Galatians 5:1, 13-25

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Our sermon series is working its way through Galatians, a book that changed Luther’s life. The title for our sermon today comes from Luther’s preface to his lectures, five hundred pages and more on Galatians, he writes, and I quote, “‘For in my heart this one article reigneth, even the faith of Christ’” – the Gospel, the faithfulness of Jesus – and he continues, “From whom, by whom, and unto whom, all my divine studies, day and night, have recourse to and from continually. And yet I perceive that I could not reach anything near … the height, breadth, and depth of such high and inestimable wisdom;” He says, for me, it is enough that I could not even reach the bottom of what this means. What does it mean, this grace, and how are we saved by grace alone?

Imagine something with me: a man commits a crime. He’s convicted and clapped in irons in the lowest prison, without light, dark and dank, for years. He wastes away longing for sunlight and freedom. Then, after 10 years, the jailer comes in, unlocks the shackles, opens the door, and says, You’re free to go… If that was you, what would you do?

Verse 1, For freedom Christ has set us free… Paul starts his Gospel-centered approach on Christian living here. He says, You were enslaved but now you aren’t. Live like someone who’s been set free. You were in shackles and now you’re not. Don’t put them on again. You were tangled up and now you’re not. Live as one who can walk without stumbling. Do you remember Paul’s argument so far? He says, you weren’t saved by the Gospel so that you have more hoops to jump through. No! Your salvation is completed in Christ and you are justified only and ever by grace. God didn’t set you free to clap you in the chains of the law again. He set you free so you could be free.

So then, what should we do? Paul’s asking the Bob Bailey question. Do you remember it? I was hemming and hawing, talking with other young theologian types, up in the clouds, when Bob broke in… – Are we going to talk about it, or are we going to do something about it? What are we going to do? Or in our text, what does it mean to be free?

We aren’t going deep into the grammar tonight… it’s pretty simple… instead, we ask the question, what does it mean to be free?

Two answers for tonight. First Paul says what it DOESN’T mean to be free. Then he says what it DOES mean to be free.

First things first. Paul says, verse 17, the desires of the flesh are AGAINST the Spirit, and then he lists 15 sins. The first three are sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality… these first three are sexual sins. Paul puts them first, mostly likely because the Galatians struggled with them the most. They are sins held close. Lenski writes, it’s all about restraint removed. Especially in the last word, sensuality, the image is like a runaway horse restraints removed, running and plunging forward heedless of the danger, these sexual sins are a freedom that leads to danger.
Now, the next two: idolatry and sorcery. The ancient world all the way up to today closely connects the sexual experience with worship, transcendence, and the innermost being. Luther’s definition of an idol is that which you look to for love and trust in times of distress.

Then in verse 20-21 we see the next ten are social sins. They “share a common feature: They are behaviors that disrupt Christian fellowship” (LSB). Enmity, strife, jealousy, they are inward attitudes that distance you from your brothers, the fault lines that can stay hidden under the surface. Fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, division, they are the outward signs, the obvious signs of broken relationships. Envy – to be resentful, drunkenness and orgies, the outbursts of hot passion and anger, and the like.

But we’re not talking about a “They.” When I read this list I’m talking about me. Self-sabateur extraordinaire, I’m the one who needs to read this text. I think, why do so many fall into the trap of sexual sin? Why is it so easy to mishear what people say? Why is it so easy to assume the worst of others, to get angry when we didn’t need to, to grow impatient, when from the outside it seems so easy, so common sense, to avoid all these things? That’s the mystery of sin.

Paul says, we who do these things are clapping irons around our own arms. We put the millstone around our necks and wonder why it’s hard to swim. We carry a backpack of burden around and wonder why it’s tough to move. Thinking about our opening story, we look at the open door; we rub our wrists, and we struggle to leave the room.

