Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
November 8, 20079
22nd Sunday after Trinity
So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.” And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. Matthew 18:26-27
Before we consider the obvious lesson of the parable, let’s take a moment to think about the less evident but more important one, namely that Jesus is the Merciful Lord of the parable, who paid the debt we owe by His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. This is our faith, our life, our hope and our joy.
Jesus is the Merciful Lord. Numerous times in His earthly ministry people called on Him for aid and He answered them all: the thief on the cross who was suffering the wages of his sin; the Canaanite woman who was willing to eat crumbs because she loved her daughter more than her pride; and the father of a self-destructive son who was possessed by a demon to name just a few. They didn’t ask Jesus for silver or gold or jewels but only for mercy and He gave it because they believed and asked. May we all so believe, and so call upon our Lord Jesus Christ in every trouble whatever it might be, and know that He will always hear us and extend mercy to us.
Jesus isn’t only our Merciful Lord, but our Merciful Servant as well. He says in Matthew 20:28 “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Jesus did many things in His earthly ministry. He preached God’s Word, taught heavenly wisdom to earthly people, miraculously reversed the consequences of sin and kept the Law perfectly on our behalf. All of these things were vital parts His saving mission, but the one thing we glory in above all is the Cross of Christ which still towers over the wrecks of time, and still confers grace, mercy and peace to sinners throughout the ages.
When Jesus died God forgave the sins of the world, all of them, including yours. Always remember that and never doubt it. But the problem with sin is that we can’t see it with our eyes. We can see its effects; most obviously in the way we interact with one another, amusing ourselves by abusing one another.
Why else does a man on Cleveland’s east side rape and murder eleven women? Why else do those in power print and borrow money like there’s no tomorrow and send the bill to us and our children? What do their balance sheets look like before the Lord?
But more importantly, what does ours look like? Are we better than they? Less sinful? More righteous? Kinder or gentler? God forbid! Scripture emphatically states that, “there is none that is righteous, no not one.” (Romans 3:10).
We all plot to game the system.
We all want a free ride.
We’re all more than happy to accept pardon for the mountains of debt we owe, but un-willing to extend the same pardon to those whose debt is but a mole hill by comparison.
No, we can’t see sin with our eyes, and divine justice is something in the foggy future. And so in order to teach us this central lesson of the Christian faith Jesus uses a parable in which He compares sin to debt.
The Unmerciful Servant was in dire trouble. Like much of the financial world today he had borrowed too much money. He was up to eyeballs in debt and now it was time to repay, but his investments all went suddenly south. He was upside down, under water, and had no way to pay what he owed. Unlike today there were no bailouts in Jesus’ day. But there were debtor prisons and a strict code of justice which if applied today would land many of the world’s financiers into a deep, dark, dank prison.
But lest we feel smug please know that the parable isn’t about Wall Street, it’s about Main Street. It’s about us. We too have incurred unsustainable debt before God and man by our countless transgressions. (Luke 15:21) Every violation is like money borrowed that we must pay back. But like the Unmerciful Servant we have no means, and so all that remains for us is to be sold into temporal and eternal punishment.
The Unmerciful Servant was no fool however, nor should we be. He entered negotiations without a leg to stand on, and not a chance in the world of winning. His desperate request was not to be forgiven, but only for more time. It wouldn’t have helped because he never could have paid back the debt he owed, and neither can we. But in the end it didn’t matter because he got much more than he ever bargained for, the Merciful Lord forgave the entire debt and set him free! And so it is with us!
We too have been released. We too have been set free from the consequences of our sins before God. Not by bargaining, but by confessing and believing. St. John states in his first epistle that if we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all un-righteousness. (1 John 1:9)
Why does he say that?
He says “just” because the Merciful Servant paid our debt, in full, on the cross and there is no balance due. And He says “faithful” because God does exactly what He had promised to do from the beginning, namely to forgive our iniquity and remember our sins no more. (Jeremiah 31:34)
We said earlier that the parable is about Jesus who is the Merciful Lord and Servant, but it’s about us too. Once we grasp the divine transaction that occurred on the Cross, and the mountain of debt that has been forgiven us, it is incumbent upon us to forgive the mole hill of debt that others owe us.
Those mole hills can often seem like mountains to us. People can be cruel and heartless. They can rob us of joy and make us wish we were never born. That’s the reality of life in a sinful world and we must never, like so many co-dependants, deny it or minimize it. But as Forgiven Servants we must acknowledge that the debt of sin we owed to God was immeasurably greater than the debts that others owe to us; and that it’s our high Calling in Christ to forgive others even as God in Christ has forgiven us. (Eph. 4:32)
We have no duty to expose ourselves to the assaults of others. Nor should we confuse forgiving wrong, with excusing it. Nor can we forgive the sins people commit against others, against society, or remit civil penalties.
Never-the-less forgiveness lies at the very heart of the Christian faith; God’s forgiveness extended to us in Christ, and our forgiveness extended to others who desire it from us.
It’s not always easy to do, and the repetitive sins we commit against one another often make us weary. And so we pray that the Father of all mercies, and God of all comfort would grant us a hearty faith to believe that He has pardoned all our debt in Christ; and strengthen us to forgive those who trespass against us. Amen.
s
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Fourteenth Sunday After Trinity
Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
September 13, 2009
14th Sunday After Trinity
When He saw them He said, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And it happened that as they went, they were cleansed. Luke 17:14
The story here isn’t about the bad behavior of the Nine who gave no thanks, or even about the One who did, but rather it’s about Jesus. He is the central figure of the story, the Scriptures, our lives and our future. Without Him any talk of God speculative, but with Christ, who cleansed us from the leprosy of our sins by His death on the cross, we too become part of the everlasting chorus. We too will be among those who fall on their faces as did the leper, and worship the Lamb at His heavenly throne without end, and there is no better place we could ever be than that.
There’s plenty to criticize about the Nine, but whatever else we might say, they heard about Jesus, believed what they had heard and trusted that He could save them from a life that had become living hell.
We don’t know if they just happened to be at the right place at the right time, or if sought Jesus out, but it makes no difference; because the Lord’s watchful eye sees the distress of His children, hears their pleas for mercy, and answers them all, and we are those children.
Whatever else they did or didn’t do, the ten lepers believed in the power of Jesus and prayed the most important prayer a distressed soul can ever pray: “Jesus, Master, have mercy upon us.” It’s a prayer so important that the church enshrined into her liturgy centuries ago so that God’s people could pray it together each time they gathered, so that they could bring their every petition large or small to Jesus who loves to answer prayer. But it’s not only a prayer for church, but one we take home with us as well. One we can pray at all times, and in all places, because there’s no end to our temporal and spiritual needs. Keep the leper’s prayer on your lips and in your heart always, and when you can think of no other thing to say, simply pray: Lord have mercy, and know that He will always answer in the affirmative.
