Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
June 28, 2009
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
3rd Sunday After Trinity
All the tax-collectors and the sinners would gather near to Him to hear Him, but the Pharisees and the Scribes complained bitterly saying, “This man receives sinners, and He eats with them.” Luke 15:1-2
When we read this text we might think that the tax-collectors are the heroes and the Pharisees the villains, but the fact is we’re all villains before God, and in need of repentance.
The tax-collectors weren’t the kewpie dolls liberal theologians make them out to be, nor did Jesus give them moral sanction for their sin as many do today. Tax-collectors were especially crude sinners. They were considered by the people to be traitors to their nation, whose chosen profession it was to collect taxes from hard-working Jews and give the money to pagan Rome. Much like today’s state liquor franchises, they paid for the privilege and then worked it for all it was worth. They were hard, unscrupulous men who grew rich at the expense of others and had the coercive powers of the Roman Militia behind them. People had to tread lightly when dealing with tax-collectors, like they do today when dealing with the DMV or the Water Department. A person dare not be too impatient, or take the wrong tone, lest they wrap him in red tape and drop him into bureaucratic hell.
The tax-collectors were vulgar in the eyes of the average Jew, but to the Pharisees they were Sinners with a capital S. But the Pharisees weren’t that stellar either. Tax collectors were greedy for money but so were Pharisees. They were un-happy to hear the Lord’s admonition that you can’t serve God and money (Luke 16:14) because that’s exactly what they were trying to do.
Blatant sin is ugly. Ten days ago a 38 year old employee at a coin laundry on West 25th Street was murdered in cold blood. When the robber reached for her necklace she pulled away from him and he summarily shot her in the head. Later at Cleveland’s Central Prison Unit he repeatedly gloated about: how he had showed her.
But self-righteousness is just as repellent. The Pharisees were the Puritans of their day. They gave their full time and attention to regulating everything around them, everything that is except the lusts of their own hearts. They were hypocrites to the core, who wrapped themselves in a flag of holiness. Like white-washed graves they looked good on the outside but were shot full of death on the inside.
But Jesus loved, and still loves, all kinds of sinners and it’s a good thing because we are the Pharisees and tax-collectors in today’s gospel lesson. We’re greedy, meddlesome, self-righteous and in constant need of repentance, but Jesus is the Hero. Why?
First because He is truly Righteous. There was nothing contrived about Him, there didn’t have to be, He was God in human flesh (Colossians 2:9). When people met Him, when they heard His parables, and saw His miracles they knew that they had encountered God, who fulfilled all righteousness in His baptism – the one in the Jordan and the one on the Cross. (Luke 12:50)
Jesus isn’t only the hero of the parable because He’s righteous, but also because He received and ate with sinners. St. Luke reports that the tax-collectors couldn’t get enough of Jesus. They wanted to spend their time with Him. They wanted to hear everything He had to say. When others condemned them they wouldn’t listen but when Jesus did so, with the Law in one hand and with an abundant portion of Divine Love in the other, they accepted what He had said, and repented and lived new lives in Christ.
We know of two by name. Zacchaeus, who will always be famous among Christ’s people for the great lengths he went to get a look at Jesus as He entered Jericho; for his confession of sins and Confession of faith; for the benediction he received: this day salvation has come to your house (Luke 19:7); and for the good works his faith produced: Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.
And there was St. Matthew as well, who left his corrupt ways to became both a Disciple and Evangelist. We have a statue of him in our church because while St. John most beautifully expresses the Lord’s divine nature to us in his gospel, Matthew most superbly articulates the Lord’s human lineage. Together they show us the Divine and Human Savior we need, who was able to keep the Law for us perfectly because He was God, and who was able to die in our place, and wipe us clean from every stain of sin, because He also True Man.
The refrain of modern day Pharisees is that we need to: accept Jesus into our hearts. But here St. Luke teaches us that things work the other way, sinners don’t accept Jesus, but as we sing in our hymn, “Jesus sinners doth receive, O may all this saying ponder.”
And He still calls sinners to life and salvation today. Most of us were called at the baptismal font. In its life-giving water our sins were forgiven, and our destiny set. God became our Father, and Jesus our Righteousness. He made good and lasting promises to us even though most of us were too young to know it, He’s never broken them and never will. He has been, is and will continue to be our God, our guide, our stay and our shield for time and eternity. We’ve never been a single day without His care, nor will we ever be.
He doesn’t just “receive sinners” but also eats with them. In His earthly ministry Jesus was never too busy or too haughty to associate with the dregs of society. Not just in passing either, but He accepted invitations to their homes and ate at their tables, and why shouldn’t He? He is the Bread of Life and Well of Salvation (Isaiah 12) who quenched thirsty sinners with His liberating Word, and once they drank of it they couldn’t get enough.