And then Paul moves to what it DOES mean to be free, he asks, “What does freedom look like?” and he says that these are the fruit that blossoms out of your salvation. Verse 22 There are three groups of three: Love—the agape love of “intelligent purpose” that chooses to sacrifice itself for the sake of another. Joy -- “This is what freedom looks like; this is not fatuous joy such as the world accepts; it is the enduring joy that bubbles up from all the grace of God in our possession.” Peace – that’s the way the Grace God has given you starts to restore your relationship with those around you.

Next, patience, kindness, and goodness. Patience – that’s the word “long-suffering” to stand underneath pain and not waver. Kindness– that’s looking always to the benefit others. Goodness -- remember, that’s the word the God used when he created the whole world. He looked at the world and called it “Good.” Complete. Done.

Finally, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Faithfulness – following through on commitments and imitating how God is faithful to us. Gentleness, knowing that God is God and we are not, and Self-control, holding our passions in check.
These are the ways, Paul says, that a human was designed to function best. These are the ways that crucify that destructive desire in us to tangle ourselves up in sin. These are the ways that the Spirit blows us forward.

A few thoughts on our text: First, it’s in our sinful nature to self-destruct. It’s in our nature to just do enough to get by and no more, to sabotage. It’s easy to create either burn bridges for the sake of burning bridges, or to live in false peace instead of honesty. But the life of the Spirit isn’t about dividing people, and it’s not about false peace.

It’s about all kinds of folk honestly struggling together in their weaknesses, not distracted by their divisions, nor telling themselves the lie that they have no problems.

Second, there are two ways to overcome that kind of a life marred by sin. The first is from this point on to be perfect, to never admit fault, and to live up to the letter of the Law. The second is to let forgiveness flow over all kinds of faults. I had a professor tell me in seminary school, you better say this at least once a month, at least that much because people will need to hear it often. Forgiveness is looking someone in the eye, saying, you did me wrong and it hurt me. But for the love of Christ, I choose not to hold that hurt against you. These are the words Christ has said to you. These are the words that bids you take joy to say to others.

Third, in any and every society, there is no law against these things. They aren’t specific to any vocation, time, or location. They can be done by the old and the young, the worker and the homemaker.

Fourth, that these are the fruit of salvation, the fruit of the Spirit. They are what happens when Christ in the Gospel works in your heart and life. They answer the Bob Bailey question, What are we gonna do about it? You don’t do these things to earn salvation; you do them so that your Savior can work through your hands and feet to bring others to saving faith and keep them there.
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Amen and amen.

6th Sunday After Pentecost

Luke 9:51-62

Dear Friends in Christ,

Man's best friend. My best friend this past Thursday was Roscoe P Coltrain, but he wasn’t very helpful. Story of doing landscaping at daughter Michelle and Brandon’s house, with a big sloppy dog named Roscoe, English Mastiff, already 80 pounds or so as a puppy, probably will grow to over 200 pounds or so. He followed me around wherever I went, it was as if he was my disciple, he loves to play and we did all kinds of that, but when it came time to pull weeds, he stepped on the weeds, when it came time to put mulch around the hostas, he laid down on the hostas, oh he was my best friend and he was a follower, but not particularly helpful.

In our text for today, Jesus is setting his face towards Jerusalem, where he would be suffering at the hands of men, where he would be dying as a way of paying the price for the sins of a rebellious world, where he would be rising up again in glorious fashion. Luke 9:51 is the turning point of Luke’s Gospel. And as Jesus begins his march towards death in Jerusalem, Luke is very careful to note Jesus’ audience in every instance. To each group, Jesus speaks quite different sorts of words. To the crowd, he issues warnings and calls for conversion. To those who convert and want to follow him, he gives positive instructions on discipleship. To those who resist his prophetic call, he tells parables of rejection. Throughout the journey, Luke has Jesus turn from one group to the other, from crowd to disciples to Pharisees. In today’s sermon, we focus on his instructions to those who would follow him, those who would make the journey from birth to death, more specifically to those of us who would take the journey beginning in Baptism all the way to the resurrection of the dead and life eternal. 

