June 12, 2016 – A Changed World – Wouldn’t that be Nice?

June 12, 2016 – A Changed World – Wouldn’t that be Nice?

The recent storms in Texas and floods in France remind us of how quickly and frightfully our world can be literally turned upside down. Such tragedies and disasters have a way of focusing us on what’s truly important in life. Sometimes we benefit from the hardships, loss and pain of others if we are humble and wise enough to pay attention.

I had my world turned upside down by the death of my mother 6 years ago. My sense of what is normal and usual was forever changed by her passing. And, though I rejoice that she is at rest in Christ, there are still days that I’m learning to cope with this change in my world.

I can imagine that Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife in the Old Testament lesson today, also had to cope with a change in her world when her husband was killed. But the circumstances of his death that she faced where not brought on by something as mundane as a heart attack. No, it was the result of the greedy and lustful heart of King David that brought such devastation to Bathsheba and her world. As the story tells us, David had Uriah, a brave soldier, killed just so that David could ‘legally’ take Bathsheba as his wife. Such a corruption and perversion of God’s law.

Uriah served his king, as do those who serve our country in uniform, with steadfastness and honor. If you take the time to read this whole passage out of Samuel, you’ll see that Uriah sets a standard dedication and faithfulness to his fellow servicemen, honorable service to the chain of command and an adherence to duty that carries down to those who serve in the armed forces today as well. And those traits are what King David took advantage of to betray Uriah.

And in that betrayal David is found out through God’s prophet, Nathan, and stands accused and condemned for his betrayal. But in our scripture readings today David isn’t the only betrayer. And Bathsheba isn’t the only one who has her world changed. In the gospel reading we see the Pharisee, Simon, who, like David, also finds himself confronted by a man of God, with his betrayal.

We also have Mary Magdalene who has her world turned upside down, not by betrayal, but by God’s grace. And that grace is spoken to her by the same Man of God who confronts the Pharisee.

For Simon, the Pharisee, the world is ordered and correct according to how he sees his place in the religious structure of his day. He believes himself to be exempt from the normal social customs that Jesus points out to him because of his own exaggerated sense of self. And this is a betrayal of the very obedience to God that Simon thinks he does so well. To him, his own morality and self-righteousness are what keep his world in order, and not the mercy of God shown to others.

Jesus punctures that self-righteousness with His story of the two men who are forgiven their debts. The one, who is forgiven more, Simon the Pharisee judges correctly, is the one who loves more. And in speaking this judgment Simon reveals that he, like king David, doesn’t see his own sin. Then there’s Mary Magdalene. She, by her tears, confesses her sin and in her need of forgiveness, comes to Jesus for His pardon. And she receives it. Not because she’s earned it with her tears, but because Jesus knows her need, accepts her humble service to Him as her confession He then gives her, through His word, the absolution that frees her from her guilt. And so her world is changed.

What I believe these readings together teach us is… that we cannot come to God and presume our own righteousness. We cannot come to God in this place or in our daily prayers with a sense of entitlement or of just ‘going through the motions’.

David was confronted with his sin by the story that Nathan told him of the one sheep of the poor man being unjustly taken away. The Pharisee was shown his own lack of following God’s law of love by the woman who, in his own house, showed the love and devotion due to Jesus.

Sometimes it’s difficult to really see our sin and we need something, like a Nathan and his story of the poor man’s sheep, or Jesus and His story of 2 debts forgiven, to help us see our sin for the outrageous betrayal and stark affront to God that it truly is, rather than sin being something we presume to control.

I’m going to give you a few moments right now and ask you to silently answer this for yourself. What is it in your world that shows you your sin? How are you truly confronted with your own lack of control?

Again the weather the last several weeks has served to show us just how little we are in control. But it also has provided a real-world demonstration of what today’s readings show us: The benefit of being warned. Weather reports are there for us to be warned of the danger that is coming our way.

Those reports do not to give you control, but give you time to respond to that which is not in your power to control. So also these warning-stories from scriptures today are there for us. They show us that we can-not control sin or God’s wrath and anger at sin. We’re caught in the deadly winds of God’s destruction on sin if we fail to receive both the warning and the protection God’s word gives us.

We are in danger of certain death from our own greed and lust, our own pride and arrogance and we oftentimes simply don’t or won’t see it. Like David and the Pharisee, we need to be shown our need for repentance. David, through the story Nathan tells him, did see it and, by God’s grace, he was able to make his confession, and so was spared death.

