Proper 23 / Pentecost 21 / Ordinary Time 28
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series IX, Cycle B
Theme of the Day
Taking sin seriously.
Collect of the Day
Petitions are offered to increase the gift of faith that believers might forsake the past to reach out to the future, following the commandments and receiving the crown of everlasting joy. Sanctification (worked by grace as a gift) and eschatology are emphasized.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 22:1-14
* See Good Friday.
* Several of the references to the Psalmist's sense of being forsaken by God (vv. 1-2, 11) and being like a worm (v. 14), of the need to receive salvation from God (vv. 5, 8), might be construed not just as a prophecy of the crucifixion or as references to the mortal illness afflicting the Psalmist, but as depictions of the sinful condition.
or Psalm 90:12-17
* Part of a group lament and prayer for deliverance from national adversity. This is the only Psalm traditionally attributed to Moses.
* After reflection on the transience of human life (vv. 3-10), the lesson begins with a prayer that we might gain wisdom from contemplating the shortness of life (v. 12; John Wesley, Commentary on the Bible, p. 293).
* Prayer for compassion that God would satisfy us with His steadfast love so that we might be made glad (vv. 13-14), that His works be manifest, and that His beauty [noam] be upon us in prospering the work of our hands (vv. 16-17).
* John Calvin understands this compassion of God as a cherishing of us. He wrote: "… for God in cherishing us tenderly, takes no less pleasure in us than does a father in his own children" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. V/2, p. 474). Calvin sees tender cherishing manifest in God's providential intervention in the work of our hands: "… but He governs His believing people internally by His Holy Spirit; and therefore He is properly said to direct the work of their hands" (Ibid., p. 476).
* Martin Luther noted that the Psalm as a whole teaches that death is a constantly threatening tyrant, so that we might be aroused to desire a remedy (Luther's Works, Vol. 13, p. 78). He writes: "… he [Moses] wishes… that he and all human beings might consider how miserable and tragic life is, that it vanishes like a shadow…" (Ibid., p. 128).
Sermon Text and Title
"Your Own Righteousness Leads to Loneliness"
Job 23:1-9, 16-17
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To identify and undermine our self-righteousness, indicating the loneliness and emptiness of such a way of life (sin) and to proclaim God's forgiveness (Justification by Grace).
2. Exegesis (see First Lesson of Proper 22)
* A portion of one of Job's replies to his friends, this one to the Third Discourse of Eliphaz (ch. 22).
* Job wants to lay the case for his own righteousness before God, confident that he would be vindicated (vv. 1-7).
* Yet he cannot find God, for He is hidden (vv. 8-9).
* As a result, Job laments that God has made his heart faint, and he wishes he could vanish in darkness as a result (vv. 16-17).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text teaches the emptiness and loneliness of relying on our own goodness, for we are sinners. The lesson must be read in light of the book of Job's outcome, a testimony to God's love for Job (Justification by Grace).
* Augustine describes how the focus on oneself (one's righteousness) leads to emptiness:
… but being became more contracted than when it was when he clave to Him who supremely is. Accordingly, to exist in himself, that is, to be his own satisfaction after abandoning God, is not quite to become a nonentity, but to approximate to that.
(Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 2, p. 273)
* For more on sin, see Second Lesson, Pentecost 17.
* Jonathan Edwards explains God's way of dealing with Job. It is necessary, Edwards argued, for God to make human beings aware of their unworthiness:
This is God's ordinary way before great and signal expressions of His mercy and favour. He very commonly so orders it in His providence, and so influences men by His Spirit, that they are brought to see their miserable condition as they are in themselves, and to despair of help from themselves, or from an arm of flesh, before He appears for them, and also makes them sensible of their sin, and their unworthiness of God's help.
(The Works of Jonathan Edwards, p. 830)
* Martin Luther made a similar point prior to the Reformation: "Man hides what is his in order to conceal it, but God conceals what is His in order to reveal it. That is to say, He hides it from the wise and the great in order that they may be humbled and become fools" (Luther's Works, Vol. 51, p. 26).
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* Americans are not very inclined to think that what is said about sin pertains to them, as polls indicate that most Americans believe they are good. See the data cited in this section for the Gospel and the Second Lesson, Pentecost 2.
* A 2000 poll conducted by The New York Times yielded similar results, finding 73% of Americans believe that people are good and 85% think that we can be pretty much anything we want to be. Little has likely changed with these numbers in the last decade.
5. Gimmick
The familiar version of the story of Job leaves out this lesson. We tend to think of poor Job as a victim. No, we see here what a sinner he was -- kind of like us.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* How is Job like us? We may not possess his wealth, the patience often attributed to him, or even his faith (1:1-3). But our lesson reveals that he was a sinner like us.
* Job was responding to Eliphaz, one of his friends who had allegedly come to comfort him in the midst of his sufferings. Eliphaz had proclaimed that even the righteous cannot be of use to God (22:2-3). And besides, Job had sinned (22:5ff). He preached the need for repentance to his friend (22:23). How does Job respond? Be contending for his righteousness (vv. 1-7)!
* This is sort of what we do when things go badly. We do not want to concede the possibility that we are guilty. Our misfortune, we say, is undeserved. Ask the congregation to consider the last time they were suffering hardships, and whether they did not feel this way, feel that they were good and did not deserve what was happening. Oh, how we lie and deceive ourselves.
* Such deception, inclination to dodge the reality of our sinfulness, is the American way. Cite the data referred to in Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights.
* Good as he is (or as he says), Job cannot find God. God, he says, is hidden. Read verses 8-9.