Our sermon theme is “Following Well.” In his book “I’ve Got Your Back: Biblical Principles for Leading and Following Well,” James Galvin uses a word new to many of us, “followership.” He describes three types of followership – 1)following God, 2)following government authority, and 3)following human authorities. In terms of following God, he explains the parable of the minas, the parable where three servants received a mina, one servant invested it and earned ten more, one servant invested it and earned five more, one servant was afraid of his master, hid the mina and returned it, he uses that parable to talk about five levels of followership, five different kinds of disciples.

(Wholehearted) disciples are those who follow well, they help other followers, they help the leaders lead, there is a sense of openness with their pastors and church leadership.
(Growing) disciples are those who are following well, they help other followers, they support their pastors and church leaders, there is a sense of teamwork with their leaders.
(Nominal) disciples are doing the minimum required, there is mere compliance, are like sheep following their shepherd.

( Distracted) disciples are those who are not fulfilling their responsibilities in the church, they are falling behind, they are slacking, they keep their pastors and church leaders at a distance.
(Wayward) disciples in the church are those who are undercutting or resisting their pastors and leaders, making things worse, they have a sense of antagonism with leadership – perhaps with good reason, I might add!

In today’s sermon, we would hold the mirror up to ourselves and ask how we’re doing. Am I following Jesus Christ with all of my heart and soul and mind? Am I following in a growing and supportive kind of a way? Am I following in an ok kind of a way? Am I following at a distance? Or am I in the process of straying far away? Four truths we would lean again about what it means to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, to follow Jesus Christ. Four truths about what it means to follow our Good Shepherd who in fact follows us around with goodness and mercy in all the chapters of our lives. Four truths about what it means to spend our days thanking and praising, serving and obeying. Four truths about what it means to spend our days supporting the proclamation of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Following Well means (suffering) at the hands of people for doing the right thing. All kinds of suffering in our lives is caused by us doing that which is wrong, but today Jesus would teach us that the more closely we follow Him, the more likely we are to have to endure what He had to endure. If Jesus had to be rejected by religious authorities in his day, why would we think we could serve him with smooth sailing? If Jesus had to be misunderstood and mischaracterized, why would we think that others would always be giving us the benefit of the doubt? If Jesus had to be slapped around and tortured and humiliated and crucified until he was dead, why would we think that we would be appreciated and rewarded and honored as we follow? 

Dear friends in Christ, as Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem and braced himself for hell on earth that was coming his way, understand that He was in reality setting his face on you, that all of his suffering under Pontius Pilate was for you, that every bit of rejection thrown his way was that you could be accepted by your Father in heaven.

Secondly, following Jesus well means (dying) on a daily basis. By nature, we would rather focus on living the abundant Christian life with all kinds of peace and joy than dying to sin and drowning the old adam in a regular kind of a way. (Story of neighbor almost 4 years of age Gus, who is really well mannered and has terrific parents who are doing a great job teaching and molding him. A couple of days ago, I asked Gus a theological kind of a question. I said, “Gus, are you so well mannered because your parents taught you so well, or are you well mannered by nature?” He looked me in the eyes and said, “by nature!”

By nature, we would like to give attention to forming good habits instead of exposing and weeding out our bad ones. By nature, we would prefer to set goals and reach them instead of starting out each day admitting that we are poor and miserable sinners, that we have sinned in serious and hurtful ways, and that we are messed up sinners in need of a Savior. By nature, we would like to solve problems instead of realizing that we are the problem. 