The same is true of us today. Jesus still dines with sinners. He says to the Pharisee and the tax-collector within: Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear and open the door, I will come in and sup with him and he with Me. (Revelation 3:20) This promise is fulfilled when repentant sinners confess their wrongs, receive absolution, and answer the Altar Call of the Eucharist where Jesus still receives and eats with sinners.
The rail isn’t for self-righteous people but for repentant sinners. It’s not for the Ninety-Nine who need no repentance, but for the one who does.
The ninety nine who don’t need repentance, and the nine coins that weren’t lost are only hypothetical. Spiritually speaking all people, Christians and non-Christians alike, need the same thing. To know their sins, be sorry for their sins, regret their sins, confess their sins, turn from them and believe that they were forgiven when Jesus breathed His last. Such faith saves us. Such a faith begins a new and holy life within us.
So let us all do as St. Peter instructs us in today’s epistle lesson and humble ourselves beneath the mighty hand of God, knowing that He will exalt us in due time. And after we have suffered a little while, He Himself will restore us, and make us strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. (1 Peter 5:6ff). Amen.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Second Sunday After Trinity
Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
June 21, 2009
by: Rev. Lloyd Gross
No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God. Romans 4:20
How threadbare is the fabric of human hope! As long as we pin
our confidence on the capabilities and intentions of mankind, we will
always be disappointed. The Psalmist warns us against trusting in
princes -- except of course the One Prince. We can understand that.
But is democracy any better? Democracy means rule by the majority.
Since only a minority of people are good, brave, and wise, democracy
means being ruled by the evil, the cowardly, and the stupid. On the
other hand, God's Word is forever true, forever good, forever
powerful. The promises God made to us are absolutely trustworthy.
As St. Paul calls us to faith in God's Word, he uses the example
of the patriarch, Abraham. God tried and tested him in more and
greater ways than such soft saints as we could ever tolerate. In the
midst of all that, however, God definitely promised Abraham that a
Redeemer would one day come from his family. To human reason that was
an unbelievable promise. Abraham was 100 years old; his wife was 90.
But isn't that characteristic of God? That is so much in keeping with
what we know about the first Easter. We know our God as the God who
raises the dead, as St. Paul calls him here. Now in Abraham's day that
hadn't happened yet. All our father had were the words he heard.
Still, he did not stagger at the promise. He believed the Word of God,
and Isaac was born from God's promise.
Don't say that you can't understand God's promises. Ask yourself
whether you want to understand them, because they make us accountable
to Him. People don't want to believe in God at all. Even though our
bodies are so marvelously designed that every cell contributes its
irreplaceable donation for the common good, even though we are aware
of organisms so small they have to be magnified 1200 times to be
visible at all, still we have a problem saying in our hearts that with
God nothing is impossible. When the creation was still new, the
horrible plague of sin infected our world. God then designed a great
salvation. In His wisdom He chose Abraham to play a key role in it.
That role required him to beget a child long after he was past the age
for men to do that. So the nation God was producing would result from
a miracle. The people of Israel, from whom the Redeemer would come,
began with a miracle even as the Redeemer Himself was miraculously
conceived. God intervened constantly along the way, chastising,
delivering, preparing for His greatest intervention when His Son would
become incarnate.
The fathers we think about today who protected us, provided for
us, and eventually helped us find our independence should remind us of
a far better Father who is in heaven. Perhaps in your earthly
experience you did not have a father who was there for you, still your
heavenly Father has provided for you in other ways. One task all
fathers have to do is correct their children. This may not be
pleasant, but it is necessary. He was always correcting Abraham,
always correcting His people, and He is so concerned that you inherit
eternal life that He will do what He must to correct you. Sometimes it
will be difficult.
When we lose our jobs, when we get sued, when we find our
children doing shocking things, when friends don't keep their
promises, when heart and flesh grow tired and weak, when loved ones
pass away, do they drive us to despair? Where is the God who raises
the dead? Do we so fear the future that we contemplate killing
ourselves? Do we raise a clenched fist to the heavens to express our
defiance? Or do we seek to escape? Do we lavish ourselves with
luxuries, or bend our minds with drugs, or indulge the pleasures of
the flesh? Or do we try to impose our own will on our circumstances by
practicing witchery? How blessed are they who wait for Him. We can
count on the God who raises the dead. Though His mercy may tarry, it
shall surely come!
Will it come quickly enough? For Abraham the supreme test was
the sacrifice of Isaac, the son born of the promise. There was no
question in Abraham's mind that God had requested this. Of course he
was upset by it, but he did what he believed he had to do. God was
looking on in tender mercy. He knew how the story was going to end,
just as we hear it year after year on the first Sunday in Lent. But
Abraham only knew the heart-wrenching melancholy of his task. In the
end it would not be Abraham's son who would be sacrificed, but God's.
