+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: Luke 20:36
Theme: Children of the Resurrection
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Every Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection. And it’s not only a joyous remembrance; it’s a participation in the life and power of the living Jesus. Christ is in our midst through His word and Spirit, and His body and blood. We gather as the baptized people of the heavenly Father and we are strengthened for life and witness in confused and chaotic world. And as we think about the faithful who have gone before us we remember that Jesus says today that He is the God of the living. He has ultimate authority because He has silenced death.
The authority of Jesus was routinely challenged during His earthly ministry. Today the Sadducees refer to a tradition of the Levites in which a man would marry the widow of a deceased brother in order to keep the family name alive. They do so, however, with the intent of trapping Jesus. The circumstances proposed are nearly impossible to imagine. It is theoretically possible that six brothers in the same family die in succession while seeking to extend the family name of the first brother; but it is basically absurd. Jesus doesn’t even address the particularities of the custom because they have the matter all wrong anyway. Earthly marriage is transcended in heaven by the believer’s union with God. All human relationships are perfected and superseded in eternity. Like the angels, we will be beyond the institution of earthly marriage. So, that question is mute. Jesus moves on to other matters.
The Sadducees didn’t believe in a physical resurrection (or in the existence of angels). This is the point Christ will focus on. Here is a remarkable statement from Jesus, “In the account of the bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.”1 Even now, Jesus says, the faithful of the past generations are alive with God.
Believers do not become angels when they go to heaven. Human beings are not turned into angelic beings. For some time now the idea has been circulating that when so and so dies they float up to heaven, become an angel and watch over people on earth. There is no biblical basis for such sentimentality. Believers will be bodily resurrected on the Last Day and will experience heaven in a perfected physicality. This promise is the basis for our hope and joy.
Dear friends, our great challenge and privilege to live in this world in such a selfless manner that people will take notice. Satan, of course, will do everything he can to prevent it. People mistakenly think that Christians are not prone to temptation. But it's when the Holy Spirit is active in your hearts that the struggle is engaged. A tussle ensues; a spiritual battle. The believer is still vulnerable to sin, but the very thought of it is a burden to the conscience. The flesh vies with the Spirit. The believer is still beset by selfishness, greed, impatience, uncharitableness, and many other temptations. On the one hand, the believer desires to follow God’s will and so wants to actively resist anything that transgresses His commands. On the other hand, selfish desires spring forward and the will of God and the welfare of the neighbour are easily forgotten. Sometimes it seems to be a hopelessly confused situation. Truly we are saints and sinners at the same time.
Still, this is not a cause for fear, but a reason for hope. God knows our shortcomings. He knows exactly when we are vulnerable. The Scripture says, “God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”2 In this life we will never be free from the temptation to disobey God and please ourselves. It often seems that transgressions go unnoticed by Him. But judgment is certain. Repentance is always in order. There is no perfection this side of heaven. Guilt is either borne by Jesus in His sacrificial work on the cross or it remains with the sinner who chooses to reject God’s divine mercy. The Holy Spirit always seeks out struggling souls in dark corners of humanity.
The world is becoming a dark place. In the West, we still have some semblance of what the Bible refers to as a “form of godliness”, but there’s no evidence that hearts and minds have been changed. St Paul warns against those who are “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God- having a form of godliness but denying its power.”3 We are now living under a veneer of ‘godliness’. The cultural elites present themselves as enlightened, humane, and defenders of the rights of the vulnerable. Meanwhile, greed, power, and control dominate the agenda. Public discourse is often carefully choreographed. The parameters of discussion are changing. Our society talks about ethics, but not morality. We are insensitive to evil but hyper-tuned to political correctness. We are zealous for rights but dismissive of responsibilities. We want to be served rather than to serve. God is not revered as Creator or feared as Judge.
In this gathering darkness (a darkness that glitters with artificial twinkle) the guiding light of Christ does not falter. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”4 We can have confidence that evil will not finally prevail. We know that the Bible and all the plans and purposes of God revealed there will fail us. In the midst of turmoil, we have the steady presence of the Spirit so even Jesus’ return will not panic us. Remember Paul’s advice today, “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come.”5
Dear friends, it’s no good having a distant, disconnected, and dis-embodied Jesus. Thankfully, that’s not what we have. He said to His disciples, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am.”6 The crucified Jesus is risen. We are His baptized. We dine at His table. We are being prepared for greater things to come. Heaven involves the experience of God’s blessing without the need for mediation. The future life will not be lacking a physical dimension any more than the present one is. Sin’s power is already broken, but in the future life all consequences of evil will be completely nonexistent. We will be enthralled with the majesty of the almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are children of the resurrection. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Twenty Fifth Sunday After Pentecost
6 November, 2016
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Luke 20:37-38 2 1 Corinthians 10:13 3 2 Timothy 2:4-5
4 Hebrews 13:8 5 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2 6 John 14:2-3
Monday, November 7, 2016
Monday, October 31, 2016
Reformation 2016
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: John 8:32
Theme: Freedom In The Truth
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
God is not an aloof historian. His interest in human affairs is more than academic. He oversees human society to the end that the gospel of His Son has opportunity to be proclaimed to all nations. It necessitates His presence and intervention. Sometimes dramatic transformations result. On the 31st of October, 1517 an energetic Augustinian monk named Martin Luther posted theses for discussion on the castle church door in Wittenberg, Germany. Historians have marked this as the beginning of an event called the Reformation. It initiated a massive upheaval within Christendom, the consequences of which still continue today.
Luther was not intentionally rebellious, nor did he have a sectarian spirit. One key difference between Luther and those who preceded him was his understanding of the authority of Scripture. Unlike others, who more or less followed the church’s line of interpretation and found their niche within it, Luther’s conscience became formed by, and completely subservient to, the Holy Scriptures. Truth was no longer determined by church tradition, or human reason, but by God’s Word alone. Focus on the Bible led to one of the Reformation’s rallying cries being “Scripture Alone!” (Sola Scriptura) On the foundation of Scripture church and society worked through a fundamental renovation.
Next year will mark 500 years since that history changing event. We live in different times, a changed culture, and a different age. Of course, that’s not a new reality for the church to deal with. Culture is constantly transmuting. Individuals, however, remain unchanged in their basic makeup. Every child conceived comes into existence under the domination of sin. All are turned in on themselves, separated from God, living in spiritual darkness. This truth is an unalterable cornerstone in the Christian worldview. Any capitulation on the reality of sin leads inevitably to a skewed understanding of the need for, and means of, salvation.
Luther was a brilliant preacher of the gospel because he had a profound understanding of sin. In the footsteps of Saint Paul he called believers to a sobering recognition of human need. Satan is no paper tiger and hell is no imaginary place. God’s grace in Christ is therefore not only earth-shattering, but it makes or breaks one’s destiny in eternity. Jesus says, “If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free…if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”1 True freedom involves being released from the eternal consequences of sin.
It’s this peace of heart and mind that Luther desperately sought. But until his “rediscovery” of the gospel, like so many others, he looked for it in the wrong places. God could not be appeased, except by the blood of Jesus. The Scriptures began to come clear to Luther. “There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all”2 “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”3 “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith…it is the gift of God-not by works…”4 Luther recognized that we are declared righteous by God’s work in Christ, through faith (Sola Fide). Salvation cannot be earned. It is by grace (Sola Gratia).