* There is a reason for not finding God, for God's apparent absence. When people are full of themselves, they will not find God.
* We are full of ourselves. That is the nature of Original Sin. See the self-seeking character of all we do described in the quote by Martin Luther in the fourth bullet point of Theological Insights for the First Lesson, Pentecost 9. Also see the second bullet point in Theological Insights for the Second Lesson, Pentecost 17.
* The great American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr powerfully explained this self-seeking sinfulness in all we do:
… we regard ourselves as fairly virtuous, but we are not ultimately or absolutely virtuous… This is the situation in human nature. Whether in the family or in the nation, there is always a mixture of good and evil, of self-regard and self-giving, of self-obsession and self-forgetfulness.
(Justice & Mercy, pp. 39, 42)
* Yes, Job had been sinning, even in his virtues. But his sin was compounded by his insistence that he was not a sinner. Ask the congregation if this does not sound like good churchgoers like us. We do not like to think of ourselves as sinners, but tell ourselves again and again how we are so much better than the terrorists, the people in jail, and maybe even the people in the streets.
* These dynamics help us understand why Job and we feel so alone when we face tough times with a lot of excuses, hiding under the spin of how righteous we are. The problem is that in those instances we get too filled with ourselves. And when that happens, we're so filled with ourselves, we've left no room for God.
* Martin Luther once defined God as "that to which we look for good and in which we find refuge in every time of need" (The Book of Concord, p. 365). What you trust is your god. And if you are full of yourself and your righteousness, you've made that your god, and pushed the true God aside. Ask the congregation if this is not what Job had done. As Luther put it:
This is the greatest idolatry that has been practiced up to now, and it is still prevalent in the world… It concerns only that conscience which seeks help, comfort, and salvation in its own works and presumes to wrest heaven from God.
(Ibid., p. 367)
* It turns out that such preoccupation with emptiness leaves us all alone, empty. It's like we became nothing. Use the quotation by Augustine in Theological Insights.
* This emptiness, this nothingness, also helps explain God's absence. But in fact this apparent withdrawal by God is to the benefit of us sinners. Use the quotes by Edwards and Luther in Theological Insights. God's absence, our loneliness, exposes the emptiness of our righteousness, of our lives. These experiences are more likely to get us to take our sin more seriously, to get us to see our sin and need for God and His magnificent love.
* The seventeenth-century French intellectual Blaise Pascal well explained the paradox that Job teaches here: "Man's greatness comes from knowing he is wretched… Thus it is wretched to know that one is wretched, but there is greatness in knowing one is wretched" (Pensees, p. 59). It is good to take our sin seriously, to stop dodging it.
* In fact, the book of Job ends with Job coming to this awareness, to repentance, and of course we know that God forgave him and restored all that he had lost (42:10-17). Likewise, God is there to forgive us when our self-righteousness has led us to our emptiness.
7. Wrap-Up
The great ancient African theologian Augustine offered a prayer [my own paraphrase] that could be Job's prayer, should be our prayer, the next time we tell ourselves how good we are, how we deserve only good things and prosperity: "The houses of our souls are all too small to receive Thee [Lord]. Let them be enlarged by Thee… O Lord, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee" (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 1, pp. 47, 45). The next time self-righteousness isolates you and shrinks you down, have confidence that the Lord will overcome that loneliness, filling you and me up.
Sermon Text and Title
"The Living Word Condemns and Saves"
Hebrews 4:12-16
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To proclaim Christ's work of atonement (Governmental Theory), which not only alerts us to sin, but also consoles us.
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* An exhortation based on Jesus' high priesthood.
* The word of God is said to be living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. It is said to pierce so as to divide soul from spirit, joints from marrow, and be able to judge the heart's thoughts and intentions (v. 12). Thus before God no creature is hidden, but all are laid bare before the One to whom an account must be rendered (v. 13).
* Because the faithful have a great high priest in heaven, Jesus the Son of God, they were urged to hold fast to this confession (v. 14). He is not a high priest unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but has in every respect been tested like the faithful, though without sin (v. 15).
* As a result we may approach the throne of grace with boldness, finding grace to help in the time of need (v. 16).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* Clarifying the living character of the word of God (that it does what it says), its role in revealing our sin, and Christ's high priestly atoning work (interpreted in relation to the Governmental Theory) as a result gives us boldness in encountering God and facing life.
* Martin Luther claimed that since the word of God is above all things, outside all things, within all things, and behind all things, it is impossible to escape it. Thus it is impossible for its punishment or the cutting ever to cease (Luther's Works, Vol. 29, p. 165).
* John Calvin sheds interesting light on the distinction between soul and spirit in verse 12: "The word soul means often the same with spirit; but when they occur together, the first includes all the affections, and the second means what they call the intellectual faculty" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XXII/1, pp. 103-104).
* John Wesley nicely explained the sense in which Jesus is high priest:
As the Jewish high priest passed through the veil into the holy of holies, carrying with him the blood of the sacrifices, on the yearly day of atonement; so our great high priest went once for all through the visible heavens with the virtue of His own blood into the immediate presence of God.
(Commentary on the Bible, p. 565)
* Wesley's interpretation seems more in line with the Satisfaction Theory of the Atonement. Athanasius, a North African bishop of the early church, describes Christ's sacrifice more in line with the Governmental Theory of the Atonement and its idea that this sacrifice was not paid to God but to elements of the created order (like the law) structured in such a way as to require punishment when disrupted by sin:
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for, then all died, and died for all… that through death He might bring to naught him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For by the sacrifice of His own body, He both put an end to the law which was against us, and made a new beginning of life for us….
(Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 4, p. 41)
* About Christ's priesthood, Martin Luther notes its comforting character: "Therefore the apostle introduces Christ here more as a priest than as a Lord and judge, in order that He may console those who are frightened" (Luther's Works, Vol. 29, p. 167).
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* See First Lesson.
5. Gimmick
Jesus is our high priest (v. 14). How so? So what?
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* In a way the question of what's the big deal about Jesus being our high priest, dying for us as the one true sacrifice, seems frivolous. Of course He had to die in order that our sin might be forgiven. It seems obvious, but not so obvious in many Christian settings.
* At least since the eighteenth century academic theology in the universities and seminaries has dodged talking about the atoning death or sacrifice of Christ. Jesus has been portrayed much more as an example for us to emulate (Moral Influence Theory of the Atonement). In some feminist/womanist circles a sacrificial death or conquest of the devil by Jesus is seen as a primitive, male-macho image. This critique has led many preachers to go easy on Christ's atoning death. Ask the congregation if they have heard much in the way of preaching on this topic.
* One reason these trends have been accepted in the pews is that deep down we are not sure we need Christ's atoning work. Poll data indicates that most Americans have an un-Christian optimism about human nature. (See Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights for the First Lesson.) It also seems that many Americans believe you can be saved without Jesus. (See Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights for the Second Lesson, Pentecost 23.)
* Another reason why the atoning death of Christ is not getting as much attention, because maybe He is not even in the lives of the congregation. Ask members if they really understand the dynamics of Christ's death, of why his death was necessary in order to have our sins forgiven. There is a lot of disclarity and debate about this in the church throughout its history.
* Our lesson makes clear why we need to keep the word of Christ's atoning death before us, at the center of our spirituality. Read verse 12. This word judges us. It condemns our sin. Consider Martin Luther's comments in the second bullet point of Theological Insights. If Jesus had to die, we can't dodge our sinfulness. That's why we need this word about the atonement. It helps us take our sin more seriously.
* But how did Jesus overcome or dispose of our sin? Most American Christians who believe He died for us on the cross tend to think of the atonement as Christ's dying to take God's punishment for us (Satisfaction Theory). That seems to be what it means that Christ is high priest, performing a sacrifice (His own death) to God.
* The problem with that view is that is doesn't seem to take into account Jesus' struggles with the devil and the forces of evil. (Take a look at Colossians 2:13-15 sometime [Classic View of Atonement].) Such thinking also relegates God to a kind of status of a crotchety old man demanding to be placated for wrongs done to Him. This does not seem to be the loving God in whom we believe, to whom our lesson testifies (vv. 15-16).
* Although many have interpreted our Second Lesson as this sort of sacrifice offered to the Father by Jesus, reading it in context (the verses preceding our lesson) affords us some fresh insights about Christ's atoning work. Earlier in chapter 4 of Hebrews a discussion of the Sabbath rest is provided just prior to the reference to Christ as high priest (vv. 1-11). It seems according to the author of the book that we have violated this command, but it remains in place. This raises the possibility (more clearly articulated in 9:15-18) that this commandment when violated demands punishment, and so Jesus' high priestly work was to placate this structure, not God Himself. Jesus' death, then, is a sacrifice paid to the old covenant, to the structures of the cosmos and not to God. (This is the Governmental Theory of the Atonement.)
* This fresh way of talking about the atonement (it's really quite ancient) makes it clear that God is not the One needing to be placated. Because it is not He to whom the sacrifice is paid; He is portrayed with this way of thinking as really on our side, more loving. Consider using the next-to-last bullet point of Theological Insights.
* To have a God on our side, who sent Jesus to perform the sacrifice needed to get us out from under the curse of the commandments of the old covenant, gives us confidence in the loving nature of this God.
* With this confidence we can joyfully affirm the words of verse 16. Read it. Follow up with the last bullet point of Theological Insights.
7. Wrap-Up
The living word of Christ's atoning work needs our attention in the church. Urge the congregation to contemplate His death this week, in thoughts and in prayers. We need it both in order to take our sin more seriously and also to be reassured of the loving character of God, a love for us so profound that He does not require our punishment, but will take punishment to restore his creation, to give us a promised Sabbath rest. Rest easy this week in Christ's death and in God's loving arms. But don't forget that none of us deserves it!
Sermon Text and Title
"The Things That Get in Our Way"
Mark 10:17-31
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To make the congregation aware of our sinful propensity to put "things" (material possessions and human relationships) before God, but also with an awareness that God nevertheless forgives us (Justification by Grace).
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* Jesus' encounter with the rich man.
* Following His blessing of children (vv. 13-16), a man we later learn was rich (v. 22) asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life (v. 17). He had addressed Jesus as "good Teacher," at title suggesting the acknowledgment of Jesus' divinity since only God is good (vv. 17-18).
* Jesus responds by reciting the commandments regarding our responsibilities to and for each other (v. 19). The rich man claims to have kept these commandments (v. 20).
* Jesus reportedly loved the man and adds that he only lacks selling all he owns in order to give to the poor, and urges the man to follow Him (v. 21). The man was shocked and left grieving, unwilling to give away his wealth (v. 22).
* Jesus teaches His disciples that it will be difficult for the rich to enter God's kingdom. They were perplexed, as it had been supposed at that time that wealth made the performance of religious duties possible (vv. 23-24).
* Jesus proceeds to note that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom (v. 25). The disciples wonder who then can be saved (v. 26). Jesus responds that with mortals it is impossible but not for God for whom all things are possible (v. 27).