Isaac's name means "laughter." But the Lamb Himself, whose name means
"He will deliver" is the One in whom God lifts up His countenance upon
the whole world. The death of Isaac would not have taken away sins;
the death of Jesus did. The Lamb was the Substitute for Isaac and for
us. The God who raises the dead gave Isaac back to Abraham, and also
raised the Righteous One. That event is the center of all history.
Everything up to it was preparing for it. Everything since has been to
spread the grace that flows from it. So in Jesus not only is God our
Father, but so is Abraham, because he was the prime example of faith.
Yes, we believe in God who raises the dead. We believe in God
who elects and corrects. We wait for Him to act, with prayer, with
steadfastness, with patience. We don't tell Him how to serve us,
either by His Providence or by His grace. We are thankful that His
Word has come to us, launching its all-out attack on our sin. We are
thankful that we have heard the Law, condemning us, pointing out our
bondage, raising the alarm that all is not well, making us hunger and
thirst for righteousness. And we thank Him for the Gospel where we see
our Savior die and overcome death, to redeem us and make us as
righteous as He. AMEN
Cleveland, Ohio
June 21, 2009
by: Rev. Lloyd Gross
No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God. Romans 4:20
How threadbare is the fabric of human hope! As long as we pin
our confidence on the capabilities and intentions of mankind, we will
always be disappointed. The Psalmist warns us against trusting in
princes -- except of course the One Prince. We can understand that.
But is democracy any better? Democracy means rule by the majority.
Since only a minority of people are good, brave, and wise, democracy
means being ruled by the evil, the cowardly, and the stupid. On the
other hand, God's Word is forever true, forever good, forever
powerful. The promises God made to us are absolutely trustworthy.
As St. Paul calls us to faith in God's Word, he uses the example
of the patriarch, Abraham. God tried and tested him in more and
greater ways than such soft saints as we could ever tolerate. In the
midst of all that, however, God definitely promised Abraham that a
Redeemer would one day come from his family. To human reason that was
an unbelievable promise. Abraham was 100 years old; his wife was 90.
But isn't that characteristic of God? That is so much in keeping with
what we know about the first Easter. We know our God as the God who
raises the dead, as St. Paul calls him here. Now in Abraham's day that
hadn't happened yet. All our father had were the words he heard.
Still, he did not stagger at the promise. He believed the Word of God,
and Isaac was born from God's promise.
Don't say that you can't understand God's promises. Ask yourself
whether you want to understand them, because they make us accountable
to Him. People don't want to believe in God at all. Even though our
bodies are so marvelously designed that every cell contributes its
irreplaceable donation for the common good, even though we are aware
of organisms so small they have to be magnified 1200 times to be
visible at all, still we have a problem saying in our hearts that with
God nothing is impossible. When the creation was still new, the
horrible plague of sin infected our world. God then designed a great
salvation. In His wisdom He chose Abraham to play a key role in it.
That role required him to beget a child long after he was past the age
for men to do that. So the nation God was producing would result from
a miracle. The people of Israel, from whom the Redeemer would come,
began with a miracle even as the Redeemer Himself was miraculously
conceived. God intervened constantly along the way, chastising,
delivering, preparing for His greatest intervention when His Son would
become incarnate.
The fathers we think about today who protected us, provided for
us, and eventually helped us find our independence should remind us of
a far better Father who is in heaven. Perhaps in your earthly
experience you did not have a father who was there for you, still your
heavenly Father has provided for you in other ways. One task all
fathers have to do is correct their children. This may not be
pleasant, but it is necessary. He was always correcting Abraham,
always correcting His people, and He is so concerned that you inherit
eternal life that He will do what He must to correct you. Sometimes it
will be difficult.
When we lose our jobs, when we get sued, when we find our
children doing shocking things, when friends don't keep their
promises, when heart and flesh grow tired and weak, when loved ones
pass away, do they drive us to despair? Where is the God who raises
the dead? Do we so fear the future that we contemplate killing
ourselves? Do we raise a clenched fist to the heavens to express our
defiance? Or do we seek to escape? Do we lavish ourselves with
luxuries, or bend our minds with drugs, or indulge the pleasures of
the flesh? Or do we try to impose our own will on our circumstances by
practicing witchery? How blessed are they who wait for Him. We can
count on the God who raises the dead. Though His mercy may tarry, it
shall surely come!
Will it come quickly enough? For Abraham the supreme test was
the sacrifice of Isaac, the son born of the promise. There was no
question in Abraham's mind that God had requested this. Of course he
was upset by it, but he did what he believed he had to do. God was
looking on in tender mercy. He knew how the story was going to end,
just as we hear it year after year on the first Sunday in Lent. But
Abraham only knew the heart-wrenching melancholy of his task. In the
end it would not be Abraham's son who would be sacrificed, but God's.
Isaac's name means "laughter." But the Lamb Himself, whose name means
"He will deliver" is the One in whom God lifts up His countenance upon
the whole world. The death of Isaac would not have taken away sins;
the death of Jesus did. The Lamb was the Substitute for Isaac and for
us. The God who raises the dead gave Isaac back to Abraham, and also
raised the Righteous One. That event is the center of all history.