Now it’s possible that hearing the Lord’s question “where are the Nine,” might lead us to become self-righteous or indignant, but that would be a mistake because we are the Nine.
We too have received the good gifts of God: health and salvation, daily bread, liberation from sin, death and the devil but we don’t count our blessings. Instead we complain about what we don’t have, lose patience, worry, anguish and forget to rely on our Great High Priest for all our needs.
If songs and prayers of thanksgiving were not part of the Liturgy, how often would we give God our thanks and praise? Don’t answer the question, Beloved, because the answer isn’t pretty, but despair either. Only thank God that His church teaches us to pray, and learn from the negative example of the Nine, and the positive example of the One to give God glory at all times and under all circumstances. It’ll benefit us more than the bitterness and envy we’re so accustomed to.
There’s a lot we could say about the one Samaritan who returned, he too has much to teach us. Not only his thankful heart, but also the fact that he recognized Jesus for who He was. Jesus told the Ten to show themselves to the priests. This is what the Mosaic law commanded for lepers made clean, that a priest certify their cure, and that they offer the specified sacrifices in thanksgiving.
Such an act entailed a trip to the Jerusalem Temple quite a distance away. The Temple was the place where God and man met, and where animals were sacrificed to atone for the sins that men had committed. It was a place of grace where animals died, so sinners could live. In that respect it looked forward to Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
Ten were healed but only the Samaritan, a religious half-breed, a man whose people had been on the wrong side of the theological tracks for seven centuries; only he was astute enough to realize that Jesus is the fulfillment of all that Scripture promised. In that moment his theology became as pure as his flesh, and he understood that Jesus is the Temple of God. Jesus is the Victim and the Priest who forgives our sins, restores us to health and is worthy of our worship and thanksgiving.
Yes, Jesus is the central character in the story. He was on His way to Jerusalem to die. Not for a political cause but a theological one. In accordance with God’s will, the treasured Savior gave His unblemished and holy flesh in exchange for the toxic assets of our sinful flesh. As lepers coming into contact with Jesus were made clean, so sinners, however many they be, or however many sins they bring to the Cross, are also purified and made whole, we are among those people.
As the Samaritan glorified, worshiped and praised Jesus we should do the same, not just with our hearts and minds, but with our bodies as well. As the Thankful Samaritan laid himself face down at the Lord’s feet, may we too learn reverence, which isn’t only a matter of the mind but of the body as well.
Reverence is a much needed virtue in our boisterous world, where noise is everywhere and everything. But it’s not just for psychological reasons that Christians practice it, we have another and better reason.
Just as Jesus walked into an un-named town on the Galilee-Samaria border He comes to Cleveland, Ohio today, and resides in the sanctuary of Christ Lutheran Church. He doesn’t just send His love or His regards. He doesn’t just say, “thinking of you” or “hope all is well.” Instead the resurrected and glorified Lord, whose True Presence we are taught to discern in the Word and Sacraments is authentically with us, hearing and answering all our cries for mercy.
We show our reverence for Christ first with our faith. We believe all that He says about sin and its forgiveness. And faith is the highest form of worship a Christian can render, because it receives our Lord and His gifts of salvation. Such faith receives the forgiveness of sins and eternal life Jesus came to bring. Such faith is great because its object is great, the Lord Jesus Himself.
But we also worship Him with our bodies. With slow, thoughtful, humble and quiet movements whenever we enter His courts. With music, liturgy and prayers that recognize this Divine Guest for who He is, and that match the gifts that He gives. This is the chief purpose of the church’s ritual, to teach us reverence as we fall down at Jesus’ feet in thanksgiving and praise Him for sins forgiven and New Life granted.
But it’s not only in worship that we show reverence, but each day of our lives as well. We do it by rejecting the works of the flesh, the ones St. Paul lists in Galatians chapter five; and by embracing the fruits of the Spirit with our bodies as well as with our minds.
In these ways, by our faith, our knowledge, our reverence and our lives, we too properly glorify the God/Man Jesus who cleanses us from the leprosy of sin and gives us eternally grateful hearts. Amen.
Cleveland, Ohio
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
September 13, 2009
14th Sunday After Trinity
When He saw them He said, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And it happened that as they went, they were cleansed. Luke 17:14
The story here isn’t about the bad behavior of the Nine who gave no thanks, or even about the One who did, but rather it’s about Jesus. He is the central figure of the story, the Scriptures, our lives and our future. Without Him any talk of God speculative, but with Christ, who cleansed us from the leprosy of our sins by His death on the cross, we too become part of the everlasting chorus. We too will be among those who fall on their faces as did the leper, and worship the Lamb at His heavenly throne without end, and there is no better place we could ever be than that.
There’s plenty to criticize about the Nine, but whatever else we might say, they heard about Jesus, believed what they had heard and trusted that He could save them from a life that had become living hell.
We don’t know if they just happened to be at the right place at the right time, or if sought Jesus out, but it makes no difference; because the Lord’s watchful eye sees the distress of His children, hears their pleas for mercy, and answers them all, and we are those children.
Whatever else they did or didn’t do, the ten lepers believed in the power of Jesus and prayed the most important prayer a distressed soul can ever pray: “Jesus, Master, have mercy upon us.” It’s a prayer so important that the church enshrined into her liturgy centuries ago so that God’s people could pray it together each time they gathered, so that they could bring their every petition large or small to Jesus who loves to answer prayer. But it’s not only a prayer for church, but one we take home with us as well. One we can pray at all times, and in all places, because there’s no end to our temporal and spiritual needs. Keep the leper’s prayer on your lips and in your heart always, and when you can think of no other thing to say, simply pray: Lord have mercy, and know that He will always answer in the affirmative.
Now it’s possible that hearing the Lord’s question “where are the Nine,” might lead us to become self-righteous or indignant, but that would be a mistake because we are the Nine.
We too have received the good gifts of God: health and salvation, daily bread, liberation from sin, death and the devil but we don’t count our blessings. Instead we complain about what we don’t have, lose patience, worry, anguish and forget to rely on our Great High Priest for all our needs.
If songs and prayers of thanksgiving were not part of the Liturgy, how often would we give God our thanks and praise? Don’t answer the question, Beloved, because the answer isn’t pretty, but despair either. Only thank God that His church teaches us to pray, and learn from the negative example of the Nine, and the positive example of the One to give God glory at all times and under all circumstances. It’ll benefit us more than the bitterness and envy we’re so accustomed to.