Dear friends in Christ, as Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem, he was taking a turn towards death by crucifixion. Learn again today the simple lesson that his death was all about your being able to live. That in every one of your days, before the new life in Jesus can rise up inside of you and rule, there must be death. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Say it with me, “But if we confess our sins, God, who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Third, following Jesus well means (rising up again) on a daily basis. This is the Good News that deserves to be celebrated, that deserves to be proclaimed, that deserves to be supported in every one of our days. That Jesus Christ rose up again on the third day, and because he rose up again, our sins are forgiven. Because he rose up again, we can trust that he is who he said he was. Because he rose up again, we can have confidence that every word of Holy Scripture is true and absolutely reliable. Because he rose up again, caskets and funeral homes and cemeteries will not have the final word around here.

Dear friends in Christ, the final word in every one of our sermons, in every one of our Bible classes, in every one of our Confirmation Classes, in every one of our Sunday School and Lutheran School days, the final word in every one of our meetings, in every one of our conversations, in every one of our conflicts, the final word needs to be that Jesus Christ rose up again on the third day, he ascended into heaven on the 40th day, he sent his Spirit on the 50th day, he is ruling all of heaven and earth with authority for the benefit of his church, the final word needs to be that Jesus Christ is coming back again soon, the final word needs to be that the time for Gospel outreach is today and not tomorrow and certainly not some day in the distant future.

Fourth and finally, following Jesus well means not looking back. (Story of working the soil in my dad’s half section in Ransom County, North Dakota. One field was no less than 80 acres, dad told me in no uncertain terms, when digging or disking or ploughing the first time through, set my eyes on that one tree in the distance, set my eyes on that one fence post, and do not look back).
Dear friends in Christ, when Jesus set his eyes on a little hill outside of Jerusalem, he was setting his eyes on you. He did not look back and wonder if there was another way. He did not look back and make sure his own mom and brothers and sisters were going to be ok. He knew that his real brothers and sisters and mother and father were those who would believe in him, those who would have the sign of the cross placed on their foreheads and hearts, his real family would be those who would consider it pure joy to suffer various trials for his sake, his real family would be those who would keep putting one foot in front of the other, those who would seek him and his righteousness first of all and trust that all of these other things in life would fall into place in due time. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, to follow Jesus well is never again to wallow around in the guilt and the grime and the gore of the sins of days gone by. To follow well is to learn from past mistakes, yes, but to root around in them no! It is to rejoice every day that faults and failure of the past have been forgiven, to trust that the bridges of the future may be crossed by God’s grace when we get there, leaving us just with today to live by repentance and a growing faith.

Man's best Friend. The kingdom of God is like a large church in a small town where people love their dogs, yes, but they are more and more learning what it means to love their God with all of their hearts and souls and minds. More and more they are learning what it means that Jesus Christ has always been their best friend, that He is their best friend today, and what it means to spend their days loving their neighbors as much as they love themselves. 

The kingdom of God is like a man who on his best days serves his Lord with all of his heart and soul. Many days he is learning and growing, some days he is just going through the motions, still other days he is as distracted as he can be, and more often than he cares to admit, he is just plain full of himself. The good news is that on every one of his days, he has a best friend who sticks closer to him than a brother. This best friend has already gone on before him, he is walking alongside of him, and the best news of all is that as often as he as often as he falls and once in a while falls down hard, his best friend is there to pick him back up and whisper into his ear, “you can do this. You can do all things that I am asking you to do, with my strength.” In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Luke 7:35-8:3

Focus: God forgives our debt on the cross.