Everything up to it was preparing for it. Everything since has been to
spread the grace that flows from it. So in Jesus not only is God our
Father, but so is Abraham, because he was the prime example of faith.
Yes, we believe in God who raises the dead. We believe in God
who elects and corrects. We wait for Him to act, with prayer, with
steadfastness, with patience. We don't tell Him how to serve us,
either by His Providence or by His grace. We are thankful that His
Word has come to us, launching its all-out attack on our sin. We are
thankful that we have heard the Law, condemning us, pointing out our
bondage, raising the alarm that all is not well, making us hunger and
thirst for righteousness. And we thank Him for the Gospel where we see
our Savior die and overcome death, to redeem us and make us as
righteous as He. AMEN
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Louisiana Jokes - Another One
Boudreaux was driving along the highway behind a truck hauling pigs. One of
the pigs fell out of the truck, so Boudreaux stopped his car, backed up,
finally caught the pig and put it in his car. Once in the car Boudreaux
drove at a high rate of speed to try to catch up to the truck. A Louisiana
State Trooper saw Boudreaux driving at a high rate of speed and pulled him over.
The State Trooper recognized Boudreaux and asked him: "Why are you driving so fast and what are you doing with that pig in your car?" Boudreaux said,"I was following a truck full of pigs and this one fell out. I caught him and I'm trying to catch up to the truck to give him back." The State Trooper said, "Boudreaux, you're not going to catch up with that truck. He's long gone by now. Just take the pig to the zoo." Boudreaux liked that idea and said, "yeah, I never thought about that."
Two days later the State Trooper was on patrol and saw Boudreaux driving
down the highway with a pig in his car. The State Trooper pulled him over
and asked, "Boudreaux, what are you doing with that pig still in your car? I
thought I told you to take him to the zoo!" Boudreaux said, "I did and we
had such a good time, today we thought we'd go to the park."
the pigs fell out of the truck, so Boudreaux stopped his car, backed up,
finally caught the pig and put it in his car. Once in the car Boudreaux
drove at a high rate of speed to try to catch up to the truck. A Louisiana
State Trooper saw Boudreaux driving at a high rate of speed and pulled him over.
The State Trooper recognized Boudreaux and asked him: "Why are you driving so fast and what are you doing with that pig in your car?" Boudreaux said,"I was following a truck full of pigs and this one fell out. I caught him and I'm trying to catch up to the truck to give him back." The State Trooper said, "Boudreaux, you're not going to catch up with that truck. He's long gone by now. Just take the pig to the zoo." Boudreaux liked that idea and said, "yeah, I never thought about that."
Two days later the State Trooper was on patrol and saw Boudreaux driving
down the highway with a pig in his car. The State Trooper pulled him over
and asked, "Boudreaux, what are you doing with that pig still in your car? I
thought I told you to take him to the zoo!" Boudreaux said, "I did and we
had such a good time, today we thought we'd go to the park."
Monday, June 15, 2009
First Sunday After Trinity
Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
June 14, 2009
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
1st Sunday After Trinity
But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. Luke 16:25
There are two ways to read Scripture. As a spiritual handbook on how we should live, or as the Word of God whose purpose is: to make us wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. (1 Timothy 3:15)
If we read it the first way we miss the point of today’s parable, but if we read it the second way we’ll understand what Jesus is teaching us here.
In the Parable we are the Rich Man and Jesus is Lazarus. That’s what the parable is about.
Socialists want it to be about wealth and poverty, but it’s not. They want it to teach that re-distributing wealth is a Christian virtue, but it isn’t. If God were a Collectivist there’d be no Seventh Commandment. There will be poor people in heaven and poor people in hell; there will be rich people in heaven and rich people in hell. That’s because our eternal destiny isn’t determined by economics; but by repentance and by faith in Jesus; who suffered the sores of our sins and came back from the dead in order to comfort us with His Word.
Christian tradition tells us that the Rich Man’s name was Dives, and that he was a man who loved his belly more than God or his neighbor. Please don’t get the wrong idea. It’s not a sin to earn money, to be rich or to enjoy the things that money buys. Quite the contrary! Some say that money is the root of all evil. But what’s the root of all money except productive labor? Labor which each man performs for his own interests but which automatically blesses his neighbor in the process. This is how things work, and the only way they can. No one is capable of toiling to provide another man’s food for him. He might start out with good intentions, and a utopian ideal he learned in college. But any such system creates wealth for a very few at the top, and insures dismal existence for everyone else, and that’s no way to love our neighbor.
Dives was also a man who knew God’s Word. In the parable he recognized Father Abraham and was able to carry on a theological discussion with him. He knew it, but either he didn’t believe it, or he possessed what St. James calls a dead faith, one un-accompanied by brotherly love.