There’s a lot we could say about the one Samaritan who returned, he too has much to teach us. Not only his thankful heart, but also the fact that he recognized Jesus for who He was. Jesus told the Ten to show themselves to the priests. This is what the Mosaic law commanded for lepers made clean, that a priest certify their cure, and that they offer the specified sacrifices in thanksgiving.
Such an act entailed a trip to the Jerusalem Temple quite a distance away. The Temple was the place where God and man met, and where animals were sacrificed to atone for the sins that men had committed. It was a place of grace where animals died, so sinners could live. In that respect it looked forward to Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
Ten were healed but only the Samaritan, a religious half-breed, a man whose people had been on the wrong side of the theological tracks for seven centuries; only he was astute enough to realize that Jesus is the fulfillment of all that Scripture promised. In that moment his theology became as pure as his flesh, and he understood that Jesus is the Temple of God. Jesus is the Victim and the Priest who forgives our sins, restores us to health and is worthy of our worship and thanksgiving.
Yes, Jesus is the central character in the story. He was on His way to Jerusalem to die. Not for a political cause but a theological one. In accordance with God’s will, the treasured Savior gave His unblemished and holy flesh in exchange for the toxic assets of our sinful flesh. As lepers coming into contact with Jesus were made clean, so sinners, however many they be, or however many sins they bring to the Cross, are also purified and made whole, we are among those people.
As the Samaritan glorified, worshiped and praised Jesus we should do the same, not just with our hearts and minds, but with our bodies as well. As the Thankful Samaritan laid himself face down at the Lord’s feet, may we too learn reverence, which isn’t only a matter of the mind but of the body as well.
Reverence is a much needed virtue in our boisterous world, where noise is everywhere and everything. But it’s not just for psychological reasons that Christians practice it, we have another and better reason.
Just as Jesus walked into an un-named town on the Galilee-Samaria border He comes to Cleveland, Ohio today, and resides in the sanctuary of Christ Lutheran Church. He doesn’t just send His love or His regards. He doesn’t just say, “thinking of you” or “hope all is well.” Instead the resurrected and glorified Lord, whose True Presence we are taught to discern in the Word and Sacraments is authentically with us, hearing and answering all our cries for mercy.
We show our reverence for Christ first with our faith. We believe all that He says about sin and its forgiveness. And faith is the highest form of worship a Christian can render, because it receives our Lord and His gifts of salvation. Such faith receives the forgiveness of sins and eternal life Jesus came to bring. Such faith is great because its object is great, the Lord Jesus Himself.
But we also worship Him with our bodies. With slow, thoughtful, humble and quiet movements whenever we enter His courts. With music, liturgy and prayers that recognize this Divine Guest for who He is, and that match the gifts that He gives. This is the chief purpose of the church’s ritual, to teach us reverence as we fall down at Jesus’ feet in thanksgiving and praise Him for sins forgiven and New Life granted.
But it’s not only in worship that we show reverence, but each day of our lives as well. We do it by rejecting the works of the flesh, the ones St. Paul lists in Galatians chapter five; and by embracing the fruits of the Spirit with our bodies as well as with our minds.
In these ways, by our faith, our knowledge, our reverence and our lives, we too properly glorify the God/Man Jesus who cleanses us from the leprosy of sin and gives us eternally grateful hearts. Amen.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Thirteenth Sunday After Trinity
Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
September 6, 2009
13th Sunday After Trinity
What must I do to inherit eternal life? Luke 10:25
If you ask the wrong question, you’ll get the wrong answer.
If you ask a person how to get to Indiana when Pennsylvania is your destination, you’re going to have a problem.
That’s what the lawyer in the parable did, he asked two wrong questions. The first because he wanted to trick the Lord, and the second because he wanted to justify himself. Talk about foolish endeavors. We can neither trick God into giving us a glad eternity, nor justify ourselves before Him no matter how hard we try.
But what’s impossible for us, because we’ve robbed of righteousness by the devil, is entirely possible for Jesus who is the Good Samaritan. He finds us where we are, has compassion on us when no one else will, binds up our wounds, brings us to the inn of the church, appoints inn-keepers to care for us, pays the price for our salvation, and will return again to give us the eternal life that we all hope to obtain.
The parable is neither a morality play, nor justification for establishing social programs, whose real purpose is to rob people of their money and deprive them of their freedom. Nor is it about obtaining God’s eternal applause for a job well done.
The parable is about Jesus who does what the Law cannot do, namely, rescue us from death, cleanse us from our sins, make us righteous before God and give us eternal life.
Now it’s a fact that we all want life. We all want to be healthy, happy, successful and prosperous and we don’t ever want it to end.
No surprise there. We were created by the Living God, made in His image and formed in His likeness. Every fiber of our being longs to live, thrive and survive.
But the devil ruined it all. He came into the garden, tempted Adam, led him into sin and every generation since has inherited and imitated Adam’s rebellion – and this is bad because the sentence for sin is death.
What a contradiction! Living creations of the Living God, condemned to death because of sin. But that is our true condition, and the source of all our frustration.
Death is repulsive to us; a stranger; an enemy we want nothing to do with. But like the robbers in the parable it always lurks around the next corner. And like the robbers, it doesn’t usually finish us off with one big chop. Instead it breaks us down day by day, week by week, torments us with temptation, and beats us with guilt, shame, illness, injuries, troubles of all sorts and leaves us half-dead.
Is there any hope for us? Is there any way out?
Many answers have been proposed. Adam and Eve thought they could cover their sin with fig leaves. They were the first Green Energy Czars of history but it didn’t work then and it won’t work now.
Ever since sin entered the world, and death by sin (Romans 5:12) an endless parade of social, economic, legislative, technological and religious solutions have been proposed to turn things around; to make the world a better place and give men the joy they all desire. But they all break down because they all ask the wrong question that the lawyer asked Jesus that day: what must I Do to inherit eternal life.
Do you hear the error?
What must I do?
How can I save Myself?
O how we love that question!
It appeals to our pride like no other and makes perfect sense to intellects disabled by sin. “How can I save myself?” It’s all we know, and when we’re not busy destroying ourselves, we’re busy saving ourselves, but nothing works.
What’s the evidence, you ask?
Death still bats .1000. Cemeteries are as busy as ever…but don’t worry because there’s always room for one more.