When Satan pressed his advantage severely, when Luther’s soul and conscience were under relentless attack, Luther said, “I am baptized.” He didn’t fall back on his own ingenuity, strength, or piety but on the redeeming act of Christ accomplished in his baptism. Luther knew that the death and resurrection of Jesus remained only a distant, historical fact until the Holy Spirit incorporated him into God’s covenantal promise through baptism. Without grace we don’t have a God of love but a God of judgment. So, grace was the context in which Luther understood his baptism. Baptism involves a divine rescue. In baptism God’s salvation is made accessible.
The availability of God’s grace is the perennial concern of the church. Today the cry to be relevant is being shouted at the church. Reactions have varied. Some bury their heads in the sand. Others survey the society to see what changes they’d like made and introduce them accordingly. Still others circle the wagons and try to isolate themselves from the prevailing culture. A quick canvassing of Christian bodies reveals an almost inconceivable diversity of practice and belief. Some Christians don’t believe God created the universe and so cannot confess the beginning of the creeds with integrity. Others don’t believe an omnipotent God will bring history to a close and judge the living and the dead, and so cannot confess the end of the creeds without damage to conscience. Still others doubt whether Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation, and so are estranged from the very heart and centre of the creeds. Issues like homosexuality, abortion, and euthanasia further complicate the landscape. In all cases, biblical authority is compromised to one degree or another.
St. Jude addressed believers saying, “I found it very necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”5 The word of God is unalterable. The church must respond to the changing situation of society. But, thank God that His love for us in Christ does not change. The claim has been made that the culture today is similar to what it was in the First century when Christ was born in the world. People were living in the darkness of idolatry and unbelief. There are many similarities, to be sure. Yet, today, the church has the task of preaching the gospel not to world that hasn’t heard it (as was the case in the First century), but to one who has heard and has rejected it. Today’s world is aggressively deconstructing the Christian worldview.
Dear friends, when there is no confidence and no certainty, that sins have been remitted the sinner labours under the burden of guilt and doubt. Without absolute confidence that transgressions have been absolved the soul is never freed. That was the overarching concern of Luther. That is the concern of the Scriptures. That is the apostolic concern. That is the concern of Christ. It is the concern of the Holy Spirit. When sins are retained the door of heaven is locked. The surgical precision of the law is left to do its work. Only the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection can open the gates of heaven. The Scripture says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”6
Jesus Christ came to shepherd the flock of God not exploit it. He came to free from the power of addiction. He came to release from the regret of failure. He came to liberate from the fear of death. He is light in our darkness. He is an island of truth in a sea of deceit. He is the unshakeable foundation in a world of instability. He is the Bridegroom full of compassion. He is the Husband armed with strength. He is peace in the midst of turmoil. His righteousness alone covers the sinner. His forgiveness is ours in the water of baptism, the words of absolution, and the body and blood of Holy Communion. And the life of cross bearing has proper meaning and purpose because grace raises everyone’s status in the eyes of God to the level of His Son.
Luther recovered the proper understanding of vocation. It was one of his most personal and bitter struggles. The devoted person who faithfully goes about his or her calling each day- regardless of how insignificant or mundane it may appear- is just as important of a servant of God as the pastor, the high government official, or the famous person. God loves the neighbour through the countless everyday acts of service and self-sacrifice.
We may be nearly 500 years removed from the Reformation. But God is no further removed from us. People naturally want to be spared from the adversities of life. But God doesn’t promise to remove us from life’s trials. He promises to be in our midst. He is with us in suffering. He carries us when we can no longer walk. He is our refuge and strength. Both time and eternity are in His hands. Thanks be to God! Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Reformation (Observed)
30 October, 2016
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 8:31-32, 36 2 1 Timothy 2:5-6 3 John 1:29
4 Ephesians 2:8-9 5 Jude 1:3 6 Romans 3:23-24
Text: John 8:32
Theme: Freedom In The Truth
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
God is not an aloof historian. His interest in human affairs is more than academic. He oversees human society to the end that the gospel of His Son has opportunity to be proclaimed to all nations. It necessitates His presence and intervention. Sometimes dramatic transformations result. On the 31st of October, 1517 an energetic Augustinian monk named Martin Luther posted theses for discussion on the castle church door in Wittenberg, Germany. Historians have marked this as the beginning of an event called the Reformation. It initiated a massive upheaval within Christendom, the consequences of which still continue today.
Luther was not intentionally rebellious, nor did he have a sectarian spirit. One key difference between Luther and those who preceded him was his understanding of the authority of Scripture. Unlike others, who more or less followed the church’s line of interpretation and found their niche within it, Luther’s conscience became formed by, and completely subservient to, the Holy Scriptures. Truth was no longer determined by church tradition, or human reason, but by God’s Word alone. Focus on the Bible led to one of the Reformation’s rallying cries being “Scripture Alone!” (Sola Scriptura) On the foundation of Scripture church and society worked through a fundamental renovation.
Next year will mark 500 years since that history changing event. We live in different times, a changed culture, and a different age. Of course, that’s not a new reality for the church to deal with. Culture is constantly transmuting. Individuals, however, remain unchanged in their basic makeup. Every child conceived comes into existence under the domination of sin. All are turned in on themselves, separated from God, living in spiritual darkness. This truth is an unalterable cornerstone in the Christian worldview. Any capitulation on the reality of sin leads inevitably to a skewed understanding of the need for, and means of, salvation.
Luther was a brilliant preacher of the gospel because he had a profound understanding of sin. In the footsteps of Saint Paul he called believers to a sobering recognition of human need. Satan is no paper tiger and hell is no imaginary place. God’s grace in Christ is therefore not only earth-shattering, but it makes or breaks one’s destiny in eternity. Jesus says, “If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free…if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”1 True freedom involves being released from the eternal consequences of sin.
It’s this peace of heart and mind that Luther desperately sought. But until his “rediscovery” of the gospel, like so many others, he looked for it in the wrong places. God could not be appeased, except by the blood of Jesus. The Scriptures began to come clear to Luther. “There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all”2 “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”3 “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith…it is the gift of God-not by works…”4 Luther recognized that we are declared righteous by God’s work in Christ, through faith (Sola Fide). Salvation cannot be earned. It is by grace (Sola Gratia).
When Satan pressed his advantage severely, when Luther’s soul and conscience were under relentless attack, Luther said, “I am baptized.” He didn’t fall back on his own ingenuity, strength, or piety but on the redeeming act of Christ accomplished in his baptism. Luther knew that the death and resurrection of Jesus remained only a distant, historical fact until the Holy Spirit incorporated him into God’s covenantal promise through baptism. Without grace we don’t have a God of love but a God of judgment. So, grace was the context in which Luther understood his baptism. Baptism involves a divine rescue. In baptism God’s salvation is made accessible.
The availability of God’s grace is the perennial concern of the church. Today the cry to be relevant is being shouted at the church. Reactions have varied. Some bury their heads in the sand. Others survey the society to see what changes they’d like made and introduce them accordingly. Still others circle the wagons and try to isolate themselves from the prevailing culture. A quick canvassing of Christian bodies reveals an almost inconceivable diversity of practice and belief. Some Christians don’t believe God created the universe and so cannot confess the beginning of the creeds with integrity. Others don’t believe an omnipotent God will bring history to a close and judge the living and the dead, and so cannot confess the end of the creeds without damage to conscience. Still others doubt whether Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation, and so are estranged from the very heart and centre of the creeds. Issues like homosexuality, abortion, and euthanasia further complicate the landscape. In all cases, biblical authority is compromised to one degree or another.
