Sermon and Prayer of the Church: Trinity VI, 11 July 2010

The Sixth Sunday after Trinity
11 July 2010
Rev. Jon C. Olson ~ Our Saviour's Lutheran Church

As long as you try your hardest to be good and do your best to keep the Ten Commandments, God will accept that as “good enough” and grant you eternal life in heaven. Let me state this another way. Would Jesus have had to come and live a perfect life, suffer and die if God only expected you and I to try our hardest?

This morning’s Gospel lesson is about people who believe that God helps those who help themselves. It is about coming in contact with the holiness of God and demanding perfection. It is a belief system that says that ‘good enough’ is good enough. You do your part and God will take care of the rest and do whatever is beyond your ability to accomplish. As long as you show that you are being sincere, that you are at least trying to do something for God, God will in turn do good to you and bless you. In effect, you and God work together to achieve your salvation.

There's a theological term for that. It's called "synergism," it means "working together." I do my part, God does His part. By combining my works and God’s works my salvation is taken care of. There's just one problem. Synergism is also a false teaching not taught in the Bible. In fact, the Bible teaches directly against it. And if the opinion surveys correctly reflect what people believe is right, this false teaching and belief is pretty popular. Something like 40% of people, who call themselves not only Christian but even Lutheran, agree with synergism or ‘you do your part God does the rest’ kind of theology.

In today's Gospel lesson Jesus flat out rejects and condemns synergism when He says,
Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20)

Your eternal life in heaven does not depend on your doing the best of your ability and trying your hardest. It does not depend on what you do. That is what the Pharisees whole religion was based on. The Pharisees dedicated their whole lives to knowing and keeping God's commands down to the finest detail. Jesus destroyed their whole way of life and thinking.

For example, you think it's hard to tithe and give 10% of your income in offerings. Most of you struggle to give even 3 or 4%. Well, the Pharisees would not only tithe of their income but of all that they possessed, even down to the herbs they would use to prepare their meals. They tried to keep God's Law perfectly, even making up some of their own laws along the way.

What Jesus teaches us is that we have to do even better than that, otherwise there is no chance of entering the kingdom of heaven. Even the upright and righteous Pharisees don't make it. Even outwardly moral and good church going people come up short if that is the criteria for entering heaven.

In the Old Testament God summarized what He demands when He said, "Be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy." And Jesus Himself taught in the Sermon on the Mount, "You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." Holiness and perfection are not optional demands. They are what the Law requires. Anything less than that is not good enough.

James chapter 2 makes this point very clearly. It says, "Whoever keeps the whole Law, yet fails in just one point, He is guilty of all of it." It's sort of like a balloon. As it freely floats through the air making many little boys happy, all it takes is only one little bump into that little sharp object. That prick in the side of the balloon causes only one little portion of the balloon to be pierced. And yet the result is that the whole thing pops and is ruined. One hole ruins the entire balloon.
That's how it is with God's Law. Even if you were able to keep all of the Law except in that one area, that one point brings down the whole structure of the Law. Summarized the Ten Commandments expect perfect love of God and perfect love of your neighbor. You can't just say, “a little idol worship won’t offend my God, he’s bigger than that.” Or, “Oh, I did that a long time ago when I was young and foolish; I've gotten my act together now.” Or, “Oh, I was just tired and stressed out and in a bad mood when I lost my temper; you can't hold that against me.” To fail in one point of God’s Law is to fail in all of them.

Jesus focuses on one point in today's Gospel lesson, the 5th commandment, "You shall not murder." I'm sure that among just about all of you here this morning no one has murdered their neighbor. But in God's sight this command requires much more than not killing someone or even not hurting someone. It also requires that you do good to your neighbor and help him in all his physical needs. How often do we all wish we had better neighbors? How often do we not even say hello to them?

Can anyone here this morning do any better than the scribes and the Pharisees? Then we will not enter the kingdom of heaven. That's the judgment of the Law. And if we are trusting in the Law and a spirituality we create for ourselves, then we will be delivered to the Judge, who is Christ, and He will judge us according to the way we judge others and ourself, the Law. Jesus will then hand us over to the officer, who is Satan, and we will be thrown into prison, which is hell, until we have paid the last penny of what the Law requires, which as we have learned, we will never be able to do.

Jesus is teaching us here that we must not seek merely an outward righteousness like the Pharisees, but an inward righteousness before God, the righteousness of faith. Faith that places confidence and trust not in ourselves or our own goodness but in Jesus. As the Introit put it, "The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped." Only in Christ is there deliverance from the judgment of the Law. For only Christ has performed the Law without fault or failing. Jesus said, "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill (them). (Matt. 5:17) Jesus alone has kept the Law. And He did so for you and me in our place to earn our salvation.

Jesus kept the Law perfectly in two ways. First of all, as true God who at the same time had become fully human, Jesus never sinned, as it is written in Hebrews, He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15) Not only did Jesus not do the things that the commandments forbid, He also did do everything the commandments demand. Not only did He not murder or steal or have impure thoughts, but He also perfectly loved His Father in heaven and His neighbor on earth, showing compassion, healing, doing good and teaching the truth to all. Our Lord lived a holy life as our representative and our substitute, that our unholy lives might be redeemed.