* Peter next contends that he and the other disciples had left everything and followed Jesus (v. 28). Jesus responds that there is no one who has left family or fields for His sake who will not receive these things a hundredfold in the age to come (vv. 29-30). The last will be first, and the first will be last (v. 31). (Also see Matthew 19:30; 20:16.)
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text affords reflection on the doctrine of sin (our propensity to let "things" [material possessions and human relations]) to get in the way of our relation to God, coupled with the assurance that salvation is God's work (Justification by Grace).
* Concerning Jesus' harsh word of judgment and condemnation, John Calvin notes that this is a word of law in condemning that sin moves us to rely on grace:
Hence it is evident, that those teachers are guilty of gross impropriety, who are so much afraid to speak harshly, that they give indulgence to the slothfulness of the flesh. They ought to follow, on the contrary, the rule of Christ, who so regulates His style that, after men have been bowed down within themselves, He teaches them to rely on the grace of God alone….
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVI/2, p. 403)
* John Wesley claimed that all riches are a hindrance to the love of God and that without such love "all religion is a dead carcass" (Commentary on the Bible, p. 433).
* Clement of Alexandria of the early church nicely explains the condemnation of wealth Jesus offers:
… it was not impossible, even surrounded with it, for one to lay hold of salvation, provided he withdrew himself from material wealth -- to that which is grasped by the mind and taught by God and leaned to use things indifferent rightly and properly….
(Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, pp. 596-597)
* See this section for the First Lesson, Pentecost 15, for critical evaluations of wealth.
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* Google the latest poverty statistics in America and consider the data in this section for the First Lessons, Advent 3 and Easter 2.
* Even with the recession, the Institute for Policy Studies reported in 2009 that the average pay for CEOs was 319 times that of the average worker.
5. Gimmick
Quote verse 25. Doesn't apply to us, you say? No, you are a lot richer than you think.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* An American middle-class existence is luxurious compared to the standards of living in much of the rest of the world. If addressing a middle- or upper-class congregation, note that most members are significantly more comfortable than the poor in America. Consider the first bullet point in Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights.
* Ask the congregation to consider whether the many goods they own and the activities they can afford (name some of the favorite acquisitions and activities of the members) really enhance their spiritual experience. Could these goods get in the way of our relationship with God? Jesus seems to say so in our Gospel Lesson, as He claims (unlike in the parallel Synoptic gospel versions) that it will be hard to enter the kingdom of God (v. 24). When He speaks of the challenges the rich have entering the kingdom of God, He is talking about us.
* Elaborate on the critique of wealth and its challenges to faith by citing the quotations of John Wesley and Clement of Alexandria in Theological Insights. Also consider the quotations on wealth in Theological Insights for the First Lesson, Pentecost 15.
* It is harder for the rich to enter the kingdom because wealth brings so many distractions, so many opportunities to get distracted from the things of God. There are less distractions if you're poor. Most of us, though, own too many things that get in the way of God.
* Ask parishioners how much time they spend on the computer compared to Bible study or prayer. Ask the same questions regarding watching TV, paperwork for the job, shopping, and so on. Our priorities get messed up.
* The media is full of examples of our having the wrong priorities. Is sex all that matters, as is the case for Charlie of Two and a Half Men? Is winning the million dollars all that counts, is it more important than friendship or integrity, as Survivor teaches us?
* Intuitively we know that the answer to these questions is a resounding "no." Sex, wealth, material possessions, when that's all there is to life, bring misery. The Jewish Talmud (the authoritative collection of Jewish laws) offers much wisdom on this matter: "Sin is sweet in the beginning, but bitter in the end." The outcome of lives dedicated to sex, wealth, and gaining other things of the world is ultimately bitter, even if such goodies seem sweet. It's bitter because, as we've seen, such preoccupations close the door on God.
* Martin Luther explained the perils of a concentration on wealth, how this focus on the things of the world distorts our faith.
Many a person thinks he has God and everything he needs when he has money and property; in them he trusts and of them he boasts so stubbornly and securely that he cares for no one. Surely such a man also has a god -- mammon by name, that is, money and possessions… [But] Very few there are who are cheerful, who do not fret and complain, if they do not have mammon. The desire for wealth clings and cleaves to our nature all the way to the grave.
(The Book of Concord, pp. 365-366)
Even those of us who are or feel poor will have a tough time getting into the kingdom of God, Jesus says, because though we might not have wealth, we want it so badly we can taste it -- taste it more than our hunger for the things of God and His kingdom.
* How do we get there, get our things that have sinfully preoccupied us out of the way? It is true that Jesus promises salvation to those who renounce the things of the world in such a way that it almost seems like you have to do something to be saved (vv. 29-30). But His follow-up claim that the last will be first (v. 31) implies that we need not bring anything to Him in order to be saved. This is the way John Calvin interpreted the text. Use his quotation in Theological Insights.
* When we see how we let all sorts of things get in our way of loving God, we come to rely on grace. Martin Luther profoundly describes the nature of this wonderful God of ours who is always ready to provide this amazing grace:
"… He is an eternal fountain which overflows with sheer goodness and pours forth all that is good in name and in fact"
(The Book of Concord, p. 368).
7. Wrap-Up
When we encounter the eternal fountain who is always pouring out His forgiving love on us, things begin to change. Like Clement of Alexandria (the great theologian of the early church) said, we begin to use indifferent things like material wealth rightly and properly, withdrawing our emotional investments in them (see quote in Theological Insights). We need God's forgiving grace to take our sin seriously, to get things out of the way, and to get our priorities right. Yes, it will be tough for us rich folks to get to the kingdom, but God works miracles all the time. The more you focus on Him, the less wealth will matter, the more we'll get our priorities straight.