We too are familiar with the Word of God, but do we believe it? Do we accept it as the only source and norm for Christian faith and life? Do we write it on the gates hearts and doorposts of our minds? Do we arrange our lives so that Worship is the highest priority of our lives, or do we just come whenever we need a pick-me-up, or have nothing more pressing to do?
And if we do believe God’s Word does our faith translate into love for our brother as St. John instructs? Admittedly showing real love is a bit tricky today. The world has confused us to such a degree that it’s hard to know the difference between Love and Enabling, between helping those who can’t help themselves, and helping those who won’t help themselves. What’s a Christian to do?
For many decades the loudest voices prescribed social activism as the premier expression of Christian love, but it’s only made things worse. It’s made us trust in Princes more than the Lord (Psalm 118:9), and proud in all the wrong ways.
The best way for Christians to love others has always been to work quietly within the various vocations God’s given us. When husbands and wives love and honor each other; when children obey their parents; when we live sober and industrious lives; when we lend our aid and counsel to those we know by personal knowledge, to be truly in need, then we’re loving our neighbor as St. John commands.
The parable is simple, because of sin each of us is the Rich Man, but Lazarus is Christ who redeems us, and that’s the best part.
The name Lazarus means: The Lord is my helper. That’s as it should be because Jesus is our one and only Lord. (Deut. 6:4) He’s the source of our every good, and the One who provides for our every need. We have a gracious and loving Lord who did for us what we are unable to do for ourselves. He fulfilled the Law of love by His holy life, and paid the ultimate price for our sins by His Lazarus-like suffering and death on the cross. He is the Living Water that cools our seared consciences, and the Perfect Love that casts out all fear. (1 John 4:18)
As Lazarus died so did Jesus, but He also rose again to proclaim the Gospel of blood-bought righteousness for sinners, and resurrection from the dead for all who believe and are baptized. (Mark 16:15)
We are those people, and so rejoice in the Lord always! (Philippians 4:4)
By faith we hear Moses and the Prophets and believe every word, we hear St. John’s inspired words about Jesus, and about what true love is, and we build our hope upon them.
And although sin makes us like Dives, the forgiveness of our sins enables us to bear the crosses of life in Lazarus-like, Christ-like fashion.
Like Lazarus we suffer want, uncertainty and fear concerning the necessities of life. Flying high in April only to be shot down in May is legendary. Every day is a challenge. Every day we need to dodge numerous obstacles just to keep going, and we never know what tomorrow might hold. And as if life weren’t complicated enough we live under a system which encourages dependence and disparages hard work and careful planning. The economic and philosophical train of Western Civilization is now running full-speed in reverse, and there’s no telling where it will lead.
But like Lazarus we trust in God to provide all that we need whatever the situation might be. If He can make manna fall from heaven’s table and provide cooling water for His beloved children from a Rock in the desert, then the Greater Lazarus, who rose from the dead, will do even more for us.
Like Lazarus we too suffer from every manner of weakness and illness. We feel real pain and cry real tears. But we also rely on Jesus by whose stripes we are healed. We remember that He too was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. (Isaiah 53) And so we pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) that God would take pity on us and relieve us. And unlike merciless Dives God is kindhearted, He’ll never test us beyond what we’re able to endure, and always provide a way of escape.
(1 Corinthians 10:13)
And as Lazarus was finally consoled we too will luxuriate in a way that Dives could never imagine. We’ll be dressed the Fine Linen of Christ’s Righteousness, our sins will be forgotten, our diseases healed. We’ll drink from the Well of Salvation (Isaiah 12:3) and dine sumptuously at the Messianic Banquet Table in a world without end. Amen.
Cleveland, Ohio
June 14, 2009
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
1st Sunday After Trinity
But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. Luke 16:25
There are two ways to read Scripture. As a spiritual handbook on how we should live, or as the Word of God whose purpose is: to make us wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. (1 Timothy 3:15)
If we read it the first way we miss the point of today’s parable, but if we read it the second way we’ll understand what Jesus is teaching us here.
In the Parable we are the Rich Man and Jesus is Lazarus. That’s what the parable is about.
Socialists want it to be about wealth and poverty, but it’s not. They want it to teach that re-distributing wealth is a Christian virtue, but it isn’t. If God were a Collectivist there’d be no Seventh Commandment. There will be poor people in heaven and poor people in hell; there will be rich people in heaven and rich people in hell. That’s because our eternal destiny isn’t determined by economics; but by repentance and by faith in Jesus; who suffered the sores of our sins and came back from the dead in order to comfort us with His Word.