Secondly, Jesus fulfilled the Law by completing all of the old ceremonial requirements regarding the Sabbath and the sacrifices and so forth. By His holy death and burial, Jesus Himself became our eternal Sabbath rest, cleansing us from our sin by His once-for-all sacrifice. All the Old Testament Jewish rules and regulations found their goal and culmination in the person and work of Jesus. He put all of the Jewish rituals of the Old Testament to an end in His crucified body, that the Law might no longer condemn us. Not only did Jesus live a perfectly godly life in our place, He also suffered on the cross the full condemnatory sentence for our imperfect and ungodly lives in order to restore our relationship to God the Father. Our Lord is now risen from the dead that we might be freed from judgment and given new life and a sure hope.

So it is that the words of Jesus which seemed to be impossible are now, in fact, true in Him:
Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 5:20)

The sort of faith in Jesus necessary to enter heaven is not to know the answers to a test or to have some intellectual understanding about the creation of the world, or to be able to explain the Holy Trinity. Having faith means to have a living and bold trust that Jesus’ promises are true. To have faith in Christ is to trust that because of Jesus’ righteousness given to us in baptism our righteousness not only exceeds that of the Pharisees but it is complete and holy. Our works do not enter into the picture.

In our baptisms we receive the perfect righteousness of Jesus. In them God the Father has declared us to be holy in His sight. He didn't just demand that you straighten out your life, He gave you a whole new life, the life of Jesus that is full and complete and perfect and everlasting. Through Christ you will enter the kingdom of heaven. To believe and trust that promise is what it means to have faith.
And just in case you are tempted to fall back into your old life of sin and death and the bondage of the Law and say to yourself, "Hey, all that counts for my salvation is what Jesus did and not what I do; that means I can live however I please, right?" To that, St. Paul says this in the Epistle,
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? (Romans 6:1)

Which is to say, how shall we who have been freed from hell's prison purposely go back and put ourselves in chains and behind bars again? That's exactly what we've been liberated from! Why would we willingly want to be anywhere near there and risk falling away from Christ and our eternal salvation in heaven with Him?

The old Adam was crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be done away with through repentance, that no one should any longer be slaves of sin. By grace we have been given the ability to walk by faith in the newness of Christ's life. We are declared to be dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ. For just as you have been united with Him in His death, you will surely also be united with Him in the resurrection of the body when He comes again. To Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit belongs all worship, honor, glory, and praise, forever and ever. Amen.

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Prayer of the Church
Sixth Sunday after Trinity
July 11, 2010

P Having been buried with Jesus by baptism into His death, let us bring our petitions to God the Father in all boldness and confidence:

P Father in heaven, we confess that apart from Christ we have no righteousness. Yet we rejoice that, because Your Son has died and risen for us, in our baptisms You promise that our righteousness is now perfect and free from your condemnation. Because we know the hope that You have laid up for us in heaven, let others see in us a confident faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and a caring love for all those in need. Lord, in Your mercy,
C hear our prayer.

P Father in heaven, by Your grace we have died to sin, yet sin continues to have its way with us. Fill us all with a repentant faith that knows we have been buried with Christ through baptism into His death. Lord, in Your mercy,
C hear our prayer.

P Father in heaven, guide the delegates and leaders of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod as they meet in convention this week. Give them faithfulness to You and your Word and a zeal to confess the Gospel of Jesus’ salvation to all people. Direct them to decisions that bring glory to You, strengthen Your Church, unite us in Your truth, proclaim Your salvation, and show mercy to our neighbors. Lord, in Your mercy,
C hear our prayer.

P Father in heaven, Your love unites us with You and with every member of Your holy Church throughout the world. We pray for our sisters and brothers in Christ, especially all congregations and pastors of the Pipestone Circuit, the MNS District and the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Give them and us spiritual wisdom so that we may all walk together in a manner worthy of You. Lord in Your mercy,
C hear our prayer.

P Father in heaven, as Your Son showed Your mercy and compassion to us when He went to the cross in our place, give Your loving care to everyone in need. Watch over the elderly and aging, those in nursing homes, and those under long-term care [especially ____]. Give to them a fervent faith in You throughout their troubles, and deliver them from their struggles in the way that You know will best serve their eternal needs. Lord, in Your mercy,
C hear our prayer.

P Father in heaven, when You saw us dead in our trespasses and sins, You did not pass by, but came into our world to rescue us. Thank you for the gift of salvation. Thank you for all of Your goodness to us, [especially for (uniting Tim Stotz and Amy Powers in Marriage)]. Give them and us grateful hearts that praise You for Your love and look to You for everything good. Lord, in Your mercy,
C hear our prayer.

P Into Your hands, heavenly Father, we entrust our lives and the lives of those for whom we pray; for You live and reign with Your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
C Amen.