Taking sin seriously.
Collect of the Day
Petitions are offered to increase the gift of faith that believers might forsake the past to reach out to the future, following the commandments and receiving the crown of everlasting joy. Sanctification (worked by grace as a gift) and eschatology are emphasized.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 22:1-14
* See Good Friday.
* Several of the references to the Psalmist's sense of being forsaken by God (vv. 1-2, 11) and being like a worm (v. 14), of the need to receive salvation from God (vv. 5, 8), might be construed not just as a prophecy of the crucifixion or as references to the mortal illness afflicting the Psalmist, but as depictions of the sinful condition.
or Psalm 90:12-17
* Part of a group lament and prayer for deliverance from national adversity. This is the only Psalm traditionally attributed to Moses.
* After reflection on the transience of human life (vv. 3-10), the lesson begins with a prayer that we might gain wisdom from contemplating the shortness of life (v. 12; John Wesley, Commentary on the Bible, p. 293).
* Prayer for compassion that God would satisfy us with His steadfast love so that we might be made glad (vv. 13-14), that His works be manifest, and that His beauty [noam] be upon us in prospering the work of our hands (vv. 16-17).
* John Calvin understands this compassion of God as a cherishing of us. He wrote: "… for God in cherishing us tenderly, takes no less pleasure in us than does a father in his own children" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. V/2, p. 474). Calvin sees tender cherishing manifest in God's providential intervention in the work of our hands: "… but He governs His believing people internally by His Holy Spirit; and therefore He is properly said to direct the work of their hands" (Ibid., p. 476).
* Martin Luther noted that the Psalm as a whole teaches that death is a constantly threatening tyrant, so that we might be aroused to desire a remedy (Luther's Works, Vol. 13, p. 78). He writes: "… he [Moses] wishes… that he and all human beings might consider how miserable and tragic life is, that it vanishes like a shadow…" (Ibid., p. 128).
Sermon Text and Title
"Your Own Righteousness Leads to Loneliness"
Job 23:1-9, 16-17
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To identify and undermine our self-righteousness, indicating the loneliness and emptiness of such a way of life (sin) and to proclaim God's forgiveness (Justification by Grace).
2. Exegesis (see First Lesson of Proper 22)
* A portion of one of Job's replies to his friends, this one to the Third Discourse of Eliphaz (ch. 22).
* Job wants to lay the case for his own righteousness before God, confident that he would be vindicated (vv. 1-7).
* Yet he cannot find God, for He is hidden (vv. 8-9).
* As a result, Job laments that God has made his heart faint, and he wishes he could vanish in darkness as a result (vv. 16-17).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text teaches the emptiness and loneliness of relying on our own goodness, for we are sinners. The lesson must be read in light of the book of Job's outcome, a testimony to God's love for Job (Justification by Grace).
* Augustine describes how the focus on oneself (one's righteousness) leads to emptiness:
… but being became more contracted than when it was when he clave to Him who supremely is. Accordingly, to exist in himself, that is, to be his own satisfaction after abandoning God, is not quite to become a nonentity, but to approximate to that.
(Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 2, p. 273)
* For more on sin, see Second Lesson, Pentecost 17.
* Jonathan Edwards explains God's way of dealing with Job. It is necessary, Edwards argued, for God to make human beings aware of their unworthiness:
This is God's ordinary way before great and signal expressions of His mercy and favour. He very commonly so orders it in His providence, and so influences men by His Spirit, that they are brought to see their miserable condition as they are in themselves, and to despair of help from themselves, or from an arm of flesh, before He appears for them, and also makes them sensible of their sin, and their unworthiness of God's help.
(The Works of Jonathan Edwards, p. 830)
* Martin Luther made a similar point prior to the Reformation: "Man hides what is his in order to conceal it, but God conceals what is His in order to reveal it. That is to say, He hides it from the wise and the great in order that they may be humbled and become fools" (Luther's Works, Vol. 51, p. 26).
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* Americans are not very inclined to think that what is said about sin pertains to them, as polls indicate that most Americans believe they are good. See the data cited in this section for the Gospel and the Second Lesson, Pentecost 2.
* A 2000 poll conducted by The New York Times yielded similar results, finding 73% of Americans believe that people are good and 85% think that we can be pretty much anything we want to be. Little has likely changed with these numbers in the last decade.
5. Gimmick
The familiar version of the story of Job leaves out this lesson. We tend to think of poor Job as a victim. No, we see here what a sinner he was -- kind of like us.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* How is Job like us? We may not possess his wealth, the patience often attributed to him, or even his faith (1:1-3). But our lesson reveals that he was a sinner like us.
* Job was responding to Eliphaz, one of his friends who had allegedly come to comfort him in the midst of his sufferings. Eliphaz had proclaimed that even the righteous cannot be of use to God (22:2-3). And besides, Job had sinned (22:5ff). He preached the need for repentance to his friend (22:23). How does Job respond? Be contending for his righteousness (vv. 1-7)!
* This is sort of what we do when things go badly. We do not want to concede the possibility that we are guilty. Our misfortune, we say, is undeserved. Ask the congregation to consider the last time they were suffering hardships, and whether they did not feel this way, feel that they were good and did not deserve what was happening. Oh, how we lie and deceive ourselves.
* Such deception, inclination to dodge the reality of our sinfulness, is the American way. Cite the data referred to in Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights.
* Good as he is (or as he says), Job cannot find God. God, he says, is hidden. Read verses 8-9.
* There is a reason for not finding God, for God's apparent absence. When people are full of themselves, they will not find God.