St. Jude addressed believers saying, “I found it very necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”5 The word of God is unalterable. The church must respond to the changing situation of society. But, thank God that His love for us in Christ does not change. The claim has been made that the culture today is similar to what it was in the First century when Christ was born in the world. People were living in the darkness of idolatry and unbelief. There are many similarities, to be sure. Yet, today, the church has the task of preaching the gospel not to world that hasn’t heard it (as was the case in the First century), but to one who has heard and has rejected it. Today’s world is aggressively deconstructing the Christian worldview.
Dear friends, when there is no confidence and no certainty, that sins have been remitted the sinner labours under the burden of guilt and doubt. Without absolute confidence that transgressions have been absolved the soul is never freed. That was the overarching concern of Luther. That is the concern of the Scriptures. That is the apostolic concern. That is the concern of Christ. It is the concern of the Holy Spirit. When sins are retained the door of heaven is locked. The surgical precision of the law is left to do its work. Only the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection can open the gates of heaven. The Scripture says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”6
Jesus Christ came to shepherd the flock of God not exploit it. He came to free from the power of addiction. He came to release from the regret of failure. He came to liberate from the fear of death. He is light in our darkness. He is an island of truth in a sea of deceit. He is the unshakeable foundation in a world of instability. He is the Bridegroom full of compassion. He is the Husband armed with strength. He is peace in the midst of turmoil. His righteousness alone covers the sinner. His forgiveness is ours in the water of baptism, the words of absolution, and the body and blood of Holy Communion. And the life of cross bearing has proper meaning and purpose because grace raises everyone’s status in the eyes of God to the level of His Son.
Luther recovered the proper understanding of vocation. It was one of his most personal and bitter struggles. The devoted person who faithfully goes about his or her calling each day- regardless of how insignificant or mundane it may appear- is just as important of a servant of God as the pastor, the high government official, or the famous person. God loves the neighbour through the countless everyday acts of service and self-sacrifice.
We may be nearly 500 years removed from the Reformation. But God is no further removed from us. People naturally want to be spared from the adversities of life. But God doesn’t promise to remove us from life’s trials. He promises to be in our midst. He is with us in suffering. He carries us when we can no longer walk. He is our refuge and strength. Both time and eternity are in His hands. Thanks be to God! Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Reformation (Observed)
30 October, 2016
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 8:31-32, 36 2 1 Timothy 2:5-6 3 John 1:29
4 Ephesians 2:8-9 5 Jude 1:3 6 Romans 3:23-24
Monday, October 24, 2016
Twenty Third Sunday After Pentecost (C) 2016
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: Luke 18:13
Theme: Mercy For The Sinner
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
God reads the heart. Those whose hearts are filled with evil intent should take careful notice of this truth. Those who are seeking God’s forgiveness should take great comfort. Christ has come for sinners. No one is beyond the pale of His mercy. No one is so far gone that Jesus cannot redeem them. The event of the cross accomplished an atonement so infinite human depravity can never exhaust it. Through the power of Jesus’s death and resurrection the believer’s sinfulness is exchanged for Christ’s righteousness. That is the implication of our baptism. We are His forgiven people.
Today the Holy Spirit intends to shatter a widely held stereotype about what it looks like to be right with God. Jesus’ target audience is clearly defined. “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else…”1 The Pharisees are clearly in Jesus’ sights. The listeners would have been familiar with the context. Daily sacrifices took place in the temple at 9am and 3pm. It was customary for people to come for corporate prayers at these times. Private prayers could be made at any time but were often made at these scheduled public times also. Faithful Jews were not remiss in their observance.
The contrast in the parable is stark and easily identified. Two men are at the temple praying. One is a Pharisee, the other is a tax collector. The Pharisee makes a public show of his piety. He’s there to proudly remind others of his status and standing. The tax collector humbly pours out his heart before God. He’s not looking for praise from men but mercy from God. Both are engaged in the same activity at the same time. Contrary to the social expectation of the day, it’s the tax collector, not the Pharisee, who goes home justified.
The critical issue lies right at the heart of Christ’s redeeming work. Trust in our own righteousness is the height of idolatry. We might think it’s easy to excuse ourselves of this transgression in our day and age. After all, we live in a culture of affluence, skepticism, and the exaltation of the scientific method. The idols of materialism, human philosophies, and technology must surely be the prime candidates. But let’s come at it from a different angle. Is the favour of God and admittance into His eternal kingdom an assumption that we make? Do we believe, that in spite of our faults, we’re passable in God’s sight? Belief in the inherent goodness of the human makeup is the foundation of self-righteousness. If we are basically good, what need is there for a Saviour? The Pharisee gave thanks to God but did not seek His mercy. He was putting his own worthiness on display, not God’s compassion.
The Holy Spirit has a difficult job under these circumstances. His task is not to rebuke the sinner for crass transgressions (like the theft or adultery the Pharisee mentions in his prayer), but for the underlying cause- the belief that God has no right to stand in judgment. Jesus says that when the Holy Spirit comes, “He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.”2 His judgment can be ignored but never avoided. Confidence that God has no right to stand in judgment is the basis of all human arrogance. All false and naïve hopes- held in ignorance or arrogance- will be shattered when He comes again “with glory to judge the living and the dead.”3
The tax collector is depicted in sharp contrast to the Pharisee. His plea is candid and heart-felt. “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”4 He recognizes his need to be liberated from the consequence of his sin. He stands at a distance from other people, yet hoping that God is near. His hope is not in vain. The Scripture says, “The Lord is near to the broken hearted and saved the crushed in spirit.”5 And again, “The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.”6 Indeed, God is near to us in Christ, right in our midst. He is near in the words of absolution and His body and blood in Holy Communion. He was near to the tax collector and He is near to us.
Yet, there are many who do not want to hear this message of God’s presence. The call of society is to spin the message in a different way. The way we say things is important. But the manner in which we say things should never compromise the content of what we say. The truth cannot be sacrificed. There’s no place in the church’s corporate conversation for political spin. The following light-hearted example might be instructive: A certain man and his wife owned a poodle. They lived in a three-story home with a balcony on the third level overlooking a lake. The dog was especially precious to the wife. The wife went on a trip overseas. She called home on the first day and asked her husband, “How are things?” He said plainly, “The dog’s dead!” She was devastated. After collecting her thoughts, she asked, “Why do you do that? Why can’t you be more tactful?” He said, “Well, what do you want me to say? The dog died.” She replied, “Well, you can give it to me in stages. For example, you could have said, ‘The dog went out on the balcony.’ And then when I travel to London the next day and call, you could tell me, ‘Honey, the dog fell and had to be taken to the vet. In fact, he’s in the hospital and not doing well.’ And finally, when I call you from Rome, ‘Honey, brace yourself. Our dog died.’ I could handle that.” The husband paused and said, “Oh, I see.” Then she asked, “By the way, how’s my mother?” He said, “She’s on the balcony.”
The apostle says, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience.”7 As Christians we are charged with knowing what we believe, not so we can pride ourselves on our learning, but so we can be faithful witnesses to those who doubt, those who live without the truth, and those who oppose it. There are no shortcuts here. The Holy Spirit molds, shapes, and refines us through the dynamics and tensions of bearing Christ’s name in the world. It’s always on-the-job-training.
Dear friends, there’s really no easy way to break the bad news that we’re sinners. We’re all in desperate need of God’s forgiveness. But that makes the truth of God’s love in Christ all the more treasured. Sin, Satan, and hell are conquered by Jesus’s saving work. We have purpose now and a bright future ahead. These are truly reasons to celebrate. God supplies everything the believer lacks, most importantly, power over death itself. Remember, Jesus Christ is risen from the dead!