True, his child had to die. But that only shows us the truly great cost of our sin. God’s own Child, Jesus Christ, also had to die on the cross… for sin. He had to die for us, so we like David, could be spared the penalty of death that our sin requires. God, in love, chose to sacrifice His child so that we would be forgiven our debt.

Like the two men who owed money in Jesus’ story, both were forgiven. But the one who was forgiven much, loved much. And that is what turned Mary’s world upside down, the great love of God expressed through Jesus Christ. By her being drawn to Him and through her tears acknowledging her great need, Jesus pronounced the words of forgiveness that indeed resulted in a change in her world. That change is what allowed her to love much. She recognized the only Source of true forgiveness and restoration, Jesus Christ. And when she found him, though she did not deserve it, she received the words of Jesus as her comfort and peace. Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” And with those words her world changed.

Those same words also change your world. Those words are what we hear declared to us when we come and confess our sins, humbly and without self-righteousness. When we, like David, hear that ‘you are the man’, who took the one sheep that was dear to its owner and carelessly sacrificed it, we know we’re the ones who have betrayed God’s faithfulness to us. And we, like Mary, need to then have our world changed. Jesus is the one and only Lamb of God who was sacrificed on the cross to take away the sin of the world and then rose from the grave in victory over death. Jesus tells us like He told Mary, ‘your sins are forgiven’ and ‘go in peace’.

We do go from here today with our world changed and our hearts and minds now at peace in the grace of God alone. May we now serve God as honorably as Uriah served David. May we, having had our world changed by the love of God go in the peace that Jesus pronounced to Mary. And may we, having our world so changed by the Word of Christ alone, go in to the week ahead, … now free and strengthened for Hearing, Sharing and Living the Gospel. Amen.

 

Sermon #831 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

 

First Reading                                                                                                                 2 Samuel 11:26-12:14 26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord. 12 The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”

5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”                                                                                                                7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’                                                                                                                  11 “This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”                                                                                                               13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.”

 

Epistle Reading                                                                                       Galatians 2:15-21; 3:10-14 15 “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

17 “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.

19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” 11 Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.” 12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

 

Holy Gospel                                                                                                                   Luke 7:36-8:3

36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said.

41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”