Christian tradition tells us that the Rich Man’s name was Dives, and that he was a man who loved his belly more than God or his neighbor. Please don’t get the wrong idea. It’s not a sin to earn money, to be rich or to enjoy the things that money buys. Quite the contrary! Some say that money is the root of all evil. But what’s the root of all money except productive labor? Labor which each man performs for his own interests but which automatically blesses his neighbor in the process. This is how things work, and the only way they can. No one is capable of toiling to provide another man’s food for him. He might start out with good intentions, and a utopian ideal he learned in college. But any such system creates wealth for a very few at the top, and insures dismal existence for everyone else, and that’s no way to love our neighbor.
Dives was also a man who knew God’s Word. In the parable he recognized Father Abraham and was able to carry on a theological discussion with him. He knew it, but either he didn’t believe it, or he possessed what St. James calls a dead faith, one un-accompanied by brotherly love.
We too are familiar with the Word of God, but do we believe it? Do we accept it as the only source and norm for Christian faith and life? Do we write it on the gates hearts and doorposts of our minds? Do we arrange our lives so that Worship is the highest priority of our lives, or do we just come whenever we need a pick-me-up, or have nothing more pressing to do?
And if we do believe God’s Word does our faith translate into love for our brother as St. John instructs? Admittedly showing real love is a bit tricky today. The world has confused us to such a degree that it’s hard to know the difference between Love and Enabling, between helping those who can’t help themselves, and helping those who won’t help themselves. What’s a Christian to do?
For many decades the loudest voices prescribed social activism as the premier expression of Christian love, but it’s only made things worse. It’s made us trust in Princes more than the Lord (Psalm 118:9), and proud in all the wrong ways.
The best way for Christians to love others has always been to work quietly within the various vocations God’s given us. When husbands and wives love and honor each other; when children obey their parents; when we live sober and industrious lives; when we lend our aid and counsel to those we know by personal knowledge, to be truly in need, then we’re loving our neighbor as St. John commands.
The parable is simple, because of sin each of us is the Rich Man, but Lazarus is Christ who redeems us, and that’s the best part.
The name Lazarus means: The Lord is my helper. That’s as it should be because Jesus is our one and only Lord. (Deut. 6:4) He’s the source of our every good, and the One who provides for our every need. We have a gracious and loving Lord who did for us what we are unable to do for ourselves. He fulfilled the Law of love by His holy life, and paid the ultimate price for our sins by His Lazarus-like suffering and death on the cross. He is the Living Water that cools our seared consciences, and the Perfect Love that casts out all fear. (1 John 4:18)
As Lazarus died so did Jesus, but He also rose again to proclaim the Gospel of blood-bought righteousness for sinners, and resurrection from the dead for all who believe and are baptized. (Mark 16:15)
We are those people, and so rejoice in the Lord always! (Philippians 4:4)
By faith we hear Moses and the Prophets and believe every word, we hear St. John’s inspired words about Jesus, and about what true love is, and we build our hope upon them.
And although sin makes us like Dives, the forgiveness of our sins enables us to bear the crosses of life in Lazarus-like, Christ-like fashion.
Like Lazarus we suffer want, uncertainty and fear concerning the necessities of life. Flying high in April only to be shot down in May is legendary. Every day is a challenge. Every day we need to dodge numerous obstacles just to keep going, and we never know what tomorrow might hold. And as if life weren’t complicated enough we live under a system which encourages dependence and disparages hard work and careful planning. The economic and philosophical train of Western Civilization is now running full-speed in reverse, and there’s no telling where it will lead.
But like Lazarus we trust in God to provide all that we need whatever the situation might be. If He can make manna fall from heaven’s table and provide cooling water for His beloved children from a Rock in the desert, then the Greater Lazarus, who rose from the dead, will do even more for us.
Like Lazarus we too suffer from every manner of weakness and illness. We feel real pain and cry real tears. But we also rely on Jesus by whose stripes we are healed. We remember that He too was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. (Isaiah 53) And so we pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) that God would take pity on us and relieve us. And unlike merciless Dives God is kindhearted, He’ll never test us beyond what we’re able to endure, and always provide a way of escape.
(1 Corinthians 10:13)
And as Lazarus was finally consoled we too will luxuriate in a way that Dives could never imagine. We’ll be dressed the Fine Linen of Christ’s Righteousness, our sins will be forgotten, our diseases healed. We’ll drink from the Well of Salvation (Isaiah 12:3) and dine sumptuously at the Messianic Banquet Table in a world without end. Amen.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Trinity
Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
June 7, 2009
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
Trinity
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age. Mt. 28:19-20
The Holy Trinity is a mystery. Not because God has hidden Himself from us, or because He wants to keep us in the dark about what sort of God He is. And we don't say that the Trinity is a mystery because God's identity is something that can only be pondered by mystics or theologians. The Holy Trinity is a mystery because of our sin. If we weren’t people of unclean lips (Isaiah 6) the mystery of God would be revealed. The scales that cover our eyes and keep us from reveling in the true nature of God would be gone.
But the Trinity is a mystery because in our fallen nature we could never imagine God being the way that He actually is. To our eyes blinded by sin, the way God reveals Himself looks like foolishness.