Who knows what pangs of conscience Jesus wants the hearer to envision that this tax collector was suffering? Was his career ruined? Was his family in crisis? Was his heart rent by some trauma? It makes no difference. It’s the same for us. The mercy of God would not be denied him. The demeanour of his heart was reflected in the posture of his prayer. He, and not the Pharisee, went home as the forgiven child of God. It’s the same forgiveness that opens the door of our eternal home. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Twenty Third Sunday After Pentecost
23 October, 2016
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Luke 18:9 2 John 16:8 3 The Nicene Creed
4 Luke 18:13 5 Psalm 34:18 6 Psalm 145:18
7 1 Peter 3:15-16 8 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Text: Luke 18:13
Theme: Mercy For The Sinner
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
God reads the heart. Those whose hearts are filled with evil intent should take careful notice of this truth. Those who are seeking God’s forgiveness should take great comfort. Christ has come for sinners. No one is beyond the pale of His mercy. No one is so far gone that Jesus cannot redeem them. The event of the cross accomplished an atonement so infinite human depravity can never exhaust it. Through the power of Jesus’s death and resurrection the believer’s sinfulness is exchanged for Christ’s righteousness. That is the implication of our baptism. We are His forgiven people.
Today the Holy Spirit intends to shatter a widely held stereotype about what it looks like to be right with God. Jesus’ target audience is clearly defined. “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else…”1 The Pharisees are clearly in Jesus’ sights. The listeners would have been familiar with the context. Daily sacrifices took place in the temple at 9am and 3pm. It was customary for people to come for corporate prayers at these times. Private prayers could be made at any time but were often made at these scheduled public times also. Faithful Jews were not remiss in their observance.
The contrast in the parable is stark and easily identified. Two men are at the temple praying. One is a Pharisee, the other is a tax collector. The Pharisee makes a public show of his piety. He’s there to proudly remind others of his status and standing. The tax collector humbly pours out his heart before God. He’s not looking for praise from men but mercy from God. Both are engaged in the same activity at the same time. Contrary to the social expectation of the day, it’s the tax collector, not the Pharisee, who goes home justified.
The critical issue lies right at the heart of Christ’s redeeming work. Trust in our own righteousness is the height of idolatry. We might think it’s easy to excuse ourselves of this transgression in our day and age. After all, we live in a culture of affluence, skepticism, and the exaltation of the scientific method. The idols of materialism, human philosophies, and technology must surely be the prime candidates. But let’s come at it from a different angle. Is the favour of God and admittance into His eternal kingdom an assumption that we make? Do we believe, that in spite of our faults, we’re passable in God’s sight? Belief in the inherent goodness of the human makeup is the foundation of self-righteousness. If we are basically good, what need is there for a Saviour? The Pharisee gave thanks to God but did not seek His mercy. He was putting his own worthiness on display, not God’s compassion.
The Holy Spirit has a difficult job under these circumstances. His task is not to rebuke the sinner for crass transgressions (like the theft or adultery the Pharisee mentions in his prayer), but for the underlying cause- the belief that God has no right to stand in judgment. Jesus says that when the Holy Spirit comes, “He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.”2 His judgment can be ignored but never avoided. Confidence that God has no right to stand in judgment is the basis of all human arrogance. All false and naïve hopes- held in ignorance or arrogance- will be shattered when He comes again “with glory to judge the living and the dead.”3
The tax collector is depicted in sharp contrast to the Pharisee. His plea is candid and heart-felt. “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”4 He recognizes his need to be liberated from the consequence of his sin. He stands at a distance from other people, yet hoping that God is near. His hope is not in vain. The Scripture says, “The Lord is near to the broken hearted and saved the crushed in spirit.”5 And again, “The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.”6 Indeed, God is near to us in Christ, right in our midst. He is near in the words of absolution and His body and blood in Holy Communion. He was near to the tax collector and He is near to us.
Yet, there are many who do not want to hear this message of God’s presence. The call of society is to spin the message in a different way. The way we say things is important. But the manner in which we say things should never compromise the content of what we say. The truth cannot be sacrificed. There’s no place in the church’s corporate conversation for political spin. The following light-hearted example might be instructive: A certain man and his wife owned a poodle. They lived in a three-story home with a balcony on the third level overlooking a lake. The dog was especially precious to the wife. The wife went on a trip overseas. She called home on the first day and asked her husband, “How are things?” He said plainly, “The dog’s dead!” She was devastated. After collecting her thoughts, she asked, “Why do you do that? Why can’t you be more tactful?” He said, “Well, what do you want me to say? The dog died.” She replied, “Well, you can give it to me in stages. For example, you could have said, ‘The dog went out on the balcony.’ And then when I travel to London the next day and call, you could tell me, ‘Honey, the dog fell and had to be taken to the vet. In fact, he’s in the hospital and not doing well.’ And finally, when I call you from Rome, ‘Honey, brace yourself. Our dog died.’ I could handle that.” The husband paused and said, “Oh, I see.” Then she asked, “By the way, how’s my mother?” He said, “She’s on the balcony.”
The apostle says, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience.”7 As Christians we are charged with knowing what we believe, not so we can pride ourselves on our learning, but so we can be faithful witnesses to those who doubt, those who live without the truth, and those who oppose it. There are no shortcuts here. The Holy Spirit molds, shapes, and refines us through the dynamics and tensions of bearing Christ’s name in the world. It’s always on-the-job-training.
Dear friends, there’s really no easy way to break the bad news that we’re sinners. We’re all in desperate need of God’s forgiveness. But that makes the truth of God’s love in Christ all the more treasured. Sin, Satan, and hell are conquered by Jesus’s saving work. We have purpose now and a bright future ahead. These are truly reasons to celebrate. God supplies everything the believer lacks, most importantly, power over death itself. Remember, Jesus Christ is risen from the dead!
Who knows what pangs of conscience Jesus wants the hearer to envision that this tax collector was suffering? Was his career ruined? Was his family in crisis? Was his heart rent by some trauma? It makes no difference. It’s the same for us. The mercy of God would not be denied him. The demeanour of his heart was reflected in the posture of his prayer. He, and not the Pharisee, went home as the forgiven child of God. It’s the same forgiveness that opens the door of our eternal home. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Twenty Third Sunday After Pentecost
23 October, 2016
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Luke 18:9 2 John 16:8 3 The Nicene Creed
4 Luke 18:13 5 Psalm 34:18 6 Psalm 145:18
7 1 Peter 3:15-16 8 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Monday, October 17, 2016
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
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
Funeral of Gertrud Agnes Graue 12 October 2016
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: John 14:3
Theme: Not Forgetting To Come Back
Dear friends, loved ones, and family of Gert, her children, and especially you, Elmor,
“I will come back and take you to be with Me,”1 this is the promise of Him who has traversed death and opened heaven, even Jesus Christ, our Lord. This He has done for Gert Graue. She is in His presence. Freed from all sin, released from all struggle, the profundity of her peace is beyond our knowing. God has not forgotten her. The Scripture says, “He remembers his covenant forever, the word that He commanded, for a thousand generations.”2 Thanks be to God for His immeasurable love!