What must I do to inherit eternal life? We think that heaven is something we can merit but Jesus sets the record straight. In the parable the Priest and the Levite represent the Law, but they were of no help to the dying man. The lawyer thought that by a series of good works, prayers and devotions that he could extort God’s favor, and we think the same. But there’s nothing more deadly than self-righteousness whether the Christian kind or the socialist kind.
The defect isn’t in the Law. St. Paul asserts that: the Law is Spiritual, but I am Carnal, sold under sin. (Romans 7:14) The problem is us. We are powerless to love God or our neighbor as the Law demands. The bar is set so high that we can’t even see the top of it let alone jump over it. We are perpetual under-achievers in the spiritual arena, moral midgets, lawyers to the enth degree and the microscopic standards we set for ourselves won’t get us where we want to go.
There was another error in the lawyer’s question as well, an internal contradiction. “What must I Do to Inherit eternal life,” he asked? But Inherit and Do are very different creatures! One is a wage for services rendered, the other a gift. St. Paul writes in Romans 8:16 that by faith we become “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him,” and suffer we do.
The parable is about Jesus. He is the Good Samaritan! He is the one who finds us on the side of life’s road; beaten by sin; robbed of righteousness; stripped of life and bereft of peace and joy.
Unlike the priest and Levite who, coming upon the scene, crossed to the other side, Jesus saw our distress and came to our aid. He gladly paid the price of our salvation by giving His sacred body to die our death, and pouring out His holy blood to cancel out our sin, give life to the dead and restore us to un-ending health.
Jesus did more besides. He brought us into the inn of the church and appointed inn-keepers known as pastors to continue our treatment. He gave them instructions to care for us until His return, to administer the wine and oil of His Word and Sacraments, not just once but continually. We need that Word to be applied liberally and constantly to us for it and it alone makes our spirits sing. It alone is light for our darkness, wisdom for our foolishness, balm for our sorrow and only it can treat the wounds we suffer daily at the hands of sin, death and the devil. It and it alone is pure joy, pure goodness, pure beauty and truth.
Jesus is the Good Samaritan, we are not. But having received divine Mercy we are in a position to understand it, and commissioned to go and do likewise. This is what we are to be engaged in from the day we are baptized until the day the Good Samaritan returns to give us eternal life as an inheritance. Amen.
Cleveland, Ohio
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
September 6, 2009
13th Sunday After Trinity
What must I do to inherit eternal life? Luke 10:25
If you ask the wrong question, you’ll get the wrong answer.
If you ask a person how to get to Indiana when Pennsylvania is your destination, you’re going to have a problem.
That’s what the lawyer in the parable did, he asked two wrong questions. The first because he wanted to trick the Lord, and the second because he wanted to justify himself. Talk about foolish endeavors. We can neither trick God into giving us a glad eternity, nor justify ourselves before Him no matter how hard we try.
But what’s impossible for us, because we’ve robbed of righteousness by the devil, is entirely possible for Jesus who is the Good Samaritan. He finds us where we are, has compassion on us when no one else will, binds up our wounds, brings us to the inn of the church, appoints inn-keepers to care for us, pays the price for our salvation, and will return again to give us the eternal life that we all hope to obtain.
The parable is neither a morality play, nor justification for establishing social programs, whose real purpose is to rob people of their money and deprive them of their freedom. Nor is it about obtaining God’s eternal applause for a job well done.
The parable is about Jesus who does what the Law cannot do, namely, rescue us from death, cleanse us from our sins, make us righteous before God and give us eternal life.
Now it’s a fact that we all want life. We all want to be healthy, happy, successful and prosperous and we don’t ever want it to end.
No surprise there. We were created by the Living God, made in His image and formed in His likeness. Every fiber of our being longs to live, thrive and survive.
But the devil ruined it all. He came into the garden, tempted Adam, led him into sin and every generation since has inherited and imitated Adam’s rebellion – and this is bad because the sentence for sin is death.
What a contradiction! Living creations of the Living God, condemned to death because of sin. But that is our true condition, and the source of all our frustration.
Death is repulsive to us; a stranger; an enemy we want nothing to do with. But like the robbers in the parable it always lurks around the next corner. And like the robbers, it doesn’t usually finish us off with one big chop. Instead it breaks us down day by day, week by week, torments us with temptation, and beats us with guilt, shame, illness, injuries, troubles of all sorts and leaves us half-dead.
Is there any hope for us? Is there any way out?
Many answers have been proposed. Adam and Eve thought they could cover their sin with fig leaves. They were the first Green Energy Czars of history but it didn’t work then and it won’t work now.
Ever since sin entered the world, and death by sin (Romans 5:12) an endless parade of social, economic, legislative, technological and religious solutions have been proposed to turn things around; to make the world a better place and give men the joy they all desire. But they all break down because they all ask the wrong question that the lawyer asked Jesus that day: what must I Do to inherit eternal life.
Do you hear the error?
What must I do?
How can I save Myself?
O how we love that question!
It appeals to our pride like no other and makes perfect sense to intellects disabled by sin. “How can I save myself?” It’s all we know, and when we’re not busy destroying ourselves, we’re busy saving ourselves, but nothing works.
What’s the evidence, you ask?
Death still bats .1000. Cemeteries are as busy as ever…but don’t worry because there’s always room for one more.
What must I do to inherit eternal life? We think that heaven is something we can merit but Jesus sets the record straight. In the parable the Priest and the Levite represent the Law, but they were of no help to the dying man. The lawyer thought that by a series of good works, prayers and devotions that he could extort God’s favor, and we think the same. But there’s nothing more deadly than self-righteousness whether the Christian kind or the socialist kind.
The defect isn’t in the Law. St. Paul asserts that: the Law is Spiritual, but I am Carnal, sold under sin. (Romans 7:14) The problem is us. We are powerless to love God or our neighbor as the Law demands. The bar is set so high that we can’t even see the top of it let alone jump over it. We are perpetual under-achievers in the spiritual arena, moral midgets, lawyers to the enth degree and the microscopic standards we set for ourselves won’t get us where we want to go.
There was another error in the lawyer’s question as well, an internal contradiction. “What must I Do to Inherit eternal life,” he asked? But Inherit and Do are very different creatures! One is a wage for services rendered, the other a gift. St. Paul writes in Romans 8:16 that by faith we become “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him,” and suffer we do.
The parable is about Jesus. He is the Good Samaritan! He is the one who finds us on the side of life’s road; beaten by sin; robbed of righteousness; stripped of life and bereft of peace and joy.
Unlike the priest and Levite who, coming upon the scene, crossed to the other side, Jesus saw our distress and came to our aid. He gladly paid the price of our salvation by giving His sacred body to die our death, and pouring out His holy blood to cancel out our sin, give life to the dead and restore us to un-ending health.