During the season of Lent in particular we meditate on the foolishness of the cross. It’s foolishness that Jesus Christ, the Man who is in His very nature God, would die for those who hate Him. It’s foolishness that the Father would desire to sacrifice His innocent Son rather than punish those who actually deserve the Law’s wrath on account of their sin. This is seems impossible to us because we’re sinners. We don’t think as God thinks, or view the world as He does. Our thinking is always self-serving. The self-giving love that moves God to send His Son to die so that we might live, is foreign to our fallen, sinful flesh.
But what is preposterous to us is not preposterous to God. What makes our jaws drop in wonder is the only reality that the Holy Trinity is willing to contemplate. But the outrageous self-giving love of the Holy Trinity doesn’t end with God the Father or even with His Son. God the Holy Spirit is just as liberal in His love as the other persons of the Trinity are. He is equally and fully God, even as the Father and Son are. He too loves us and flawlessly performs His function within the Trinity for what God considers the ultimate Good; namely that we should be freed from the sin which so easily entangles us (Hebrews 12:1) and be restored to His full image and likeness.
Though the Trinity may be a mystery to us some things are plain. The Father, out of profound love and at the greatest possible cost to Himself sent the Son, who at the highest possible cost to Himself subjected Himself to the death penalty that sin demands, in order to free us from it. Once the price had been paid, once amnesty had been gained for all men and for all sins, then the longest battle was just beginning, the one we are in at this present time.
The Father sent the Son, and together they sent the Holy Spirit to impart the blessings of the cross to sinners. To guide us, teach us, comfort us and remind us of all that Jesus said and did. The Spirit’s work is to convince us by His Truth and His Light that sin kills. As children He led us to the Word and Water of baptism. He gave us, even as infants, the gift of a repentant heart and faith to trust in Jesus as our Savior. And it’s His continued work to see that neither the devil, nor the world, nor the flesh molest us, or rob us of the faith that justifies us, nor of the hope and love that faith produces.
In so doing the Spirit gives us back to the Son and the Son, having washed us clean with His blood, gives us back to the Father. The three persons of the Godhead are perfectly united in their gracious will toward us.
At this time we labor beneath a load of sin and temptation. We suffer the effects of our own iniquities, and those of others and there seems to be no end in sight. But there is because we are baptized into the name of the Creating and Sustaining Father who is kindhearted, and the giver of every good gift; who will supply all that’s needed for our temporal and eternal life – there never has been a reason to be afraid. He knows what we need before we ask and He won’t hold back a single blessing from us. We can always rely on Him to be the Father that we need, and the father of fatherless children of which there are so many today.
We’re baptized into the name of the Ruling and Interceding Savior who sits at the Right Hand of God graciously directing the affairs of men, even when it seems that things are spinning out of control. I don’t say we should ignore the things we see in the world or live in a state of denial. That’s not rational. Nor does the Christian faith teach us to live in an imaginary world as Utopians do. But we should know that those who are “kings” in the world have a King to whom they are accountable, namely Jesus who is the King of kings, our Brother and the eternal God. He will see that our enemies don’t triumph over us even when we are unable to defend ourselves. And though He’s at the Right Hand of God He’s also perfectly able to be present among us and to have Holy Communion with us in the Sacrament which is His body and His blood.
We’re baptized into the name of the Holy Spirit who makes us Holy as His name implies. We don’t make ourselves holy. That type of religion is hypocritical. It can only lead a person to despair or to self-righteousness, and nothing is more odious to the church or to the world than self-righteousness.
Let us also remember this Trinity Sunday that God doesn’t come to us in raw form but only through the Word and the Sacraments Jesus established. Nor do these come to us in raw form. We don’t, for example, merely come together, read from the Bible, celebrate the Eucharist and then go home. Instead, these things are enshrined in the church’s liturgy and traditions, which we aren’t free to dismiss. That’s because they aren’t our property, but rather the property church of the ages. They’re passed on to us from previous generations, and it’s our duty to hand them to future ones in good order, this isn’t open to debate.
At this time we labor under many burdens but Jesus is with us just as He promised, and the close of the age is coming when He will give us eternal rest. At that time we will enjoy all the good gifts that the Holy Trinity now declares to us in the Church. Our knowledge of God will be complete, so that we will understand all things. Sin, death and the devil which have been soundly defeated, will be forgotten! All this comes to us from the One, True and Only God there is, the Holy Trinity, the Father Son and Holy Spirit. This is the catholic faith which we confess, and by which we are saved. Amen.
Cleveland, Ohio
June 7, 2009
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
Trinity
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age. Mt. 28:19-20
The Holy Trinity is a mystery. Not because God has hidden Himself from us, or because He wants to keep us in the dark about what sort of God He is. And we don't say that the Trinity is a mystery because God's identity is something that can only be pondered by mystics or theologians. The Holy Trinity is a mystery because of our sin. If we weren’t people of unclean lips (Isaiah 6) the mystery of God would be revealed. The scales that cover our eyes and keep us from reveling in the true nature of God would be gone.