On more than one occasion the Scriptures credit God with remembering. God remembered Noah, his family and the animals on the ark. He resettled them in a world cleansed from unbelief. God remembered Abraham at the time Lot was spared while Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. God remembered Rachel when she was barren and she conceived and bore a son. He doesn't, of course, have amnesia. He doesn't suffer from poor recall. It's the Bible’s way to express that fact that when human hope is at its lowest, when people have all but forgotten what could have been, when the dream has been let go of, its then that God returns, if you will, to make good on His promise.
God's remembering is tied with rescue, restoration, and redemption. Gert may not have always remembered. In the end she may not have remembered the names, faces, and particular characteristics even of those dearest to her. But the integrity of her memory was not critical for her standing before God. To say that faith is destroyed by failing memory is to misunderstand the nature of the Holy Spirit's gift. God looks after His elect. The brain is not the only part of the body that has capacity for memory. The heart also stores it. God reads the heart.
Gathering to reflect on the death of a loved one is sobering business. It rightly draws our attention to critical truths. Human mortality is not an imaginary threat. Death reveals the ultimate vulnerability of the human condition. The Bible says when sin matures it leads to death. To ignore the consequences of sin is the greatest foolishness. Our false senses of security soon come to grief if the final implication of lacking the righteousness God requires is not resolved before we take our last breath. Then we are like children building sandcastles while ignorant of the rising tide. Children may pick up their gear and in turn be lifted by their parents to safety. The fun is over. The game is finished. No harm is done. But death allows no such childish indulgences. It is not make-believe. The quicksand of sin prevents our movement. We face the punishing surf unable to retreat. Mortality requires divine intervention. Christ rescues the believer from the horrifying prospect of eternal separation from God. Maturity demands sobriety. Sobriety is the only true foundation for joy.
And joy is the truth that prevails in our celebration today. Gert was God’s baptized child. To remember that Gert is baptized is to remember that God has made to her an irrevocable promise. The Bible says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”3
So what accompanies the believer across the threshold of death? What integral, essential part of us makes the transition? Not our accomplishments. Not our failures. Not our embarrassments or fears. Certainly not any material possessions we've accumulated. The only thing that does is the only thing that matters: Our identity in Christ. Baptism opens the door to heaven through which the believer passes at death and awaits the bodily resurrection. It all happens through His grace.
In the end every attempt to commend ourselves, to justify ourselves, to put forward even a lifetime of evidence; including our self-deprecations or false humilities is an offence to the irreproachable holiness of the Almighty. In the end it's all about Christ, or all of our efforts are an exercise in futility. It's not Christ in addition to us. It's Christ alone. We are saved by grace, through faith, by Jesus' sacrifice for our sins. There is no other Saviour. There is no other way. In Him death is defeated, Satan is silenced, the gates of hell are barred shut.
Gert was not enjoying life in the last days. It's not simply a vacuous platitude to say that God has His reasons for allowing the circumstances that attend each person when death draws near. In humility of faith we allow God to be God. Why did He allow Gert's health to fail? Why did she seem to have cruel burdens to bear in the end? We limit our speculation and we look to the cross. Jesus died and rose again that all who believe in Him might have life. We cling to the promise that says, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."4
Gert’s journey of faith has ended. The most important evidence of faith is not the rare act of exceptional service, but the daily commitment to live in one’s vocation in a faithful and godly manner. To be a faithful wife and mother. To strive at loving God and neighbour, knowing that we fail, but believing that Christ succeeded. Gert persevered at these things following the voice of the Good Shepherd. Gert and Elmor’s wedding text was from John chapter 10, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”5 Gert no longer has to strain out competing voices from that of the true Shepherd. She is safely in His hands.
Of course, we still grieve. The primary venue for the grieving Christian is not the cemetery, but the church. The cemetery may contain the material remains of the deceased, it is a place of remembrance; but the church is the assembly of the faithful transcending time and space. It is here that God ‘remembers’ us. Elmor, go to the cemetery to honour Gert. But come to the church to thank God for the blessing that she was. Here is where sorrow transitions to acceptance, then to hope, then to gratitude. Here is where we have the continuity of God’s love across the generations. Gert Graue may not have been able to express her memory in the last days, but God has not forgotten her. Her last day has come. She is in His presence, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and all the hosts of heaven. In this we rejoice. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Christian Burial of Gertrud Graue
12 October, 2016
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 14:3
2 Psalm 105:8
3 1 Peter 1:5
4 Revelation 21:4
5 John 11:27-28
Text: John 14:3
Theme: Not Forgetting To Come Back
Dear friends, loved ones, and family of Gert, her children, and especially you, Elmor,
“I will come back and take you to be with Me,”1 this is the promise of Him who has traversed death and opened heaven, even Jesus Christ, our Lord. This He has done for Gert Graue. She is in His presence. Freed from all sin, released from all struggle, the profundity of her peace is beyond our knowing. God has not forgotten her. The Scripture says, “He remembers his covenant forever, the word that He commanded, for a thousand generations.”2 Thanks be to God for His immeasurable love!
On more than one occasion the Scriptures credit God with remembering. God remembered Noah, his family and the animals on the ark. He resettled them in a world cleansed from unbelief. God remembered Abraham at the time Lot was spared while Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. God remembered Rachel when she was barren and she conceived and bore a son. He doesn't, of course, have amnesia. He doesn't suffer from poor recall. It's the Bible’s way to express that fact that when human hope is at its lowest, when people have all but forgotten what could have been, when the dream has been let go of, its then that God returns, if you will, to make good on His promise.
God's remembering is tied with rescue, restoration, and redemption. Gert may not have always remembered. In the end she may not have remembered the names, faces, and particular characteristics even of those dearest to her. But the integrity of her memory was not critical for her standing before God. To say that faith is destroyed by failing memory is to misunderstand the nature of the Holy Spirit's gift. God looks after His elect. The brain is not the only part of the body that has capacity for memory. The heart also stores it. God reads the heart.
Gathering to reflect on the death of a loved one is sobering business. It rightly draws our attention to critical truths. Human mortality is not an imaginary threat. Death reveals the ultimate vulnerability of the human condition. The Bible says when sin matures it leads to death. To ignore the consequences of sin is the greatest foolishness. Our false senses of security soon come to grief if the final implication of lacking the righteousness God requires is not resolved before we take our last breath. Then we are like children building sandcastles while ignorant of the rising tide. Children may pick up their gear and in turn be lifted by their parents to safety. The fun is over. The game is finished. No harm is done. But death allows no such childish indulgences. It is not make-believe. The quicksand of sin prevents our movement. We face the punishing surf unable to retreat. Mortality requires divine intervention. Christ rescues the believer from the horrifying prospect of eternal separation from God. Maturity demands sobriety. Sobriety is the only true foundation for joy.
And joy is the truth that prevails in our celebration today. Gert was God’s baptized child. To remember that Gert is baptized is to remember that God has made to her an irrevocable promise. The Bible says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”3
So what accompanies the believer across the threshold of death? What integral, essential part of us makes the transition? Not our accomplishments. Not our failures. Not our embarrassments or fears. Certainly not any material possessions we've accumulated. The only thing that does is the only thing that matters: Our identity in Christ. Baptism opens the door to heaven through which the believer passes at death and awaits the bodily resurrection. It all happens through His grace.
In the end every attempt to commend ourselves, to justify ourselves, to put forward even a lifetime of evidence; including our self-deprecations or false humilities is an offence to the irreproachable holiness of the Almighty. In the end it's all about Christ, or all of our efforts are an exercise in futility. It's not Christ in addition to us. It's Christ alone. We are saved by grace, through faith, by Jesus' sacrifice for our sins. There is no other Saviour. There is no other way. In Him death is defeated, Satan is silenced, the gates of hell are barred shut.