Jesus did more besides. He brought us into the inn of the church and appointed inn-keepers known as pastors to continue our treatment. He gave them instructions to care for us until His return, to administer the wine and oil of His Word and Sacraments, not just once but continually. We need that Word to be applied liberally and constantly to us for it and it alone makes our spirits sing. It alone is light for our darkness, wisdom for our foolishness, balm for our sorrow and only it can treat the wounds we suffer daily at the hands of sin, death and the devil. It and it alone is pure joy, pure goodness, pure beauty and truth.
Jesus is the Good Samaritan, we are not. But having received divine Mercy we are in a position to understand it, and commissioned to go and do likewise. This is what we are to be engaged in from the day we are baptized until the day the Good Samaritan returns to give us eternal life as an inheritance. Amen.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
How You Will Pay For Government Debt
From Casey Research
Casey Daily Dispatch
August 29, 2009
For fiscal year 2009, the federal government will spend $4 trillion, leaving in its wake a budget deficit of $1.8 trillion. Since the end of 2007, the spend-a-thon has resulted in a 50% increase in marketable Treasury debt, to $6.78 trillion.
Showing a distinct disdain for fiscal restraint, the White House casually announced this weekend that, over the next ten years, the federal budget deficit would rise to $9 trillion, a 27% increase from the previous forecast of $7.1 trillion.
Worse, the total certainly underestimates the impact of the unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare now germinating in federal soil -- a toxic crop that, when all is said and done, will add somewhere between $80 and $100 trillion to the deficit.
These are big numbers. So, big, in fact, that the human psyche, on hearing them, tends to go straight on tilt.
Even going through the effort to make the big numbers more accessible – for example, by explaining that the $9 trillion works out to $30,000 for each man, woman, and child in these United States -- or roughly $77,100 per household -- the numbers still bounce off the average mind.
And forget mentioning the approximate tenfold increase in those numbers arrived at by taking into account the unfunded Social Security and Medicare liabilities – to wit, that you are individually on the hook for about $300,000, and your household for $771,000.
My Amateur Analysis:
If these numbers are correct (or close) each person who resides in the United States (legal or illegal, adult or child, sick or healthy) is on the hook for $300,000 because of government spending. This doesn’t take in the ongoing cost of government, this is only borrowed money that’s already been spent, and monies promised such as medicare, prescription drug program and social security. Does this seem unreal, or not applicable to you? Consider this.
A. If you work and pay taxes this stated amount will be extracted from you through a combination of the following items:
1. higher taxes (property, sales, other government fees e.g. dog licenses & gasoline taxes)
2. lower wages
3. lower gains on savings (e.g. interest, higher FDIC fees)
4. higher prices on all goods and services, because printed money loses it's buying power
5. lower quality of all goods and services/lower quality of life.
B. If you work but don't pay income taxes because of low earnings you will pay your portion via:
1. higher sales taxes etc.
2. higher prices on all goods and services, because printed money loses it's buying power
3. lower quality of all goods and services/lower quality of life.
C. If you don't work your portion will be extracted by:
1. higher property, sales tax and government fees etc.
2. higher prices on all goods and services, because printed money loses it's buying power
3. lower quality of all goods and services/lower quality of life.
Everyone pays, no one is exempt. Knowing this, do you still support government spending as strongly as you did 5 minites ago?
Casey Daily Dispatch
August 29, 2009
For fiscal year 2009, the federal government will spend $4 trillion, leaving in its wake a budget deficit of $1.8 trillion. Since the end of 2007, the spend-a-thon has resulted in a 50% increase in marketable Treasury debt, to $6.78 trillion.
Showing a distinct disdain for fiscal restraint, the White House casually announced this weekend that, over the next ten years, the federal budget deficit would rise to $9 trillion, a 27% increase from the previous forecast of $7.1 trillion.
Worse, the total certainly underestimates the impact of the unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare now germinating in federal soil -- a toxic crop that, when all is said and done, will add somewhere between $80 and $100 trillion to the deficit.
These are big numbers. So, big, in fact, that the human psyche, on hearing them, tends to go straight on tilt.
Even going through the effort to make the big numbers more accessible – for example, by explaining that the $9 trillion works out to $30,000 for each man, woman, and child in these United States -- or roughly $77,100 per household -- the numbers still bounce off the average mind.
And forget mentioning the approximate tenfold increase in those numbers arrived at by taking into account the unfunded Social Security and Medicare liabilities – to wit, that you are individually on the hook for about $300,000, and your household for $771,000.
My Amateur Analysis:
If these numbers are correct (or close) each person who resides in the United States (legal or illegal, adult or child, sick or healthy) is on the hook for $300,000 because of government spending. This doesn’t take in the ongoing cost of government, this is only borrowed money that’s already been spent, and monies promised such as medicare, prescription drug program and social security. Does this seem unreal, or not applicable to you? Consider this.
A. If you work and pay taxes this stated amount will be extracted from you through a combination of the following items:
1. higher taxes (property, sales, other government fees e.g. dog licenses & gasoline taxes)
2. lower wages
3. lower gains on savings (e.g. interest, higher FDIC fees)
4. higher prices on all goods and services, because printed money loses it's buying power
5. lower quality of all goods and services/lower quality of life.
B. If you work but don't pay income taxes because of low earnings you will pay your portion via:
1. higher sales taxes etc.
2. higher prices on all goods and services, because printed money loses it's buying power
3. lower quality of all goods and services/lower quality of life.
C. If you don't work your portion will be extracted by:
1. higher property, sales tax and government fees etc.
2. higher prices on all goods and services, because printed money loses it's buying power
3. lower quality of all goods and services/lower quality of life.
Everyone pays, no one is exempt. Knowing this, do you still support government spending as strongly as you did 5 minites ago?
Twelfth Sunday After Trinity
Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
August 30, 2009
12th Sunday After Trinity
And He took him aside from the crowd, and placed his fingers into his ears, and spit and touched his tongue and looked upward into heaven, and sighed and said to him, Ephphatha, which means, Be opened! And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue loosed and he spoke plainly. Mark 7:33-35
Beloved in Christ, we can never praise the incarnation of our Lord highly enough.
It’s theoretically possible that God who is omnipotent could have made some other arrangement to deal with human sin. That He could have saved us from a distance, or conducted a spiritual transaction in the heavens, away from our sight and without our knowledge…but that’s not what He did!
Instead, in a show of great love and solidarity with sinful man, He sent His only-begotten Son into the world to be our Savior. And so our Lord Jesus assumed human flesh, took on the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:5ff)
All that the incarnate Lord did, He did for our benefit.