​Function: that the hearers rejoice to forgive the debts of others.
Grace which manifests itself in peace, to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Do I live my days as if the forgiveness of sins is the best thing ever? That’s a question that Pastor Griffin’s posed to our congregation and to me personally a number of times. Do I live my days as if the forgiveness of sins is the best thing ever?
And that’s the question that I thought about a few weeks ago, after I was done teaching my 5th and 6th graders. I asked one of the kids out into the hall to talk about their behavior. I ask, “Do you know what you did?” Yeah… “Do you know why it was wrong?” Well… “How was it disruptive or disrespectful?” Ummm. “What do you have to say?” I’m… sorry?
Clearly, that young one didn’t get it, Clearly, if I said that he was forgiven, he wouldn’t “learn his lesson.” It was easy to look at forgiveness as a burden, as an easy out, as that kid cutting the fuse on my rant seconds before I was really going to let him have it…. It was easy to think that the forgiveness of sins was a stumbling block, a hindrance. It wouldn’t have helped him in the way he needed.
But that’s not the only issue. When we think about forgiveness, we have to go to the battered woman who thinks about forgiving her husband. We have to go to the much-publicized rape cases in the news these days. We think about the convicted felon that asks for forgiveness from his victims, and then it becomes tough to see forgiveness of sins as the best thing ever.
Today, we think about what it means to forgive, where forgiveness leads, and what it does. You have two passages before you today. Two men, caught in two sins, told two parables. You see David and you know that the story which started in adultery and lies, continued with murder, but finds its end in repentance. You hear Simon’s story that begins with a meal, continues with a thought – Simon never says what he’s thinking, he only thinks it – and a parable, and then just… ends. The camera loses Simon, focuses on Jesus and away we go, off to the races.
And we’ve been walking through Luke 7 now for a few weeks. Two weeks ago, we listened in as Jesus healed a centurion’s servant from afar, without even pronouncing it out loud. Last week, we followed as Jesus took a dead young man, told him to stand up again, and gave him back to his mother. If you look through the rest of the material between last week and this week, you see John the Baptizer’s disciples come up to Jesus and ask him, “Are you the Christ?” He responds by healing what could’ve been hundreds and says this: “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.”
These weeks have been building up to something. If this were a movie, there would’ve been dramatic music playing the background. Somewhere after verse 10, the low woodwinds would’ve come in. Somewhere after verse 17, you could’ve heard the timpani drumroll. Snare drums popping, trumpets blaring, after hundreds of miracles, thousands of lives changed, do you know what it’s all been building toward?
Toward this story. Toward the forgiveness of sins.
There’s a reason why Luke lists it last – listen to verse 22. The blind receive sight. The lame walk. The lepers cleansed. The deaf hear. The dead are raised up, but the greatest fulfillment of the Messiah is coming. And, as beautiful as it is that Jesus heals hurting folks, as beautiful as it is that Jesus helps all kinds of people along, as beautiful as it is that lives were changed in this way, the real answer to the question of John’s disciples, “Are you the Messiah or should we look for another?” is that Jesus. Forgives. Sins.
All the rest serves this fact, that Jesus forgives sins. Without this, it would be meaningless for Jesus even to raise the dead, because without forgiveness, the dead would just live another life to die another death and go the same way they went before.
Jesus says it a different way a couple of chapters ago in Luke 5 – the crowds are around Jesus so thick that some men drop their paralytic friend through the roof, because they wanted Jesus to heal him. And do you know the first thing that Jesus does? He says, “Friend, your sins are forgiven… But, so that you know the son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”
All Christ’s miracles, all his healings, all the dead who were raised, all these miracles were undone in their time. They lasted as a sign for a time, but in the end they were like manna in the desert; they perished in the night. They were like dew of the morning; their beauty burns away in the coming sun.
But the cross of Christ and the forgiveness of sins, this is a miracle on a different level. It grants forgiveness to all sinners and guards and protects us from every evil. It seals our souls for eternity, even if the signs of our day are full of decay. It looses our bonds of hell and gives us the guarantee of the Holy Spirit.
Forgiveness costs something. Jesus’ parable tells us as much. Two men had debts, and both were significant. As far as the size of their loans, it’s comparable to one man halfway through a car loan and the other halfway through a mortgage. Both are significant, but one is way more significant than the other. And the moneylender – the word in the Greek is related to Charis, grace – he graces their debts.
