Twenty Second Sunday After Pentecost (C) 2016

+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.

Text: Jeremiah 31:33
Theme: A New Covenant

Dear friends in Christ Jesus,

God takes the ‘long’ view of things; the eternal view. The panorama He sees doesn’t fade in the distance like ours; the horizons meet. He sees everything at once. We see what’s in the foreground and beyond that we go forward only in faith. Only in this way does the unreasonable and inaccessible become certain. God is already there, and that’s what we trust. It seemed impossible, but the Israelites were told they could look forward to the realization of God’s blessings. The exile in Babylon wouldn’t finish them off. God would recreate them as a community through their trials. God’s people possessed a worldview that was different from the nations around, one centered on the coming Messiah and His restoration of all things.

As Christianity in the West now struggles to articulate its worldview to an increasingly secular society it’s necessary to revisit foundational truths. We are facing a crisis of authority at the deepest spiritual level. Our society champions individual freedom at the expense of almost everything else. Divine authority is dismissed. But the will of God is not arbitrary. He does not impose restrictions or demand submission for the sheer delight of tormenting human souls. His intentions do not lack rhyme or reason. Our well-being is always in mind even when we can’t see it. The Holy Spirit always works to convict the heart of sin to the end that salvation in Christ will be cherished.

The purposefulness of God’s will underpins the framework of those specific institutions that serve our well-being. Marriage is a particular example under serious threat. Marriage is the building block of stable society. No one can dispute the havoc wreaked on society due to the degradation of marriage. Families splinter and break and the government struggles to provide resources to stabilize those most vulnerable. Marriage also exists so that sexual desire is exercised within healthy parameters. When these boundaries are disregarded heartbreak, heartache, and finally judgment will result. Human consensus can never determine what is an acceptable sexual relationship.

God knows what He’s doing. Our lack of understanding does not invalidate the clear revelation and will of God. It’s foolish to disregard God’s decree on the basis of our ignorance. It’s even more foolish when God’s wisdom coincides with the natural order of biology, as is the case with heterosexual marriage. We shouldn’t be surprised! God is the author of life in all its complexity. He knows how it works!

Even when we misconstrue or lack understanding, we cling to God’s word in faith. Consider St. Paul’s words to Timothy today, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”1 Jesus says, “The Scripture cannot be broken.”2 Without the foundation of God’s Word we are forever tossed to and fro by human opinion. This inevitably ends in grief.

Faith seeks understanding but doesn’t depend on it. It’s like little Johnny who was listening with rapt attention in Sunday School one week. The teacher was covering in some detail how God created everything, including Adam and Eve. Johnny was especially fascinated with the creation of Eve out of one of Adam’s ribs. Later in the week his mother noticed he hadn’t finished his dinner. This was most unusual. She found him on the floor of his room clasping his ribcage. “What’s the matter?” asked his mother. “I feel terrible,” he said, “I think I’m having a wife!” You see, his lack of understanding did not destroy his trust in God’s word. As we mature through the experiences of life the effluence of the world tends to jade us. No wonder Jesus says, “Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of heaven like a little child will never enter it.”3 Lord, grant us such faith!

The Israelites in Babylon also struggled to take God at His word. They especially struggled with the difference between true spiritual repentance and simple remorse. No one can be forced to repent. We can have our activities acutely curtailed. We can have severe punishment doled out to us. Fear of retribution may restrain us from repeating certain behaviors. We can be shamed publicly and privately. Still, these do not constitute repentance. Repentance is a divine action that only the Holy Spirit can accomplish in the heart. We cannot even initiate the action. We only recognize that God is acting upon us. He is the potter; we are the clay.

When reprimanding their children parents usually look for evidence that their kids are contrite. Contrition is genuine sorrow over sin. But this still isn’t the full picture of repentance. Godly repentance, Spirit-wrought repentance entails this contrition, and a turning away from our sin and seeking forgiveness in Christ in true faith and hope. “It is impossible to keep the law without Christ; it is impossible to keep the law without the Holy Spirit…the law always accuses us, it always shows that God is wrathful. We cannot love God until we have grasped His mercy by faith. Only then does he become an object that can be loved.”4

God promised the Israelites saying, “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel…I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be My people…for I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”5 He was telling them to not give up, to not lose hope. The Messiah would come. Salvation would arrive. The parable of the persistent widow today also encourages us to never cease approaching God with our prayers and petitions. God wills to shower us with His good blessings.

The promise of the covenant points to Jesus. Christ is the initiator of the covenant. In Him it is fulfilled. The Scripture says, “Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.”6 “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ.”7 Only Jesus died and rose again for us and for our salvation. These truths are not relics of history; they are present reality. “The Lord Jesus, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”8

The blessings of the covenant are dispensed to us now- in real time and space- not by some spiritual meditation of the past historical event of the last supper, but through Christ’s very presence in His body and blood in this sacrament. In this meal God Himself extends to us the forgiveness earned by Jesus’ crucifixion. Every appearance in God’s house, every participation in this gathering is a return to your baptism. In that sacred act God covenanted with you. We can’t grasp how this is possible pragmatically. But we can certainly understand the references to cleansing and renewal. The power of your baptism is accessed every time sin is confessed and God’s gracious pardon is received. The Spirit renews and reaffirms us in God’s covenant. Now His gifts are ours by faith, but on the Last Day we will possess them without mediation. Amen.

+ In nomine Jesu +

Twenty Second Sunday After Pentecost
16 October, 2016
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt

1 2 Timothy 3:16 2 John 10:35 3 Luke 18:7
4 AP IV 5 Jeremiah 31:33-34 6 Hebrews 9:15
7 2 Corinthians 1:20 8 1 Corinthians 11:23-26