* We are full of ourselves. That is the nature of Original Sin. See the self-seeking character of all we do described in the quote by Martin Luther in the fourth bullet point of Theological Insights for the First Lesson, Pentecost 9. Also see the second bullet point in Theological Insights for the Second Lesson, Pentecost 17.
* The great American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr powerfully explained this self-seeking sinfulness in all we do:
… we regard ourselves as fairly virtuous, but we are not ultimately or absolutely virtuous… This is the situation in human nature. Whether in the family or in the nation, there is always a mixture of good and evil, of self-regard and self-giving, of self-obsession and self-forgetfulness.
(Justice & Mercy, pp. 39, 42)
* Yes, Job had been sinning, even in his virtues. But his sin was compounded by his insistence that he was not a sinner. Ask the congregation if this does not sound like good churchgoers like us. We do not like to think of ourselves as sinners, but tell ourselves again and again how we are so much better than the terrorists, the people in jail, and maybe even the people in the streets.
* These dynamics help us understand why Job and we feel so alone when we face tough times with a lot of excuses, hiding under the spin of how righteous we are. The problem is that in those instances we get too filled with ourselves. And when that happens, we're so filled with ourselves, we've left no room for God.
* Martin Luther once defined God as "that to which we look for good and in which we find refuge in every time of need" (The Book of Concord, p. 365). What you trust is your god. And if you are full of yourself and your righteousness, you've made that your god, and pushed the true God aside. Ask the congregation if this is not what Job had done. As Luther put it:
This is the greatest idolatry that has been practiced up to now, and it is still prevalent in the world… It concerns only that conscience which seeks help, comfort, and salvation in its own works and presumes to wrest heaven from God.
(Ibid., p. 367)
* It turns out that such preoccupation with emptiness leaves us all alone, empty. It's like we became nothing. Use the quotation by Augustine in Theological Insights.
* This emptiness, this nothingness, also helps explain God's absence. But in fact this apparent withdrawal by God is to the benefit of us sinners. Use the quotes by Edwards and Luther in Theological Insights. God's absence, our loneliness, exposes the emptiness of our righteousness, of our lives. These experiences are more likely to get us to take our sin more seriously, to get us to see our sin and need for God and His magnificent love.
* The seventeenth-century French intellectual Blaise Pascal well explained the paradox that Job teaches here: "Man's greatness comes from knowing he is wretched… Thus it is wretched to know that one is wretched, but there is greatness in knowing one is wretched" (Pensees, p. 59). It is good to take our sin seriously, to stop dodging it.
* In fact, the book of Job ends with Job coming to this awareness, to repentance, and of course we know that God forgave him and restored all that he had lost (42:10-17). Likewise, God is there to forgive us when our self-righteousness has led us to our emptiness.
7. Wrap-Up
The great ancient African theologian Augustine offered a prayer [my own paraphrase] that could be Job's prayer, should be our prayer, the next time we tell ourselves how good we are, how we deserve only good things and prosperity: "The houses of our souls are all too small to receive Thee [Lord]. Let them be enlarged by Thee… O Lord, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee" (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 1, pp. 47, 45). The next time self-righteousness isolates you and shrinks you down, have confidence that the Lord will overcome that loneliness, filling you and me up.
Sermon Text and Title
"The Living Word Condemns and Saves"
Hebrews 4:12-16
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To proclaim Christ's work of atonement (Governmental Theory), which not only alerts us to sin, but also consoles us.
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* An exhortation based on Jesus' high priesthood.
* The word of God is said to be living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. It is said to pierce so as to divide soul from spirit, joints from marrow, and be able to judge the heart's thoughts and intentions (v. 12). Thus before God no creature is hidden, but all are laid bare before the One to whom an account must be rendered (v. 13).
* Because the faithful have a great high priest in heaven, Jesus the Son of God, they were urged to hold fast to this confession (v. 14). He is not a high priest unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but has in every respect been tested like the faithful, though without sin (v. 15).
* As a result we may approach the throne of grace with boldness, finding grace to help in the time of need (v. 16).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* Clarifying the living character of the word of God (that it does what it says), its role in revealing our sin, and Christ's high priestly atoning work (interpreted in relation to the Governmental Theory) as a result gives us boldness in encountering God and facing life.
* Martin Luther claimed that since the word of God is above all things, outside all things, within all things, and behind all things, it is impossible to escape it. Thus it is impossible for its punishment or the cutting ever to cease (Luther's Works, Vol. 29, p. 165).
* John Calvin sheds interesting light on the distinction between soul and spirit in verse 12: "The word soul means often the same with spirit; but when they occur together, the first includes all the affections, and the second means what they call the intellectual faculty" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XXII/1, pp. 103-104).
* John Wesley nicely explained the sense in which Jesus is high priest:
As the Jewish high priest passed through the veil into the holy of holies, carrying with him the blood of the sacrifices, on the yearly day of atonement; so our great high priest went once for all through the visible heavens with the virtue of His own blood into the immediate presence of God.
(Commentary on the Bible, p. 565)
* Wesley's interpretation seems more in line with the Satisfaction Theory of the Atonement. Athanasius, a North African bishop of the early church, describes Christ's sacrifice more in line with the Governmental Theory of the Atonement and its idea that this sacrifice was not paid to God but to elements of the created order (like the law) structured in such a way as to require punishment when disrupted by sin:
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for, then all died, and died for all… that through death He might bring to naught him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For by the sacrifice of His own body, He both put an end to the law which was against us, and made a new beginning of life for us….
(Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 4, p. 41)
* About Christ's priesthood, Martin Luther notes its comforting character: "Therefore the apostle introduces Christ here more as a priest than as a Lord and judge, in order that He may console those who are frightened" (Luther's Works, Vol. 29, p. 167).
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* See First Lesson.
5. Gimmick
Jesus is our high priest (v. 14). How so? So what?
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* In a way the question of what's the big deal about Jesus being our high priest, dying for us as the one true sacrifice, seems frivolous. Of course He had to die in order that our sin might be forgiven. It seems obvious, but not so obvious in many Christian settings.
* At least since the eighteenth century academic theology in the universities and seminaries has dodged talking about the atoning death or sacrifice of Christ. Jesus has been portrayed much more as an example for us to emulate (Moral Influence Theory of the Atonement). In some feminist/womanist circles a sacrificial death or conquest of the devil by Jesus is seen as a primitive, male-macho image. This critique has led many preachers to go easy on Christ's atoning death. Ask the congregation if they have heard much in the way of preaching on this topic.
* One reason these trends have been accepted in the pews is that deep down we are not sure we need Christ's atoning work. Poll data indicates that most Americans have an un-Christian optimism about human nature. (See Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights for the First Lesson.) It also seems that many Americans believe you can be saved without Jesus. (See Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights for the Second Lesson, Pentecost 23.)
* Another reason why the atoning death of Christ is not getting as much attention, because maybe He is not even in the lives of the congregation. Ask members if they really understand the dynamics of Christ's death, of why his death was necessary in order to have our sins forgiven. There is a lot of disclarity and debate about this in the church throughout its history.
* Our lesson makes clear why we need to keep the word of Christ's atoning death before us, at the center of our spirituality. Read verse 12. This word judges us. It condemns our sin. Consider Martin Luther's comments in the second bullet point of Theological Insights. If Jesus had to die, we can't dodge our sinfulness. That's why we need this word about the atonement. It helps us take our sin more seriously.
* But how did Jesus overcome or dispose of our sin? Most American Christians who believe He died for us on the cross tend to think of the atonement as Christ's dying to take God's punishment for us (Satisfaction Theory). That seems to be what it means that Christ is high priest, performing a sacrifice (His own death) to God.
* The problem with that view is that is doesn't seem to take into account Jesus' struggles with the devil and the forces of evil. (Take a look at Colossians 2:13-15 sometime [Classic View of Atonement].) Such thinking also relegates God to a kind of status of a crotchety old man demanding to be placated for wrongs done to Him. This does not seem to be the loving God in whom we believe, to whom our lesson testifies (vv. 15-16).
* Although many have interpreted our Second Lesson as this sort of sacrifice offered to the Father by Jesus, reading it in context (the verses preceding our lesson) affords us some fresh insights about Christ's atoning work. Earlier in chapter 4 of Hebrews a discussion of the Sabbath rest is provided just prior to the reference to Christ as high priest (vv. 1-11). It seems according to the author of the book that we have violated this command, but it remains in place. This raises the possibility (more clearly articulated in 9:15-18) that this commandment when violated demands punishment, and so Jesus' high priestly work was to placate this structure, not God Himself. Jesus' death, then, is a sacrifice paid to the old covenant, to the structures of the cosmos and not to God. (This is the Governmental Theory of the Atonement.)
* This fresh way of talking about the atonement (it's really quite ancient) makes it clear that God is not the One needing to be placated. Because it is not He to whom the sacrifice is paid; He is portrayed with this way of thinking as really on our side, more loving. Consider using the next-to-last bullet point of Theological Insights.
* To have a God on our side, who sent Jesus to perform the sacrifice needed to get us out from under the curse of the commandments of the old covenant, gives us confidence in the loving nature of this God.
* With this confidence we can joyfully affirm the words of verse 16. Read it. Follow up with the last bullet point of Theological Insights.
7. Wrap-Up
The living word of Christ's atoning work needs our attention in the church. Urge the congregation to contemplate His death this week, in thoughts and in prayers. We need it both in order to take our sin more seriously and also to be reassured of the loving character of God, a love for us so profound that He does not require our punishment, but will take punishment to restore his creation, to give us a promised Sabbath rest. Rest easy this week in Christ's death and in God's loving arms. But don't forget that none of us deserves it!
Sermon Text and Title
"The Things That Get in Our Way"
Mark 10:17-31
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To make the congregation aware of our sinful propensity to put "things" (material possessions and human relationships) before God, but also with an awareness that God nevertheless forgives us (Justification by Grace).
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* Jesus' encounter with the rich man.
* Following His blessing of children (vv. 13-16), a man we later learn was rich (v. 22) asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life (v. 17). He had addressed Jesus as "good Teacher," at title suggesting the acknowledgment of Jesus' divinity since only God is good (vv. 17-18).
* Jesus responds by reciting the commandments regarding our responsibilities to and for each other (v. 19). The rich man claims to have kept these commandments (v. 20).
* Jesus reportedly loved the man and adds that he only lacks selling all he owns in order to give to the poor, and urges the man to follow Him (v. 21). The man was shocked and left grieving, unwilling to give away his wealth (v. 22).
* Jesus teaches His disciples that it will be difficult for the rich to enter God's kingdom. They were perplexed, as it had been supposed at that time that wealth made the performance of religious duties possible (vv. 23-24).
* Jesus proceeds to note that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom (v. 25). The disciples wonder who then can be saved (v. 26). Jesus responds that with mortals it is impossible but not for God for whom all things are possible (v. 27).