Gert was not enjoying life in the last days. It's not simply a vacuous platitude to say that God has His reasons for allowing the circumstances that attend each person when death draws near. In humility of faith we allow God to be God. Why did He allow Gert's health to fail? Why did she seem to have cruel burdens to bear in the end? We limit our speculation and we look to the cross. Jesus died and rose again that all who believe in Him might have life. We cling to the promise that says, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."4
Gert’s journey of faith has ended. The most important evidence of faith is not the rare act of exceptional service, but the daily commitment to live in one’s vocation in a faithful and godly manner. To be a faithful wife and mother. To strive at loving God and neighbour, knowing that we fail, but believing that Christ succeeded. Gert persevered at these things following the voice of the Good Shepherd. Gert and Elmor’s wedding text was from John chapter 10, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”5 Gert no longer has to strain out competing voices from that of the true Shepherd. She is safely in His hands.
Of course, we still grieve. The primary venue for the grieving Christian is not the cemetery, but the church. The cemetery may contain the material remains of the deceased, it is a place of remembrance; but the church is the assembly of the faithful transcending time and space. It is here that God ‘remembers’ us. Elmor, go to the cemetery to honour Gert. But come to the church to thank God for the blessing that she was. Here is where sorrow transitions to acceptance, then to hope, then to gratitude. Here is where we have the continuity of God’s love across the generations. Gert Graue may not have been able to express her memory in the last days, but God has not forgotten her. Her last day has come. She is in His presence, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and all the hosts of heaven. In this we rejoice. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Christian Burial of Gertrud Graue
12 October, 2016
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 14:3
2 Psalm 105:8
3 1 Peter 1:5
4 Revelation 21:4
5 John 11:27-28
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Twenty First Sunday After Pentecost (C) 2016
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: Jeremiah 29:4-7
Theme: Hope For The Exiles
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Complacency is a child of prosperity. When things come too easily we often cease to strive. We lose motivation. How do societies and individuals avoid becoming victims of their own affluence? History is littered with failures. Complacency is also a cause of spiritual decay. When the blessings of God are taken for granted it's a sign that faith is resting on its laurels. The jolt back to reality can be sobering. The stubborn will is not easily broken. Jeremiah addressed just such children of complacency today. Their world was about to be shattered.
God's advice to the exiles may seem strange at first. “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Mary and have sons and daughters…”1In other words, “Make yourselves at home. You’re going to be there for a long time.” Jeremiah encouraged the exiles to accept the reality of their situation. It was God’s will that they be put through this crucible. It was necessary to refine and refocus them. Their understanding of what it meant to be God’s people was almost lost. Jeremiah was trying desperately to make sure that not all ties were severed.
The Israelites considered themselves to be victims. In reality, their association with idolatry was closer than their relationship with Yahweh, the true and living God. It's a critical lesson for the spiritually complacent. Dear friends, your association with sin is never just a matter of victimhood. Yes, you are a victim of the selfless transgressions of others. That is an inevitability no one can escape. People have, do, and will continue to sin against you. Yet, to be sinned against is not a cause for your condemnation. No one is ever just a victim. You are also a perpetrator. Your thoughts, your intentions, your schemes, plans and actions are not free from impurity. You, like me, are also the offender. Firstly, your offence is against God. Secondly, it is against your neighbour. The prodigal son made his confession saying, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.”2Every sin is firstly a sin against the authority and integrity of God. Repentance involves an honest disassociation with every selfish pursuit that is contrary to the will of God.
When the reality of the exile hit home the Israelites were seized with fear? Causes of fear are different for everyone. Some of us fear loss of wealth or reputation. Others fear declining health. Some fear the future their children or grandchildren may face. Some fear loneliness or inadequacy. How many fear losing the true knowledge and mercy of God? How many fear God Himself? The most common fear is death. It's not easy to reassure even Christians that God has it in hand. The Holy Spirit must convince the heart. Like the two men who were unexpectedly marooned on small, remote island when their adventure tour went amiss. One man paced back and forth like he thought it was the last day of his life, while the other man relaxed and appeared unconcerned. The first man said to the second man, “Aren’t you afraid? We are soon going to die.” “No,” said the second man, “I made a $100,000.00 commitment to our church building fund. But it’s not in the will. My pastor will find me.”
But certainly the most universal human fear is mortality. Life is fragile. Death can strike suddenly. What happens then? What happens for the believer is Christ. The Scripture says, “Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy Him who holds the power of death- that is, the devil- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”3
God promised the Israelites, languishing in Babylon, they would be restored to their home in 70 years. How distant the promise must have seemed! In seventy years an entire generation would be lost…and then some! Those taken into Babylon in their youth were unlikely to ever return to their native land. Their culture and identity were at stake. Their lament is recorded in the Psalms, “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?”4 Yet, God had not forsaken His people. They were just experiencing mandatory interim separation from the only security they understood. But it would seem to them like it was a permanent reality. They needed to come out the other side as changed people.
So, they were told to make the best of their situation. We might wonder if any of them saw the fabled hanging gardens of Babylon during their exile there? It would have given them little comfort. Their God was in Zion. But He was not limited to that place. God had not moved; they had, though they didn’t understand it as their conscious choice. Still, they were His witnesses to a foreign people in a foreign land.
It's an important role God's people still play. The Christian church makes intercession also for the needs of the unbelieving world. It does this not only through the private prayers of members but also in its public worship. Paul instructed Timothy saying, “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone- for kings and all those in authority, that we may lead peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”5When we gather in this sacred assembly we are served by God to the end that our capacity to serve others might be nurtured. We’re here for the bigger picture or we’re here for the wrong reasons.
The idea that human society in this fallen world is a permanent establishment cannot be reconciled with the biblical promise of the coming destruction and restoration. Christianity is not finally concerned with just mitigating the great threats to human hope and happiness. There is no truce with the chaos and corruption wreaked by sin. There is no negotiation with the power of death. There is no compromise with the kingdom of Satan. We should hold no false assumptions about managing to eke out an existence in this fallen creation in perpetuity.
We are pilgrims. We are transients. We have no permanent home here. Foreigners now, we will be indigenous in the world to come. “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”6 Mortality will be swallowed up by Life. Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. Jesus is not the means to an end. He is not the ticket to an afterlife of self-directed indulgence. He is the destination. He is the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.
In the future we may feel much more exiled from our culture than we do now. It will challenge our faith and test our resolve. But we are never without hope. The promise is never distant from us. Christ has come to us in the flesh. He is Immanuel. We are His baptized. He went to the cross to tone for our sins. He rose from death to give us life. He welcomes us to His banquet of forgiveness. We are not complacent; we are content in His promises. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Twenty-First Sunday After Pentecost
9 October, 2016
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Jeremiah 29:5-6
2 Luke 15:21
3 Hebrews 2:14-15
4 Psalm 137:1-4
5 1 Timothy 2:1-2
6 2 Corinthians 5:1
Text: Jeremiah 29:4-7
Theme: Hope For The Exiles
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Complacency is a child of prosperity. When things come too easily we often cease to strive. We lose motivation. How do societies and individuals avoid becoming victims of their own affluence? History is littered with failures. Complacency is also a cause of spiritual decay. When the blessings of God are taken for granted it's a sign that faith is resting on its laurels. The jolt back to reality can be sobering. The stubborn will is not easily broken. Jeremiah addressed just such children of complacency today. Their world was about to be shattered.