“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

8 After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; 3 Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

June 12, 2016 – A Changed World – Wouldn’t that be Nice?
The recent storms in Texas and floods in France remind us of how quickly and frightfully our world can be literally turned upside down. Such tragedies and disasters have a way of focusing us on what’s truly important in life. Sometimes we benefit from the hardships, loss and pain of others if we are humble and wise enough to pay attention.
I had my world turned upside down by the death of my mother 6 years ago. My sense of what is normal and usual was forever changed by her passing. And, though I rejoice that she is at rest in Christ, there are still days that I’m learning to cope with this change in my world.
I can imagine that Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife in the Old Testament lesson today, also had to cope with a change in her world when her husband was killed. But the circumstances of his death that she faced where not brought on by something as mundane as a heart attack. No, it was the result of the greedy and lustful heart of King David that brought such devastation to Bathsheba and her world. As the story tells us, David had Uriah, a brave soldier, killed just so that David could ‘legally’ take Bathsheba as his wife. Such a corruption and perversion of God’s law.
Uriah served his king, as do those who serve our country in uniform, with steadfastness and honor. If you take the time to read this whole passage out of Samuel, you’ll see that Uriah sets a standard dedication and faithfulness to his fellow servicemen, honorable service to the chain of command and an adherence to duty that carries down to those who serve in the armed forces today as well. And those traits are what King David took advantage of to betray Uriah.
And in that betrayal David is found out through God’s prophet, Nathan, and stands accused and condemned for his betrayal. But in our scripture readings today David isn’t the only betrayer. And Bathsheba isn’t the only one who has her world changed. In the gospel reading we see the Pharisee, Simon, who, like David, also finds himself confronted by a man of God, with his betrayal.
We also have Mary Magdalene who has her world turned upside down, not by betrayal, but by God’s grace. And that grace is spoken to her by the same Man of God who confronts the Pharisee.
For Simon, the Pharisee, the world is ordered and correct according to how he sees his place in the religious structure of his day. He believes himself to be exempt from the normal social customs that Jesus points out to him because of his own exaggerated sense of self. And this is a betrayal of the very obedience to God that Simon thinks he does so well. To him, his own morality and self-righteousness are what keep his world in order, and not the mercy of God shown to others.
Jesus punctures that self-righteousness with His story of the two men who are forgiven their debts. The one, who is forgiven more, Simon the Pharisee judges correctly, is the one who loves more. And in speaking this judgment Simon reveals that he, like king David, doesn’t see his own sin. Then there’s Mary Magdalene. She, by her tears, confesses her sin and in her need of forgiveness, comes to Jesus for His pardon. And she receives it. Not because she’s earned it with her tears, but because Jesus knows her need, accepts her humble service to Him as her confession He then gives her, through His word, the absolution that frees her from her guilt. And so her world is changed.
What I believe these readings together teach us is… that we cannot come to God and presume our own righteousness. We cannot come to God in this place or in our daily prayers with a sense of entitlement or of just ‘going through the motions’.
David was confronted with his sin by the story that Nathan told him of the one sheep of the poor man being unjustly taken away. The Pharisee was shown his own lack of following God’s law of love by the woman who, in his own house, showed the love and devotion due to Jesus.
Sometimes it’s difficult to really see our sin and we need something, like a Nathan and his story of the poor man’s sheep, or Jesus and His story of 2 debts forgiven, to help us see our sin for the outrageous betrayal and stark affront to God that it truly is, rather than sin being something we presume to control.
I’m going to give you a few moments right now and ask you to silently answer this for yourself. What is it in your world that shows you your sin? How are you truly confronted with your own lack of control?
Again the weather the last several weeks has served to show us just how little we are in control. But it also has provided a real-world demonstration of what today’s readings show us: The benefit of being warned. Weather reports are there for us to be warned of the danger that is coming our way.
Those reports do not to give you control, but give you time to respond to that which is not in your power to control. So also these warning-stories from scriptures today are there for us. They show us that we can-not control sin or God’s wrath and anger at sin. We’re caught in the deadly winds of God’s destruction on sin if we fail to receive both the warning and the protection God’s word gives us.
We are in danger of certain death from our own greed and lust, our own pride and arrogance and we oftentimes simply don’t or won’t see it. Like David and the Pharisee, we need to be shown our need for repentance. David, through the story Nathan tells him, did see it and, by God’s grace, he was able to make his confession, and so was spared death.
True, his child had to die. But that only shows us the truly great cost of our sin. God’s own Child, Jesus Christ, also had to die on the cross… for sin. He had to die for us, so we like David, could be spared the penalty of death that our sin requires. God, in love, chose to sacrifice His child so that we would be forgiven our debt.
Like the two men who owed money in Jesus’ story, both were forgiven. But the one who was forgiven much, loved much. And that is what turned Mary’s world upside down, the great love of God expressed through Jesus Christ. By her being drawn to Him and through her tears acknowledging her great need, Jesus pronounced the words of forgiveness that indeed resulted in a change in her world. That change is what allowed her to love much. She recognized the only Source of true forgiveness and restoration, Jesus Christ. And when she found him, though she did not deserve it, she received the words of Jesus as her comfort and peace. Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” And with those words her world changed.
Those same words also change your world. Those words are what we hear declared to us when we come and confess our sins, humbly and without self-righteousness. When we, like David, hear that ‘you are the man’, who took the one sheep that was dear to its owner and carelessly sacrificed it, we know we’re the ones who have betrayed God’s faithfulness to us. And we, like Mary, need to then have our world changed. Jesus is the one and only Lamb of God who was sacrificed on the cross to take away the sin of the world and then rose from the grave in victory over death. Jesus tells us like He told Mary, ‘your sins are forgiven’ and ‘go in peace’.
We do go from here today with our world changed and our hearts and minds now at peace in the grace of God alone. May we now serve God as honorably as Uriah served David. May we, having had our world changed by the love of God go in the peace that Jesus pronounced to Mary. And may we, having our world so changed by the Word of Christ alone, go in to the week ahead, … now free and strengthened for Hearing, Sharing and Living the Gospel. Amen.

Sermon #831 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

First Reading 2 Samuel 11:26-12:14 26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the LORD. 12 The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”
5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” 7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ 11 “This is what the LORD says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’” 13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”
Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the LORD, the son born to you will die.”

Epistle Reading Galatians 2:15-21; 3:10-14 15 “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
17 “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.
19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” 11 Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.” 12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

Holy Gospel Luke 7:36-8:3
36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said.
41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
8 After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; 3 Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.