't it? For we too are God's vineyard (Mark 12:1-12 and parallels). "I am the vine, you are the branches," Jesus tells us. And he warns us that every branch of his that bears no fruit is taken away (John 15:5, 2). In other words, God's patience with us can be at an end. God is not mocked, as Paul tells us, "for whatever a man (or woman) sows, that he (or she) will also reap" (Galatians 6:7). We cannot impose on the forgiveness and mercy of God forever. He can destroy us. And we risk our eternal lives when we believe that God only forgives and forgives and overlooks our disobedience and indifference toward him.
To be sure, God has no pleasure in the death of anyone (Ezekiel 18:32). He wants us to live eternally. And he has provided the way to life through his son Jesus Christ. But perhaps this word from the prophet Isaiah tells us, before it is too late, that our repentance and turning are overdue.