In His earthly life He took up residence in Nazareth, a city of Galilee, which was far removed from the religious capitol of Jerusalem. From there He used His feet to take him to still more out of the way places like Tyre and Sidon where the glory of God’s Word had never been heard, where people lived alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, having no hope and without God in the world. (Ephesians 2:12) There He expelled demons, healed the sick and preached the good news of the Kingdom so that people who otherwise had no expectation of blessing would see and learn first hand, the love that God has for all men. A love we can still rely upon today and always.
From there His feet carried Him to the region known as Decapolis where a deaf mute man was presented to Him for healing. His friends brought the man to Jesus requesting only that the Lord should touch him with His Holy Hand, and it would be enough.
We read in St. Mark’s gospel that Jesus graciously received the man, without an appointment, without charge, and without any stipulations or demands. How different that is from the signs posted on telephone poles around town that warn: Jesus is coming, clean up your life. We can no more clean up our lives, than rotting flesh can stop stinking, but Jesus has cleansed us to our very core by His Word. (John 15:3)
We learn that He employed His fingers to open the man’s ears, and even saliva from His sacred tongue to open the mans lips, so that his mouth might show forth God’s praise.
And He utilized His eyes in performing this miracle as well. He turned them heavenward because the Beloved Son had come from there to do the will of His Father, which was to release sinners from the curse that sin incurs.
He used His mouth to speak the words of healing, “Be opened!” Because Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, the utterances of His lips are all-powerful. When He says to deaf ears, “Be opened!” they open. And when our Lord says with His dying breath, “it is finished” we should be fully persuaded that the struggles of our soul are over and the Day of our deliverance is here.
Nor should we miss the significance of what the Evangelist reports in verse 34 that the Lord “sighed.” We Confess in the Athanasian Creed that our Lord not only had a human body but also a “reasonable soul.” This means that He could think, reason, and understand things even as we do. That He could comprehend human suffering and identify with it. The writer to the Hebrews puts it this way, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:15-16
As our Lord wept over the death of His friend Lazarus, and shed tears of sorrow over the lost city of Jerusalem, so here He sighs over the immense conglomeration of misery that sin has visited on the world and all its inhabitants. Was there more to His sigh as well? Was our Lord also churning over in His mind His own future suffering and death? Was He thinking that for every sin He forgave and every disease He healed, He who bore our griefs and carried our sorrows would be stricken, smitten of God and afflicted on the Cross, where He would pour out His sacred blood so that sinful men might obtain fresh joy in the Lord? (Isaiah 29:19 and 53:4).
But the faith we Confess isn’t merely a recalling of the historical events of our salvation, as prized and amazing as they are.
As we can never acclaim our Lord’s incarnation highly enough, nor can we sufficiently exalt the Blessed Sacrament. As Jesus once came in the flesh to save us from our sins He still comes to us today and gives us His true body and blood in Holy Communion. He doesn’t come in human form to be sure, but nor is His Sacramental Presence among us only imaginary or symbolic. In holy communion we receive the body and blood of Christ as He deigns to give Himself to us today, for the forgiveness of our sins, life and salvation.
As His mode of presence is different, so are the benefits. The holy communion we receive at the altar today doesn’t open deaf ears, balance brain chemicals or kill cancer cells within us. But it does put our sin, which is the cause of all our ills, into permanent remission. As Christians we should never ask: what did I do to deserve this, or, why is this happening to me? We won’t like the answer. We deserve all the bad things that happen to us, and more besides, if the Lord God decided to mark our iniquities, or treat us as our sins warrant.
But He doesn’t!
Instead, in the Eucharist He comforts us with the assurance that sin and death have been conquered and will one day be nothing but a distant memory. Or as the hymnist Sigismund von Birken wrote four centuries ago, “and the fears that now annoy, shall be laughter on the morrow. Christ I suffer here with Thee, there O share Thy joys with me.” (TLH 409)
God grant that our ears be opened to His Word and that we praise and value it as the highest good. And God grant that our tongues be loosed to rightly confess the holy Christian faith that Jesus does all things well. For indeed He does. He heals our diseases, forgives our sins and gives us reason to sing. Amen.
Cleveland, Ohio
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
August 30, 2009
12th Sunday After Trinity
And He took him aside from the crowd, and placed his fingers into his ears, and spit and touched his tongue and looked upward into heaven, and sighed and said to him, Ephphatha, which means, Be opened! And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue loosed and he spoke plainly. Mark 7:33-35
Beloved in Christ, we can never praise the incarnation of our Lord highly enough.
It’s theoretically possible that God who is omnipotent could have made some other arrangement to deal with human sin. That He could have saved us from a distance, or conducted a spiritual transaction in the heavens, away from our sight and without our knowledge…but that’s not what He did!
Instead, in a show of great love and solidarity with sinful man, He sent His only-begotten Son into the world to be our Savior. And so our Lord Jesus assumed human flesh, took on the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:5ff)
All that the incarnate Lord did, He did for our benefit.
In His earthly life He took up residence in Nazareth, a city of Galilee, which was far removed from the religious capitol of Jerusalem. From there He used His feet to take him to still more out of the way places like Tyre and Sidon where the glory of God’s Word had never been heard, where people lived alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, having no hope and without God in the world. (Ephesians 2:12) There He expelled demons, healed the sick and preached the good news of the Kingdom so that people who otherwise had no expectation of blessing would see and learn first hand, the love that God has for all men. A love we can still rely upon today and always.
From there His feet carried Him to the region known as Decapolis where a deaf mute man was presented to Him for healing. His friends brought the man to Jesus requesting only that the Lord should touch him with His Holy Hand, and it would be enough.
We read in St. Mark’s gospel that Jesus graciously received the man, without an appointment, without charge, and without any stipulations or demands. How different that is from the signs posted on telephone poles around town that warn: Jesus is coming, clean up your life. We can no more clean up our lives, than rotting flesh can stop stinking, but Jesus has cleansed us to our very core by His Word. (John 15:3)
We learn that He employed His fingers to open the man’s ears, and even saliva from His sacred tongue to open the mans lips, so that his mouth might show forth God’s praise.
And He utilized His eyes in performing this miracle as well. He turned them heavenward because the Beloved Son had come from there to do the will of His Father, which was to release sinners from the curse that sin incurs.
He used His mouth to speak the words of healing, “Be opened!” Because Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, the utterances of His lips are all-powerful. When He says to deaf ears, “Be opened!” they open. And when our Lord says with His dying breath, “it is finished” we should be fully persuaded that the struggles of our soul are over and the Day of our deliverance is here.