Especially in these days, there are government programs for teachers, that, after a certain number of years, they will “forgive” your loan. But, when your obligation to pay a debt gets cancelled, it means that another is eating the cost. “He paid the debt of canceled sin; he sets the prisoners free; his blood can make the foulest clean; his blood avails for me.” Your sin doesn’t just go away. It has been bought and paid for by your savior. Your slate gets wiped clean because it’s given your savior has a dirty sleeve.
Three thoughts on how forgiveness works in our lives. First, when Christ forgives you, and when you forgive, it costs you something too. Now, I’m not saying that you participate in your salvation. I’m not telling you that you have to do good enough to get the rest of the way. No, the cross of Christ is sufficient. What I am saying is that forgiveness costs you all of the sin that so easily entangles. It costs you your anger. It costs you your guilt. It costs you your shame. It costs you the burdens that weigh you down. It costs you the deep desire for revenge. It costs you every little bitterness that would keep your heart hard. The paradox of the victims of crimes is that those who move forward are those who forgive. You’ve heard me say it before and I’ll say it again and again: on the cross, Jesus takes it all of that from you and he will not give it back.
Second, forgiveness looks toward resolution rather than punishment. Look through the Gospels and you will find a Jesus that immediately turns from judgment to mercy at the repentance of his people. Just take a look at him working through Paul. In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul sees a congregation that followed his instructions. There was a family that wasn’t living right, and he told them to follow their policies and with tears in their eyes to treat them like outsiders, and they did that. But here, the family had repented and yet the punishment continued. I don’t know if they thought they needed more, or if they thought that the apology was insincere, if they thought it was just too large a sin to forgive, or what…. But I do know that Paul himself when he writes to the Corinthians begs them once again with tears in his eyes that they would look toward resolution rather than punishment. A question for you to ask, in my relationships, am I moving toward resolution? Resolution for the battered woman does not start by staying in the ring. It begins with getting out of there – by not allowing your partner to sin more, even while keeping your wedding vows to help him make the choices he should.
Third, forgiveness does not divorce truth from love. So easily do we divorce truth and love. We think that either we can live apart from the world, or we can live as part of the world. Either Jesus condemned sin or he loved sinners. Either we forgive them and let them skate or we hold them accountable and end up hating it. Either we can preach the Law or we can preach the Gospel. But Lutherans aren’t really “Either/Or” people. We’re more “Both/And.” It’s our task to live apart and as part. It’s our calling to call others out and love them. It’s our life to forgive and hold accountable. It’s our job to speak Law and Gospel. And to that end, I’ll tell you something that’s been sticking in my head in these days: It’s the way that our 7th and 8th grade teacher talks. Especially when she’s bringing a student along into better behavior, she winds up and says, -- and this is a pastor Muther impression, so take that with a grain of salt -- “Honey, I love you and that’s why I’m not going to let you do this. Honey, I love you and that’s why I’ve got to hold you to this. Honey and I love you and that’s why.”
The question we asked at the beginning of this sermon was, “Do I live my days as if forgiveness of sins is the best thing ever?” And to that end, my concluding thought is that it seems as though there’s a tendency that we all have to be like my bouncing baby boy, itty bitty Benjamin, when he wakes up in the morning and I set him on the bed, and his first toy is my ring. It’s a bright spot on my hand. It makes funny noises when it knocks against something. He loves my ring, but he doesn’t understand why he should really love it; he doesn’t yet love it for the reason he should. No, the reason he should love it is that it’s a symbol of the faithfulness that ties me to his mom. It a symbol of the faithfulness that brought his life into the world. It’s a symbol of the stable, faithful marriage that leaves him to be him.
And I tell you that to tell you this: We can love forgiveness for all the social benefits, for the relationship help. We can love it for its many great qualities. But let’s set our minds to that which is just beyond our ken: how the greatest miracle of all is that our God loves us more than we can imagine and when he forgives us, he pays more than we can understand to deliver us from sin in a way that we know only now in part, even as he leads us in the sure, Christian hope that in his time we will know it in full. Amen and Amen.