* Peter next contends that he and the other disciples had left everything and followed Jesus (v. 28). Jesus responds that there is no one who has left family or fields for His sake who will not receive these things a hundredfold in the age to come (vv. 29-30). The last will be first, and the first will be last (v. 31). (Also see Matthew 19:30; 20:16.)
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text affords reflection on the doctrine of sin (our propensity to let "things" [material possessions and human relations]) to get in the way of our relation to God, coupled with the assurance that salvation is God's work (Justification by Grace).
* Concerning Jesus' harsh word of judgment and condemnation, John Calvin notes that this is a word of law in condemning that sin moves us to rely on grace:
Hence it is evident, that those teachers are guilty of gross impropriety, who are so much afraid to speak harshly, that they give indulgence to the slothfulness of the flesh. They ought to follow, on the contrary, the rule of Christ, who so regulates His style that, after men have been bowed down within themselves, He teaches them to rely on the grace of God alone….
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVI/2, p. 403)
* John Wesley claimed that all riches are a hindrance to the love of God and that without such love "all religion is a dead carcass" (Commentary on the Bible, p. 433).
* Clement of Alexandria of the early church nicely explains the condemnation of wealth Jesus offers:
… it was not impossible, even surrounded with it, for one to lay hold of salvation, provided he withdrew himself from material wealth -- to that which is grasped by the mind and taught by God and leaned to use things indifferent rightly and properly….
(Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, pp. 596-597)
* See this section for the First Lesson, Pentecost 15, for critical evaluations of wealth.
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* Google the latest poverty statistics in America and consider the data in this section for the First Lessons, Advent 3 and Easter 2.
* Even with the recession, the Institute for Policy Studies reported in 2009 that the average pay for CEOs was 319 times that of the average worker.
5. Gimmick
Quote verse 25. Doesn't apply to us, you say? No, you are a lot richer than you think.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* An American middle-class existence is luxurious compared to the standards of living in much of the rest of the world. If addressing a middle- or upper-class congregation, note that most members are significantly more comfortable than the poor in America. Consider the first bullet point in Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights.
* Ask the congregation to consider whether the many goods they own and the activities they can afford (name some of the favorite acquisitions and activities of the members) really enhance their spiritual experience. Could these goods get in the way of our relationship with God? Jesus seems to say so in our Gospel Lesson, as He claims (unlike in the parallel Synoptic gospel versions) that it will be hard to enter the kingdom of God (v. 24). When He speaks of the challenges the rich have entering the kingdom of God, He is talking about us.
* Elaborate on the critique of wealth and its challenges to faith by citing the quotations of John Wesley and Clement of Alexandria in Theological Insights. Also consider the quotations on wealth in Theological Insights for the First Lesson, Pentecost 15.
* It is harder for the rich to enter the kingdom because wealth brings so many distractions, so many opportunities to get distracted from the things of God. There are less distractions if you're poor. Most of us, though, own too many things that get in the way of God.
* Ask parishioners how much time they spend on the computer compared to Bible study or prayer. Ask the same questions regarding watching TV, paperwork for the job, shopping, and so on. Our priorities get messed up.
* The media is full of examples of our having the wrong priorities. Is sex all that matters, as is the case for Charlie of Two and a Half Men? Is winning the million dollars all that counts, is it more important than friendship or integrity, as Survivor teaches us?
* Intuitively we know that the answer to these questions is a resounding "no." Sex, wealth, material possessions, when that's all there is to life, bring misery. The Jewish Talmud (the authoritative collection of Jewish laws) offers much wisdom on this matter: "Sin is sweet in the beginning, but bitter in the end." The outcome of lives dedicated to sex, wealth, and gaining other things of the world is ultimately bitter, even if such goodies seem sweet. It's bitter because, as we've seen, such preoccupations close the door on God.
* Martin Luther explained the perils of a concentration on wealth, how this focus on the things of the world distorts our faith.
Many a person thinks he has God and everything he needs when he has money and property; in them he trusts and of them he boasts so stubbornly and securely that he cares for no one. Surely such a man also has a god -- mammon by name, that is, money and possessions… [But] Very few there are who are cheerful, who do not fret and complain, if they do not have mammon. The desire for wealth clings and cleaves to our nature all the way to the grave.
(The Book of Concord, pp. 365-366)
Even those of us who are or feel poor will have a tough time getting into the kingdom of God, Jesus says, because though we might not have wealth, we want it so badly we can taste it -- taste it more than our hunger for the things of God and His kingdom.
* How do we get there, get our things that have sinfully preoccupied us out of the way? It is true that Jesus promises salvation to those who renounce the things of the world in such a way that it almost seems like you have to do something to be saved (vv. 29-30). But His follow-up claim that the last will be first (v. 31) implies that we need not bring anything to Him in order to be saved. This is the way John Calvin interpreted the text. Use his quotation in Theological Insights.
* When we see how we let all sorts of things get in our way of loving God, we come to rely on grace. Martin Luther profoundly describes the nature of this wonderful God of ours who is always ready to provide this amazing grace:
"… He is an eternal fountain which overflows with sheer goodness and pours forth all that is good in name and in fact"
(The Book of Concord, p. 368).
7. Wrap-Up
When we encounter the eternal fountain who is always pouring out His forgiving love on us, things begin to change. Like Clement of Alexandria (the great theologian of the early church) said, we begin to use indifferent things like material wealth rightly and properly, withdrawing our emotional investments in them (see quote in Theological Insights). We need God's forgiving grace to take our sin seriously, to get things out of the way, and to get our priorities right. Yes, it will be tough for us rich folks to get to the kingdom, but God works miracles all the time. The more you focus on Him, the less wealth will matter, the more we'll get our priorities straight.