God's advice to the exiles may seem strange at first. “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Mary and have sons and daughters…”1In other words, “Make yourselves at home. You’re going to be there for a long time.” Jeremiah encouraged the exiles to accept the reality of their situation. It was God’s will that they be put through this crucible. It was necessary to refine and refocus them. Their understanding of what it meant to be God’s people was almost lost. Jeremiah was trying desperately to make sure that not all ties were severed.
The Israelites considered themselves to be victims. In reality, their association with idolatry was closer than their relationship with Yahweh, the true and living God. It's a critical lesson for the spiritually complacent. Dear friends, your association with sin is never just a matter of victimhood. Yes, you are a victim of the selfless transgressions of others. That is an inevitability no one can escape. People have, do, and will continue to sin against you. Yet, to be sinned against is not a cause for your condemnation. No one is ever just a victim. You are also a perpetrator. Your thoughts, your intentions, your schemes, plans and actions are not free from impurity. You, like me, are also the offender. Firstly, your offence is against God. Secondly, it is against your neighbour. The prodigal son made his confession saying, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.”2Every sin is firstly a sin against the authority and integrity of God. Repentance involves an honest disassociation with every selfish pursuit that is contrary to the will of God.
When the reality of the exile hit home the Israelites were seized with fear? Causes of fear are different for everyone. Some of us fear loss of wealth or reputation. Others fear declining health. Some fear the future their children or grandchildren may face. Some fear loneliness or inadequacy. How many fear losing the true knowledge and mercy of God? How many fear God Himself? The most common fear is death. It's not easy to reassure even Christians that God has it in hand. The Holy Spirit must convince the heart. Like the two men who were unexpectedly marooned on small, remote island when their adventure tour went amiss. One man paced back and forth like he thought it was the last day of his life, while the other man relaxed and appeared unconcerned. The first man said to the second man, “Aren’t you afraid? We are soon going to die.” “No,” said the second man, “I made a $100,000.00 commitment to our church building fund. But it’s not in the will. My pastor will find me.”
But certainly the most universal human fear is mortality. Life is fragile. Death can strike suddenly. What happens then? What happens for the believer is Christ. The Scripture says, “Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy Him who holds the power of death- that is, the devil- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”3
God promised the Israelites, languishing in Babylon, they would be restored to their home in 70 years. How distant the promise must have seemed! In seventy years an entire generation would be lost…and then some! Those taken into Babylon in their youth were unlikely to ever return to their native land. Their culture and identity were at stake. Their lament is recorded in the Psalms, “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?”4 Yet, God had not forsaken His people. They were just experiencing mandatory interim separation from the only security they understood. But it would seem to them like it was a permanent reality. They needed to come out the other side as changed people.
So, they were told to make the best of their situation. We might wonder if any of them saw the fabled hanging gardens of Babylon during their exile there? It would have given them little comfort. Their God was in Zion. But He was not limited to that place. God had not moved; they had, though they didn’t understand it as their conscious choice. Still, they were His witnesses to a foreign people in a foreign land.
It's an important role God's people still play. The Christian church makes intercession also for the needs of the unbelieving world. It does this not only through the private prayers of members but also in its public worship. Paul instructed Timothy saying, “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone- for kings and all those in authority, that we may lead peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”5When we gather in this sacred assembly we are served by God to the end that our capacity to serve others might be nurtured. We’re here for the bigger picture or we’re here for the wrong reasons.
The idea that human society in this fallen world is a permanent establishment cannot be reconciled with the biblical promise of the coming destruction and restoration. Christianity is not finally concerned with just mitigating the great threats to human hope and happiness. There is no truce with the chaos and corruption wreaked by sin. There is no negotiation with the power of death. There is no compromise with the kingdom of Satan. We should hold no false assumptions about managing to eke out an existence in this fallen creation in perpetuity.
We are pilgrims. We are transients. We have no permanent home here. Foreigners now, we will be indigenous in the world to come. “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”6 Mortality will be swallowed up by Life. Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. Jesus is not the means to an end. He is not the ticket to an afterlife of self-directed indulgence. He is the destination. He is the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.
In the future we may feel much more exiled from our culture than we do now. It will challenge our faith and test our resolve. But we are never without hope. The promise is never distant from us. Christ has come to us in the flesh. He is Immanuel. We are His baptized. He went to the cross to tone for our sins. He rose from death to give us life. He welcomes us to His banquet of forgiveness. We are not complacent; we are content in His promises. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Twenty-First Sunday After Pentecost
9 October, 2016
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Jeremiah 29:5-6
2 Luke 15:21
3 Hebrews 2:14-15
4 Psalm 137:1-4
5 1 Timothy 2:1-2
6 2 Corinthians 5:1
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost (C) 2016
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: Luke 16:19-31
Theme: Now In View Of Then
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
The angels came. The angels came at the death of a poor believer named Lazarus and the Scriptures says, “the angels carried him to Abraham’s side.”1 In other words, Lazarus went to heaven where Abraham, the father of believers, is. The fact that Jesus refers to Abraham as a representative of heaven is significant for the story Jesus tells. The story is an illustration of contrasts. Jesus tells of a rich man who indulges himself without measure, in the process, ignoring a poor beggar named Lazarus who is laid at the gate of his estate. The condition of Lazarus is pitiful. He longs for anything that falls from the rich man’s table, even scraps that the dogs eat. Evidently he is crippled in some way and his situation is so wretched that he cannot even prevent the dogs from licking his sores. Still, the rich man pays him no heed.
The crux of the matter is revealed when both men die. The rich man went to hell. Jesus says, “In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’”2 Now we learn something we didn’t previously know. Apparently the rich man was Jewish, for he refers to Abraham as father. The clear implication is that the rich man considered himself to be a shoe-in for heaven because He was a descendant of Abraham. He was thought to be one of the chosen. But a great reversal has taken place. Lazarus (a Gentile), in heaven, is now in the position the rich man was on earth, and vice versa. Lazarus is now feasting extravagantly and the rich man is shut out. Heaven is often depicted as a luxurious banquet. Abraham is present at this banquet with all believers. Christ says in Matthew, “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.”3 And Jesus continues, “But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”4
Lazarus represents the many Gentiles that would come from east and west to the banquet. The rich man represents a son of the kingdom (a person of Jewish bloodline) who nevertheless has been thrown out. He has lost his inheritance. His faith was not genuine. It was not manifested in works. He did not believe in the Messiah. In his confrontation with the Jews, John the Baptist said to them, “And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.”5 Romans says the true children of Abraham are the children of faith.
Dear friends, the things the world values can give false impressions and create false assumptions about spiritual truths. The impression is easily given that the impressive people of the world, the rich, the powerful, the well-known, the famous, are somehow in better standing with God than the poor and weak, the downtrodden, the humble and insignificant. What is visible in externals is not necessarily a measure of the internal state of things. Sometimes just the opposite is true. The rich man was the epitome of the warning from, Timothy, “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”6. Certainly Abraham’s reply to the rich man is frank, “Remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.”7 The world is always pressing us to focus on the now. Get rich quick, get the goodie out of life, take advantage of everyone and everything because it is the only chance you will have. This is the philosophy of a self-indulged, unbelieving world. In the world’s eyes, there is nothing to look forward to in the later. Everything is focused on the now at the expense of the then.