Nor should we miss the significance of what the Evangelist reports in verse 34 that the Lord “sighed.” We Confess in the Athanasian Creed that our Lord not only had a human body but also a “reasonable soul.” This means that He could think, reason, and understand things even as we do. That He could comprehend human suffering and identify with it. The writer to the Hebrews puts it this way, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:15-16
As our Lord wept over the death of His friend Lazarus, and shed tears of sorrow over the lost city of Jerusalem, so here He sighs over the immense conglomeration of misery that sin has visited on the world and all its inhabitants. Was there more to His sigh as well? Was our Lord also churning over in His mind His own future suffering and death? Was He thinking that for every sin He forgave and every disease He healed, He who bore our griefs and carried our sorrows would be stricken, smitten of God and afflicted on the Cross, where He would pour out His sacred blood so that sinful men might obtain fresh joy in the Lord? (Isaiah 29:19 and 53:4).
But the faith we Confess isn’t merely a recalling of the historical events of our salvation, as prized and amazing as they are.
As we can never acclaim our Lord’s incarnation highly enough, nor can we sufficiently exalt the Blessed Sacrament. As Jesus once came in the flesh to save us from our sins He still comes to us today and gives us His true body and blood in Holy Communion. He doesn’t come in human form to be sure, but nor is His Sacramental Presence among us only imaginary or symbolic. In holy communion we receive the body and blood of Christ as He deigns to give Himself to us today, for the forgiveness of our sins, life and salvation.
As His mode of presence is different, so are the benefits. The holy communion we receive at the altar today doesn’t open deaf ears, balance brain chemicals or kill cancer cells within us. But it does put our sin, which is the cause of all our ills, into permanent remission. As Christians we should never ask: what did I do to deserve this, or, why is this happening to me? We won’t like the answer. We deserve all the bad things that happen to us, and more besides, if the Lord God decided to mark our iniquities, or treat us as our sins warrant.
But He doesn’t!
Instead, in the Eucharist He comforts us with the assurance that sin and death have been conquered and will one day be nothing but a distant memory. Or as the hymnist Sigismund von Birken wrote four centuries ago, “and the fears that now annoy, shall be laughter on the morrow. Christ I suffer here with Thee, there O share Thy joys with me.” (TLH 409)
God grant that our ears be opened to His Word and that we praise and value it as the highest good. And God grant that our tongues be loosed to rightly confess the holy Christian faith that Jesus does all things well. For indeed He does. He heals our diseases, forgives our sins and gives us reason to sing. Amen.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Eleventh Sunday After Trinity
Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
August 23, 2009
11th Sunday After Trinity
I tell you, this man went back to his house justified rather than the other, because anyone who exalts himself, will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Luke 18:14
There are two things we can’t do. We cannot humble ourselves as Jesus directs us to do in the parable, nor can we exalt ourselves before God. However, what is impossible for man is entirely possible with God. Not only possible, but the heavenly Father has most certainly Called us by the Gospel, justified us by His grace, promised to be with us and bless us every day of our lives, and has in every other possible way exalted us with His Son!
In the parable Jesus teaches us not to be like the Pharisee who went to the Temple to brag instead of pray; who went to church to collect the honor he thought God owed him for a job well done, rather than to have his sins blotted out. The Pharisee boasted about the many sins of commission he didn’t commit, and the sins of omission he didn’t omit, but this isn’t the way forward Dear Christians, at least not where our Lord is concerned.
While we should not be like the Pharisee we should be like the tax-collector, and in one way we already are. Tax collectors were not nice people and neither are we, in spite of the performance we’ve learned to put on for others. They were unjust, extortioners and adulterers and so are we. We’ve all gotten dishonest gain, we’ve all taken what isn’t ours to have, we’ve all “robbed God of tithes and offerings;” (Malachi 3:8) and we are adulterers, whether by thought, word or deed makes no difference. These sins condemn us, and the only way we can ever be justified is by faith in the One who carried them to the altar of the cross, and there atoned for them.
It wasn’t the tax-collector’s sin that the Lord wants us to imitate, but rather his humility; the fact that he was so cognizant of his unworthiness that he wouldn’t even lift up his eyes, but could only beat on his breast and pray within: O God, be merciful to me The Sinner. He wasn’t posturing or feigning humility to gain something as people sometimes do. Rather he was a man who had been awakened by the Word of God, believed it with all his heart and acted upon it. It’s very possible that the tax collector in the parable was Zacchaeus whom we meet in the very next chapter of St. Luke’s gospel. A man so anxious to lay his eyes on the Messiah that he climbed up a sycamore tree just to get a look at Him as He entered the city of Jericho, where the New Joshua would make walls of human pride fall down, and bring salvation to Zacchaeus house.
Jesus wants us to be humble in this way, but the deck is stacked against us. The devil wants us to be proud like he was, and uses his influence to puff us up with conceit. The world is in on the conspiracy too. It tells us that if we confess its creeds, and buy its products we will be beautiful, strong, rich and accomplished and that the world will worship at our feet. And sinful flesh, which exists in a deep spiritual coma, gladly believes all these lies and lives in order to gain the endless praise and glory of others.
No, we cannot humble ourselves, but we need not fear either because God’s Word can, and the Holy Spirit has richly provided it for us.
In today’s Old Testament reading Daniel humbled himself before God. He confessed his own sins, and speaking in his priestly Office, confessed the sins of the nation as well. Where did he learn to pray with such clarity, confidence and humility? From the Word of God. Daniel was intimately familiar with the Holy Scriptures and in the great Confessional Prayer recorded in chapter nine of his book he quotes both Moses and Jeremiah. He acknowledges that the extreme degradation and humiliation his nation was suffering was the very thing these sacred writers had predicted would happen if Israel ever strayed from the LORD. Like the tax-collector, and like St. Paul who calls himself “the least of the apostles and not worthy to be called an apostle,” Daniel claimed no righteousness of his own, but humbly confessed his sins, begged for God’s mercy and relied only on it. He was a true theologian of the cross, six centuries before the Savior was ever born.
As we can’t humble ourselves before God except by divine grace, nor is it possible for us to exalt ourselves before Him, but Jesus can.
Thirty years after the Lord died and had been raised again St. Paul was still proclaiming His death and resurrection as the message of highest importance. That’s because in the divine economy His death means our life; His humiliation our exaltation; and His resurrection our glorification. In Christ we have everything but without Him nothing!
Twenty centuries later nothing has changed, we still have only one message to preach: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was raised again on the third day according to the Scriptures. By God’s mercy we have heard the message, believed it, been justified by it and have built our hope, confidence and comfort on it.
