SEP 27, 2009  SERMON ARCHIVE

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our heavenly Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, AMEN

The text for our meditation today is the Gospel Lesson for this 17th Sunday of Pentecost, Mark 9:38-50. There we read these words:

"Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us." "Do not stop him," Jesus said. "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward. "And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. Everyone will be salted with fire. "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other."

In the Name of Jesus Christ, AMEN

Poor, poor disciples! Just when they think they've got it figured out, just when they believe they are in tune with what Jesus is doing, BAM, the Lord cuts them off, pulls in the reigns, and says, "Whoa boys, back the truck up." I mean, come on now. They were simply taking to heart what Jesus said - that "no one can come to the Father but by Me . . . that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life." Even this: "He who is not with me is against me" - Matthew 12, verse 30. When they saw a man who was not one of them, not one of the Twelve, casting out demons in Jesus' name - they told him to quit. Sure, he was doing a good work. But he wasn't one of the gang.

Helloooooo. "That may be true, but he is not against us, either," Jesus said. He wasn't undoing what Jesus was about. He wasn't contradicting Jesus' work. Jesus says so. "No one who does a miracle in My Name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us." So this man was not teaching against what Jesus had given the Twelve. He was not teaching a different baptism than Christ's, or a different Gospel, or a different Faith. Perhaps, like Apollos - whom Aquila and Priscila took aside in private and expounded more perfectly the Gospel of Jesus - this man just needed some extra catechesis

Perhaps, like those disciples of John from Ephesus, who had never heard of the Holy Spirit and still needed the baptism of Jesus - this man needed to be brought into the Sacraments of Christ. Perhaps he was in the category of Eldad and Medad, who didn't get ordained with all the rest, but still received the Spirit. Or, maybe he was like the rest of all God's people, who in their own vocations, do the work that God has given them. Whatever the details, Jesus says, "He's not against us." Not in opposition to Christ's doctrine. Not preaching something different. So Jesus didn't stop him. What He did was to stop the Twelve from "looking over there" so much - from worrying about another person's imperfection. Even among the unbelievers - men like Cyrus and Baalam, Caiaphas the High Priest and a Roman Centurian, God can be at work and do some good. What is tragic is how much wickedness, how much going into sin and leading others with us, is going on within the Church! This is a call, dear friends. It is a call to you, a call to repentance, it reminds you that there is more that ought to worry you "in here" than anything "out there." And that just shows how much Christ loves you; how much concern He has for you. He doesn't want you fretting over people out there or how they treat you.

You've got all you need to worry yourselves about right here - in you - your Old Adam, your sinful flesh, the members of your body which war against God's Word and try to drag you into hell! Dear Christians, Jesus settled your salvation. He lived the way you ought to in this world - as if He knew there were a hell, and then, He suffered it! He put Himself where you should be and because He died and rose and went back to the Father, He gives eternal life to you - signed, sealed, and delivered in the Flesh and Blood of Jesus. But you still live in enemy territory. That's why you're part of what is called The Church Militant. You hear about it, especially around the time of Reformation. The devil roams around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And he has friends who help him, whom you ought to recognize and learn to resist. St. James says, he has your tongues!

And Jesus mentions eyes and feet and hands! You think the problem's out there, in those other people you are so concerned about, in those who so frustrate and burden you, as if - If only you could rid yourselves of THEM, your lives would go much better!

Dear friends, get rid of that kind of thinking, Jesus says. Such murdering! Such slander! Such going into hell! Pluck it out! Cut it off! Stop it all together! You're hacking away at the wrong people! You really should meet the real enemy -you should realize that the enemy is you! But that's the problem. You hack away at almost anyone and anything except where Jesus tells us!

When was the last time you stormed out of a room and left yourself alone, refusing to have another thing more to do with you? When was the last time you told yourself: "I'm never speaking to you again!"? When was the last time you said to yourself: "I can't live with you any longer!" and called a lawyer? But we do that, oh so easily, to others! No one is as intolerant of himself as he is of everybody else. But Jesus says: "YOU - YOU are the problem." So am I. So, "If your hand or foot or eye causes you to stumble, get rid of it. Pluck it out. Cut it off." And He is deadly serious! He is telling you that while there still are enemies around - the devil, the world - the greatest danger to your living in His Kingdom - now and always - is YOU. You and your sin, which you have always with you. And that should scare you a whole lot more than being maimed! So, repent. I mean, how can you doubt God? How can you hate Him? Take a look at what He's given you. Have you ever feel like Moses? Ever felt like you'd just as soon quit living than go on another moment with the people God has put into your life? That's something to repent of. Because in so doing you are despising your heavenly Father - Who only gives you what is best. Submit to God. Confess your sins. Grieve, mourn and wail - but not over all the "jerks" you have to tolerate - grieve over YOU! Change your laughter into mourning and your joy to gloom, and therein, learn to hate the ways you bring yourself so close to hell. Be salted. You see my friends, salt is for wounds. Salt is for healing, for closing up the skin and making whole again. Instead of amputating one another, Jesus turns you to yourselves. And then, so you don't go to hell, He turns you to HIMSELF! Be salted means, "Repent, and hear the GOSPEL!" The Lord Jesus killed and buried your transgressions, your sins. He stomped them under foot, like worms. He did that when He gave Himself to death for you. When He submitted to the Father's wrath so you might live. Christ was salted by your sins and died for you upon the cross. And now, because of that, He says there's hope. You've been rescued from the flames! Because of Jesus!

Dear Christians, remember. You are made of flesh. That’s why the text talks about body parts this morning - eyes, hands, feet. Dear friends, these things weren't made to feed the worms. That's all that cut-off body parts can do. Repent, then, of whatever eats away at you - your marriages, your families, your peace with God and one another. Repent of everything that brings you and your children - bit by bloody bit - into decay and closer to the pits of hell. Instead, be salted. "Everyone will be salted with fire," says Jesus. Why? Because fire cauterizes, fire stops the bleeding. So dear friends, be salted here and now, Be salted with the dying and the rising of the Savior in your place. Be salted with the Name of Jesus you received in Holy Baptism. Be salted with the Lord's Forgiveness in your pastor's Absolution, and with the LIVING Flesh and Blood of Jesus in this Supper.

Confess your sins. And be salted by the Lord. You have His Name on you, His Body and His Blood in you, and Jesus has your sins on Him! He has come through the flames, and given you His peace. Live in peace with one another. You are still in enemy territory. But remember: Jesus Christ is Lord. And Jesus Christ is watching over you and how you're treated in this world - whether someone leads you into sin, or helps you. Nothing slips past Jesus. He points out your sins, so that you turn from them, repent of them, confess them, and do everything you can so others do not follow where you should not lead. And most of all, He tells you: "I forgive you all your sins."

From His Suffering, His Dying, His being maimed, and then, His rising in your place - from His Water, His Supper and His saving Word which covers you with Jesus' Name - He tells you how to live: In peace with one another. As if the Name of Jesus, which can make some man "out there" acceptable to God, can bring even you - maimed, half-blinded, licked by the flames - into the Kingdom of God - into everlasting Life.

Dear friends of Christ - The Name of Jesus can do exactly that! In fact, it has! And it WILL continue to do so!

Christ Is Risen.