Now we must be crystal clear about the cause of this man’s damnation. It wasn’t because he was rich. His heart was hardened to the point of unbelief. This hardening was evidenced by his consistent refusal to be generous with the blessings God had entrusted him with. His money itself was not a sin. His idolatry of it was. This idolatry cost him his eternal salvation. Put differently, his works, or lack thereof, showed that his faith was dead. True faith always shows itself in works. However, works, because they can be orchestrated, that is, faked, are not an infallible measure of true faith. Genuine faith is seen by God alone. If we are concerned our own faith is lacking that is normally a good sign. Nevertheless, we should, like the disciples, ask the Lord to increase our faith and drive out unbelief.
The story reaches its conclusion when the rich man thinks of someone other than himself. He begs Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers, lest they meet with the same fate. Abraham replies, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.”8 Moses and the Prophets is a designation of the Old Testament Scriptures. Essentially Abraham was saying, “They have the Bible, that is sufficient.” The rich man presses the issue one more time. “’No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ He said to them, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”9
Surely the shock of someone rising from the dead would drive one to repentance. Here Jesus refers to His own resurrection. Perhaps such shock may drive a person to repentance, but not someone who has already hardened his heart against the truth of Scripture. This verse is a prophecy that was soon to be fulfilled. Even some who saw Jesus rise from the dead did not believe. Faith in Christ is not a matter of intellectual concession. That is, it is not a matter of conceding because there is no other rational way to explain the facts: a man who was dead is now alive. Faith is a matter of humbly trusting that the One who rose, died to give you new life. It is trusting that sin has been defeated, personally for you, in you, by the Holy Spirit’s power. It is finding strength every day in a God who loves you so unconditionally and with such certainty that not even nails driven into His flesh could prevent Him from reconciling us to the heavenly Father. He has atoned for our sins and covered our transgressions.
Abraham’s words are important for us also who were not present for a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen.”10 We have Moses and the Prophets and the Gospels and the epistles too. Christ is crucified. Christ is risen. We do hear Him when His forgiveness is proclaimed. When do taste Him when we receive His body and blood. We do feel Him when the baptismal water is poured. Exactly in these sacred things, we do see Him with the eyes of faith. We have Him here and now. And we will have the fullness of a new creation later. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost
18 September, 2016
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Luke 16:22
2 Luke 16:23-24
3 Matthew 8:11
4 Matthew 8:12
5 Matthew 3:9
6 1 Timothy 6:9-10
7 Luke 16:25
8 Luke 16:29
9 Luke 16:30
10 Hebrews 11:1
Text: Luke 16:19-31
Theme: Now In View Of Then
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
The angels came. The angels came at the death of a poor believer named Lazarus and the Scriptures says, “the angels carried him to Abraham’s side.”1 In other words, Lazarus went to heaven where Abraham, the father of believers, is. The fact that Jesus refers to Abraham as a representative of heaven is significant for the story Jesus tells. The story is an illustration of contrasts. Jesus tells of a rich man who indulges himself without measure, in the process, ignoring a poor beggar named Lazarus who is laid at the gate of his estate. The condition of Lazarus is pitiful. He longs for anything that falls from the rich man’s table, even scraps that the dogs eat. Evidently he is crippled in some way and his situation is so wretched that he cannot even prevent the dogs from licking his sores. Still, the rich man pays him no heed.
The crux of the matter is revealed when both men die. The rich man went to hell. Jesus says, “In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’”2 Now we learn something we didn’t previously know. Apparently the rich man was Jewish, for he refers to Abraham as father. The clear implication is that the rich man considered himself to be a shoe-in for heaven because He was a descendant of Abraham. He was thought to be one of the chosen. But a great reversal has taken place. Lazarus (a Gentile), in heaven, is now in the position the rich man was on earth, and vice versa. Lazarus is now feasting extravagantly and the rich man is shut out. Heaven is often depicted as a luxurious banquet. Abraham is present at this banquet with all believers. Christ says in Matthew, “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.”3 And Jesus continues, “But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”4
Lazarus represents the many Gentiles that would come from east and west to the banquet. The rich man represents a son of the kingdom (a person of Jewish bloodline) who nevertheless has been thrown out. He has lost his inheritance. His faith was not genuine. It was not manifested in works. He did not believe in the Messiah. In his confrontation with the Jews, John the Baptist said to them, “And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.”5 Romans says the true children of Abraham are the children of faith.
Dear friends, the things the world values can give false impressions and create false assumptions about spiritual truths. The impression is easily given that the impressive people of the world, the rich, the powerful, the well-known, the famous, are somehow in better standing with God than the poor and weak, the downtrodden, the humble and insignificant. What is visible in externals is not necessarily a measure of the internal state of things. Sometimes just the opposite is true. The rich man was the epitome of the warning from, Timothy, “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”6. Certainly Abraham’s reply to the rich man is frank, “Remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.”7 The world is always pressing us to focus on the now. Get rich quick, get the goodie out of life, take advantage of everyone and everything because it is the only chance you will have. This is the philosophy of a self-indulged, unbelieving world. In the world’s eyes, there is nothing to look forward to in the later. Everything is focused on the now at the expense of the then.
Now we must be crystal clear about the cause of this man’s damnation. It wasn’t because he was rich. His heart was hardened to the point of unbelief. This hardening was evidenced by his consistent refusal to be generous with the blessings God had entrusted him with. His money itself was not a sin. His idolatry of it was. This idolatry cost him his eternal salvation. Put differently, his works, or lack thereof, showed that his faith was dead. True faith always shows itself in works. However, works, because they can be orchestrated, that is, faked, are not an infallible measure of true faith. Genuine faith is seen by God alone. If we are concerned our own faith is lacking that is normally a good sign. Nevertheless, we should, like the disciples, ask the Lord to increase our faith and drive out unbelief.
The story reaches its conclusion when the rich man thinks of someone other than himself. He begs Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers, lest they meet with the same fate. Abraham replies, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.”8 Moses and the Prophets is a designation of the Old Testament Scriptures. Essentially Abraham was saying, “They have the Bible, that is sufficient.” The rich man presses the issue one more time. “’No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ He said to them, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”9
Surely the shock of someone rising from the dead would drive one to repentance. Here Jesus refers to His own resurrection. Perhaps such shock may drive a person to repentance, but not someone who has already hardened his heart against the truth of Scripture. This verse is a prophecy that was soon to be fulfilled. Even some who saw Jesus rise from the dead did not believe. Faith in Christ is not a matter of intellectual concession. That is, it is not a matter of conceding because there is no other rational way to explain the facts: a man who was dead is now alive. Faith is a matter of humbly trusting that the One who rose, died to give you new life. It is trusting that sin has been defeated, personally for you, in you, by the Holy Spirit’s power. It is finding strength every day in a God who loves you so unconditionally and with such certainty that not even nails driven into His flesh could prevent Him from reconciling us to the heavenly Father. He has atoned for our sins and covered our transgressions.
Abraham’s words are important for us also who were not present for a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen.”10 We have Moses and the Prophets and the Gospels and the epistles too. Christ is crucified. Christ is risen. We do hear Him when His forgiveness is proclaimed. When do taste Him when we receive His body and blood. We do feel Him when the baptismal water is poured. Exactly in these sacred things, we do see Him with the eyes of faith. We have Him here and now. And we will have the fullness of a new creation later. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost
18 September, 2016
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Luke 16:22
2 Luke 16:23-24
3 Matthew 8:11
4 Matthew 8:12
5 Matthew 3:9
6 1 Timothy 6:9-10
7 Luke 16:25
8 Luke 16:29
9 Luke 16:30
10 Hebrews 11:1
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