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. We Confess it in our creed, view it in ecclesiastical art, surround ourselves by it with church architecture, and preach in the church’s liturgy, prayers, hymns and sermons. Not only do we preach the Gospel, but we also exalt the means of grace by which the blessings of Calvary are transmitted to us.
Shortly after we were born, we were given new and spiritual birth in holy baptism. By it our sins were forgiven, and in it God made durable promises to us, to be our Guide and Protector all the days of our lives, and our Bright Morning Star for all eternity as well.
In time we were taught to know and understand the Scriptures, and to rely on them as the only norm for Christian faith and life. Such knowledge lifts us up high above the anemic wisdom of man, which only leads to self-righteousness, despair and death.
In Holy Communion Jesus gives us His flesh and blood for the ongoing remission of ours sins, and to comfort and fortify us as members of the church militant, who are always at war with sin, death and the devil.
And so by our Lord’s life, death and resurrection, and by His Church, Gospel and Sacraments God has done for us what we cannot, need not and dare not do for ourselves. He justified us, sanctified us, and raised us up far above our enemies. He has exalted us with a divine name, and a divine future, and now as His exalted people we give Him all praise, honor, and glory, with all humility and thanksgiving. Amen.
Cleveland, Ohio
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
August 23, 2009
11th Sunday After Trinity
I tell you, this man went back to his house justified rather than the other, because anyone who exalts himself, will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Luke 18:14
There are two things we can’t do. We cannot humble ourselves as Jesus directs us to do in the parable, nor can we exalt ourselves before God. However, what is impossible for man is entirely possible with God. Not only possible, but the heavenly Father has most certainly Called us by the Gospel, justified us by His grace, promised to be with us and bless us every day of our lives, and has in every other possible way exalted us with His Son!
In the parable Jesus teaches us not to be like the Pharisee who went to the Temple to brag instead of pray; who went to church to collect the honor he thought God owed him for a job well done, rather than to have his sins blotted out. The Pharisee boasted about the many sins of commission he didn’t commit, and the sins of omission he didn’t omit, but this isn’t the way forward Dear Christians, at least not where our Lord is concerned.
While we should not be like the Pharisee we should be like the tax-collector, and in one way we already are. Tax collectors were not nice people and neither are we, in spite of the performance we’ve learned to put on for others. They were unjust, extortioners and adulterers and so are we. We’ve all gotten dishonest gain, we’ve all taken what isn’t ours to have, we’ve all “robbed God of tithes and offerings;” (Malachi 3:8) and we are adulterers, whether by thought, word or deed makes no difference. These sins condemn us, and the only way we can ever be justified is by faith in the One who carried them to the altar of the cross, and there atoned for them.
It wasn’t the tax-collector’s sin that the Lord wants us to imitate, but rather his humility; the fact that he was so cognizant of his unworthiness that he wouldn’t even lift up his eyes, but could only beat on his breast and pray within: O God, be merciful to me The Sinner. He wasn’t posturing or feigning humility to gain something as people sometimes do. Rather he was a man who had been awakened by the Word of God, believed it with all his heart and acted upon it. It’s very possible that the tax collector in the parable was Zacchaeus whom we meet in the very next chapter of St. Luke’s gospel. A man so anxious to lay his eyes on the Messiah that he climbed up a sycamore tree just to get a look at Him as He entered the city of Jericho, where the New Joshua would make walls of human pride fall down, and bring salvation to Zacchaeus house.
Jesus wants us to be humble in this way, but the deck is stacked against us. The devil wants us to be proud like he was, and uses his influence to puff us up with conceit. The world is in on the conspiracy too. It tells us that if we confess its creeds, and buy its products we will be beautiful, strong, rich and accomplished and that the world will worship at our feet. And sinful flesh, which exists in a deep spiritual coma, gladly believes all these lies and lives in order to gain the endless praise and glory of others.
No, we cannot humble ourselves, but we need not fear either because God’s Word can, and the Holy Spirit has richly provided it for us.
In today’s Old Testament reading Daniel humbled himself before God. He confessed his own sins, and speaking in his priestly Office, confessed the sins of the nation as well. Where did he learn to pray with such clarity, confidence and humility? From the Word of God. Daniel was intimately familiar with the Holy Scriptures and in the great Confessional Prayer recorded in chapter nine of his book he quotes both Moses and Jeremiah. He acknowledges that the extreme degradation and humiliation his nation was suffering was the very thing these sacred writers had predicted would happen if Israel ever strayed from the LORD. Like the tax-collector, and like St. Paul who calls himself “the least of the apostles and not worthy to be called an apostle,” Daniel claimed no righteousness of his own, but humbly confessed his sins, begged for God’s mercy and relied only on it. He was a true theologian of the cross, six centuries before the Savior was ever born.
As we can’t humble ourselves before God except by divine grace, nor is it possible for us to exalt ourselves before Him, but Jesus can.
Thirty years after the Lord died and had been raised again St. Paul was still proclaiming His death and resurrection as the message of highest importance. That’s because in the divine economy His death means our life; His humiliation our exaltation; and His resurrection our glorification. In Christ we have everything but without Him nothing!
Twenty centuries later nothing has changed, we still have only one message to preach: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was raised again on the third day according to the Scriptures. By God’s mercy we have heard the message, believed it, been justified by it and have built our hope, confidence and comfort on it.
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. We Confess it in our creed, view it in ecclesiastical art, surround ourselves by it with church architecture, and preach in the church’s liturgy, prayers, hymns and sermons. Not only do we preach the Gospel, but we also exalt the means of grace by which the blessings of Calvary are transmitted to us.
Shortly after we were born, we were given new and spiritual birth in holy baptism. By it our sins were forgiven, and in it God made durable promises to us, to be our Guide and Protector all the days of our lives, and our Bright Morning Star for all eternity as well.
In time we were taught to know and understand the Scriptures, and to rely on them as the only norm for Christian faith and life. Such knowledge lifts us up high above the anemic wisdom of man, which only leads to self-righteousness, despair and death.
In Holy Communion Jesus gives us His flesh and blood for the ongoing remission of ours sins, and to comfort and fortify us as members of the church militant, who are always at war with sin, death and the devil.
And so by our Lord’s life, death and resurrection, and by His Church, Gospel and Sacraments God has done for us what we cannot, need not and dare not do for ourselves. He justified us, sanctified us, and raised us up far above our enemies. He has exalted us with a divine name, and a divine future, and now as His exalted people we give Him all praise, honor, and glory, with all humility and thanksgiving. Amen.
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