JUNE 8, 2008  SERMON ARCHIVE

This morning's message is based on the Gospel reading from Matthew 9 concentrating on the last three verses of that reading.

'When the Pharisees saw Jesus dining with tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, ¡®why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? When Jesus heard that, He said to them, 'those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.¡¯ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.'

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In his book entitled 'Sacred Meditations' Johann Gerhard, a Lutheran pastor of the 17th century, wrote a devotion about battling pride and cultivating true humility in one¡¯s heart. He wrote, 'Consider, O faithful soul, the lowly condition of man, and you will the more easily avoid all temptation to pride. He enters the world as a helpless infant; his passage through life is attended with constant miseries, and he leaves it in tears. All his life long, he is assaulted by evil spirits, assailed by temptations, allured by worldly pleasures, cast down by tribulations, robbed of his virtues, and entangled in the meshes of evil habits. Why should he be proud, since he is but dust and ashes? Nothing is his own but his sins; of all that is in him, then, these are all that he can claim. Foolish and faithless is that servant who would personally pride himself upon what belongs to his master.'

Consider then the untenable position of the Pharisee and all those who put themselves in the place of the Pharisee. Pride has a way of clouding one¡¯s vision such that a person begins to look upon himself as being something when he is nothing, as being better than others, while at the same time considering others as unworthy even of the gift of mercy.

Jesus met such a Pharisaical attitude head on when He dined in the house of Matthew the tax collector. The Pharisees were appalled that Jesus would eat with such people, publicans and sinners as they called them. Jesus¡¯ message to the Pharisee and to the Pharisee at heart is this; 'These people draw near to Me with their mouth (Jesus said), and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'

Which begs the question, when does ritual become dead formalism serving only the cause of the prideful at heart? It is certainly a valid question because the words of Jesus to the Pharisees that, 'He desires compassion and not sacrifice,' are words that apply to us even today.

Perhaps as Lutheran Christians, a people who prize our liturgical tradition and ways, we ought to be even more aware of Jesus¡¯ words, that our tradition not become a means of serving our pride. When does ritual become dead formalism serving only the cause of the prideful at heart?

From the beginning let¡¯s be clear that Jesus does not suggest that compassion and ritual, or sacrifice, are necessarily opposed to one another. In fact, as there is a ritual that is completely void of compassion, but there is also a ritual that is steeped in compassion.

Simply put, Ritual that is void of compassion is ritual that is based on the doctrines of men. Or, to put it another way, it is ritual that is steeped in the Law. Ritual that is rich in compassion is ritual that offers the whole counsel of God, both the Law and the Gospel.

The Pharisees emerged from the days of the Old Testament with the understanding that the sacrificial system of old merited them something in and of itself. They taught this false belief as if it were a doctrine of God when in fact it was their own ill conceived doctrine. You can see the heart of the Pharisee in Jesus¡¯ parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector recorded in Luke 18.

'Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ¡®God, I thank You that I am not like other men ¨C extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.¡¯

The Pharisees steeped their worship, their ritual, in their own doctrine, in their own reliance on the Law of God for their justification. For the Pharisee there was really no forgiveness of sins because a sin was something committed by those who were outside of the Law of God ¨C the publicans and the tax collectors, you see. A Pharisee could carry out his ritual, trusting that ritual to make him right before God, even taking pride in the fact that he did everything right, and at the same time he could disdain those who didn¡¯t practice the ritual.

In his worship life the Pharisee traded compassion for sacrifice. He assumed that compassion was not necessary in order for a sacrifice to be pleasing to God. All that was necessary was that he do what he believed God wanted him to do. And thus he worshiped in dead formalism, his heart so puffed up with pride that there was no room for compassion.

And yet, all along God wanted the Gospel of His Son Jesus Christ to be at the heart of His people¡¯s worship. Remember, God doesn¡¯t disdain or dislike worship, as some who stay away from the church week after week, and year after year, must think that He does.

In fact, God doesn¡¯t even consider worship an option, not for the faithful anyway. Worship is to be rich in the whole of counsel of God¡¯s Word and most importantly in the compassion that flows from the objective Gospel of Jesus Christ. Worship is to proclaim that which your hearts could otherwise never fathom ¨C namely that God loves you and that He is intent on saving you from your sin.

So worship is not about appeasing God, nor is it simply about expressing to God how much you love and adore Him. Worship, you see, never begins with you, rather it begins with God. When you come here week after week you bring God your sins and your failures, your own selfish pride, and you listen attentively as God washes it all away.

Like all sin, pride is most readily dealt with in confession and absolution, a ritual steeped in the whole counsel of God¡¯s Word. In confession you are reminded that if you say you have no sin you deceive yourselves and the truth is not in you, but if you confess your sin, God, who is faithful and just will forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

So, you come here confessing that you are 'poor, miserable sinners' in need of God¡¯s forgiveness and grace. As Luther says, you admit that you are guilty of all sins, and with that awareness you throw yourselves down at the feet of the Cross to receive God¡¯s mercy.

And from this ritual, this liturgy that we are blessed to possess, God¡¯s counsel is showered down upon you. For the pastor speaks those most comforting words of compassion, words that your hearts could never fathom ¨C 'In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all of your sins.' And in an instant the Cross of Jesus is brought to bear in your own untidy, sin filled lives. Pride meets its doom in the forgiveness that flows from the pierced hands and the riven side of Jesus.

This is the flow of a worship steeped in compassion. From the Invocation to the Benediction the whole counsel of God is brought to bear in your lives in order that you, a people of pride, might become people of mercy. Church, you see, is not really like a gymnasium, a place where you come to exercise your faith and be pumped up by it, rather it is more like a hospital, a place where the sick go because they are in need of a physician.

Indeed, we all came here today in need of healing. Amongst other things, pride had sickened us. And the great physician felt compassion for us, and in the words that convey His grace, He healed us.

Now, you can go out from here, not with disdain for the world, for you recognize that all are publicans and sinners including each one of you, but with a new appreciation for God¡¯s mercy in Christ. Indeed, in living in that mercy you can go out from here with a message on your lips ¨C 'come and see this ritual, this worship steeped in compassion.'

Christ Is Risen

AMEN