But the Trinity is a mystery because in our fallen nature we could never imagine God being the way that He actually is. To our eyes blinded by sin, the way God reveals Himself looks like foolishness.
During the season of Lent in particular we meditate on the foolishness of the cross. It’s foolishness that Jesus Christ, the Man who is in His very nature God, would die for those who hate Him. It’s foolishness that the Father would desire to sacrifice His innocent Son rather than punish those who actually deserve the Law’s wrath on account of their sin. This is seems impossible to us because we’re sinners. We don’t think as God thinks, or view the world as He does. Our thinking is always self-serving. The self-giving love that moves God to send His Son to die so that we might live, is foreign to our fallen, sinful flesh.
But what is preposterous to us is not preposterous to God. What makes our jaws drop in wonder is the only reality that the Holy Trinity is willing to contemplate. But the outrageous self-giving love of the Holy Trinity doesn’t end with God the Father or even with His Son. God the Holy Spirit is just as liberal in His love as the other persons of the Trinity are. He is equally and fully God, even as the Father and Son are. He too loves us and flawlessly performs His function within the Trinity for what God considers the ultimate Good; namely that we should be freed from the sin which so easily entangles us (Hebrews 12:1) and be restored to His full image and likeness.
Though the Trinity may be a mystery to us some things are plain. The Father, out of profound love and at the greatest possible cost to Himself sent the Son, who at the highest possible cost to Himself subjected Himself to the death penalty that sin demands, in order to free us from it. Once the price had been paid, once amnesty had been gained for all men and for all sins, then the longest battle was just beginning, the one we are in at this present time.
The Father sent the Son, and together they sent the Holy Spirit to impart the blessings of the cross to sinners. To guide us, teach us, comfort us and remind us of all that Jesus said and did. The Spirit’s work is to convince us by His Truth and His Light that sin kills. As children He led us to the Word and Water of baptism. He gave us, even as infants, the gift of a repentant heart and faith to trust in Jesus as our Savior. And it’s His continued work to see that neither the devil, nor the world, nor the flesh molest us, or rob us of the faith that justifies us, nor of the hope and love that faith produces.
In so doing the Spirit gives us back to the Son and the Son, having washed us clean with His blood, gives us back to the Father. The three persons of the Godhead are perfectly united in their gracious will toward us.
At this time we labor beneath a load of sin and temptation. We suffer the effects of our own iniquities, and those of others and there seems to be no end in sight. But there is because we are baptized into the name of the Creating and Sustaining Father who is kindhearted, and the giver of every good gift; who will supply all that’s needed for our temporal and eternal life – there never has been a reason to be afraid. He knows what we need before we ask and He won’t hold back a single blessing from us. We can always rely on Him to be the Father that we need, and the father of fatherless children of which there are so many today.
We’re baptized into the name of the Ruling and Interceding Savior who sits at the Right Hand of God graciously directing the affairs of men, even when it seems that things are spinning out of control. I don’t say we should ignore the things we see in the world or live in a state of denial. That’s not rational. Nor does the Christian faith teach us to live in an imaginary world as Utopians do. But we should know that those who are “kings” in the world have a King to whom they are accountable, namely Jesus who is the King of kings, our Brother and the eternal God. He will see that our enemies don’t triumph over us even when we are unable to defend ourselves. And though He’s at the Right Hand of God He’s also perfectly able to be present among us and to have Holy Communion with us in the Sacrament which is His body and His blood.
We’re baptized into the name of the Holy Spirit who makes us Holy as His name implies. We don’t make ourselves holy. That type of religion is hypocritical. It can only lead a person to despair or to self-righteousness, and nothing is more odious to the church or to the world than self-righteousness.
Let us also remember this Trinity Sunday that God doesn’t come to us in raw form but only through the Word and the Sacraments Jesus established. Nor do these come to us in raw form. We don’t, for example, merely come together, read from the Bible, celebrate the Eucharist and then go home. Instead, these things are enshrined in the church’s liturgy and traditions, which we aren’t free to dismiss. That’s because they aren’t our property, but rather the property church of the ages. They’re passed on to us from previous generations, and it’s our duty to hand them to future ones in good order, this isn’t open to debate.
At this time we labor under many burdens but Jesus is with us just as He promised, and the close of the age is coming when He will give us eternal rest. At that time we will enjoy all the good gifts that the Holy Trinity now declares to us in the Church. Our knowledge of God will be complete, so that we will understand all things. Sin, death and the devil which have been soundly defeated, will be forgotten! All this comes to us from the One, True and Only God there is, the Holy Trinity, the Father Son and Holy Spirit. This is the catholic faith which we confess, and by which we are saved. Amen.
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