Concordia Lutheran Church, Cerritos
Redeemer Lutheran Church, Southgate
Fountain of Life Lutheran Church, La Mirada
Pentecost 19, October 3, 2010
(note - this sermon was preached simultaneously by myself and two of my deacons, covering two churches in pastoral transistion - results were amazing - as it ministered to all three groups)
A Proper Response…
Luke 17:1-10
In Jesus Name!
May the grace, the love and mercy of God our Father and out Lord Jesus Christ, instill in you the trust in Him required to facilitate your loving and forgiving all those who need such a blessing!
• Temptations/Scandals will Come
Question. What things does the Bible promise to you? (let a few answer – you might need to prime the pump a little.)
Good stuff these Bible promises – right? Always?
In Mark 10, those that make sacrifices for the gospel are promised a lot of cool things- but also persecutions. James tells us to rejoice when we encounter trying times, for what those times do becomes something we will treasure. Finally, in today’s gospel, the ESV translates it as “temptation to sin”, the NIV says, things that cause sin” are promised to us as well. The NKJV says it’s impossible to prevent being offended.
Still want to claim that everything that the Bible promises is good?
Would you find it scandalous if I were to claim that even temptation to sin is a positive promise from God? Is it scandalous that things that might cause us to stumble in sin could be redeemed and used by God for our benefit, for our healing?
I will guarantee it, even as scripture promises us that times of temptation will come, that they are impossible to avoid. (pause)
But there is a way to deal with them
Community
Even as scripture tells us that temptations and opportunities to stumble into sin occur, we also find out that Jesus gives us a method to deal with the sin that may arise. Let’s look at verse three and four again,
“3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, 4 and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
As we look at God’s strategy to deal with temptation and sin, it is important to realize that this passage is tell us not to pay attention to ourselves as individuals, but to pay attention to “us”, the people who make up this church – even those who aren’t here today because of travel or sickness, or anger or perhaps because they fear they have offended, or because we have offended them. Pay attention to yourselves – plural all of us, this community that is gathered to this place, by God.
Deal with it – deal with the sin, reconcile the relationships damaged by sin. Jesus tells we must forgive each other,. Even if the sin is committed seven times in one day, if our brother or sister betrays us, and hurts us, we must forgive them if they turn and confesses their offense.
It also says we need to rebuke them. Rebuking sounds harsh in English, but it is simply urging them, teaching them of the need for forgiveness, teaching them of the opportunity to be forgiven. We hear it more often as a stern and intimidating thing, but what it means is to evaluate in order to improve. Rebuking is to analyze those things that exist and plan what needs to occur to improve our situation. More like a progress report than a report card, for the judgment is not final – but offering a correction so that the goal is reached. We are to go to each other and encourage seeking forgiveness, that all may find it. How different this is from the world, which says, “fool me one, shame you, fool me twice shame on me…
We are to encourage those who have grieved us, who have hurt us, who have sinned against us. This includes in the encouragement the promise of forgiveness. (pause)
How many of you think this is a small challenge? (pause) A large challenge? Impossible?
I love the apostles reaction, their very proper response…. (pause) verse five..
• The Proper Response:
• Increase our Faith
• They realize the condemnation the command brings
(begginginly) “INCREASE OUR FAITH! “ (same in NIV and ESV)
This is a proper response, a very proper response. I can see James or John saying, “Lord, if you really want me to go over to Peter to encourage him to ask me for forgiveness for what he did, and then promising them I will forgive him…. I have to have more faith! I have to be able to trust you more!”
All of us have hurts and pains in the past, some of them still sting after a few days, or months, or decades. Jesus is telling us, as a community, that we need to encourage those people to change their ways, and to seek forgiveness, even as He tells us we have to forgive.
That’s a pretty tall order for us in the church. In these days, conflict is usually results in people fighting, fleeing, or simply ignoring the conflict. It takes great trust, not in each other, but in God to be able to counter those options. You don’t like someone at this church, the world suggests that you sit on the opposite side of the church, or get your defensive mechanisms out - ready to fight. Or as too often happens, the world suggest that you simply go to one of the 15 other Lutheran churches within ten miles.
The disciples didn’t have those options, and really, they were starting to realize that it was smarter to follow Jesus, than do things the world’s way. It is wiser to work through things, than let them fester and divide. Even so, their reaction tells Jesus that they realize how impossible this task is, how this commands scares them, because they realize living life in this way is… well impossible.
God’s commands about loving our neighbors are difficult indeed, and the sting of realizing that is painful. It’s as painful as someone coming up to us, and encouraging us to confess that we sinned against them, and desired their forgiveness…(Pause)
• Another Proper Response
• If you had even the smallest emough
But their response is not the only proper one. Jesus recognizes their weakness as well, for he indicates to them how little trust it takes to do miraculous things. He chooses something so tiny as a seed that is barely bigger than a speck of sand. If you trusted me this much, He tells them, you would realize what I’ve given you, and miracles would be easy. As would forgiving people, as would rebuking them.
This is what we should do, it is our duty, our work, as Jesus points out to the apostles. It isn’t something that is heroic or of note. It is what the community of God should be doing for each other; it is how we should live. That’s why this shouldn’t take epic levels of faith, and in theory it should be easy, if we have faith. If we trust in the God who saves and sustains us.
This kind of trust is like truly loving, it means abandoning ourselves, recognizing that in our relationship with Christ, we have peace, security, and healing. The revenge and getting justice are best left in His wise and loving hands. Romans 12 tells us that as well, that God owns our right to vengeance, that we as we trust Him with our salvation, we trust Him with all of us.
That is the depth of our relationship with God. Remember, He created us to share life with Him! We were created, and then saved in order to be His people, even as He is our God, to be one family. So he challenges us to look after each other, to try to help each other overcome sin, and even to restore each other after we do sin.
But it takes faith, that incredible assurance and confidence that God reigns, that Jesus wouldn’t let something truly destroy us, that He indeed knows what is best for us.
• Twist – There is a Master who did increase their faith, and set the table with the feast of feasts….
Jesus first tells them that He too recognizes how week their faith is, that this isn’t asking for a lot. Well a lot besides holiness, and being able to not be self-righteous or self-centered or… well sinners as well as the one’s sinned against.
But there is a twist to this start. A twist that can is seen when we look at where Jesus is, and where He is going. He’s on the way in to Jerusalem, the journey that ends in the upper room, the feast of feasts, and the cross, and eventually to a new journey beginning with an empty grave. Our rest and our peace is made sure, even as we are cleansed of sin.
There is where the Master will command His servants to rest, while He washes their feet, while he prepares a special meal, while He serves them… while He increases their faith. While he props them up in their weakness, cleanses our souls, and assures us of our place in His life. That He will die, and we will be forgiven, even if we sin against him 7 times in the same day.
For here at this altar, all sins are forgiven. Here where His Body and Blood are the feasted upon. It is here where we can celebrate our sins forgiven, together with the God who loves us.
It is where we find the strength to trust in God for our mutual forgiveness…
It is truly the feast where the master puts His servants first, calls for the rest and to eat and to drink, and to be at peace. And that is not just a proper response to their pleading to have their faith increased – it is the perfect response.
The peace of God which passes all understanding, and guards our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus. AMEN?
