Calling things what they are / Matthew 9:35-38 / Pr. Lucas Andre Albrecht / June 18th, 2023/ Season of Pentecost

Sermon – June 18th, 2023 - 9:00AM
Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Regina, SK
Matthew 9:35-38
Theme: “Calling things what they are”
___________________________

SERMON OUTLINE - Listen to the full sermon on the link above

Intr – One thing stood out in today’s Gospel for me. Jesus says that the people where “like sheep without a Shepherd”. How could Jesus say that? Look at how many spiritual leaders they could rely on: Priests, Rabbis, Scribes, Pharisees to quote a few. Would someone say this also about our day and time? For if we just look around we see how many spiritual leaders and guides one can have to help them in their spiritual journey.

Jesus is splanxnizomai for the people without a shepherd because most of the Shepherds available at the time called good bad, and bad, good. Sort of an upside-down spirituality.

Here are some examples:

Calling what is good, bad
-Jesus as the Messiah
-Healing on a Saturday
-Eating with sinners
-talking with women in public
-Relieving people from the traditions and added laws given by the current Shepherds.

Calling what is bad, good:
-You must follow all the 600+ laws we have
-The Messiah will deliver us from Rome;
-You need to live up to God’s commandments to deserve his Grace;
-avoiding the company of sinners;
-trying to be pure and holy before people;

        The Shepherds of the time were not feeding the people green pastures and still waters, so they were left on their own, either skeptical and looking only for the material blessings Jesus offered; or feeling anxious and totally burdened. [1]

          Is it something only of the past? Certainly not. There are lots of shepherds, be it Christians or from other ideologies around us offering pastures and waters, ideas and ideologies that call what is bad good, and what is good, bad. Here are some examples.

Here are some examples.

Calling what is bad, good:
-avoid talking about sin and guilt. People need to be free from these entanglements and be free to pursue the best version of themselves;
-Churches who are welcome here are the ones doing some social work. If you are not helping the neighbourhood socially, why do you exist at all?
-God must have made a mistake writing in the Bible that he created man and woman only. We need to set the record straight here.
_Every good thing you do comes back to you.
_If you don’t steal, don’t kill, love the animals, respect everybody and pay your bills, you are good person.

Calling what is good, bad:
-Cross and Sufferings
-God’s will, even when we don’t understand it;
-Being submissive to the Bible and upholding a Christian confession of faith;
-Loving your enemies;
-having babies;

       What is the problem here? It is avoiding the Cross, avoiding the Bible; avoiding calling things what they are. [2]

       It can also be described in two broad categories:

_The spirituality where you have a bill to pay. 

_the Spirituality where someone has paid your bill. Jesus.

        If you stop to think all religions, all forms of spirituality in the world, past or present, can be summarized that way.

       Our world needs His voice, for it is the Voice which calls the things what they are. Churches of the Cross call things what they are:

-Your brokenness is real. You don’t need to sugar coat it with “everyone is imperfect”. “I am a victim of my circumstances”, “I got to be strong”. “if I admit I am weak no one will respect me”
-This brokenness doesn’t need to be elaborated, dismissed or hidden. It can be confessed, for it can be healed. For free.
-That His Grace and love are never ending.
_There are times God allows things to happen that we don’t understand. But we trust. Because He is Good, and we aren’t.
_God is good all the time. But not when you distort the Bible to make Him look good to current moral and ideological standards. God is Good as described in the Bible.

        Sheep today still need to hear this voice, The Voice of the Good Shepherd. The one who paid the bill and offers you forgiveness, for free. The One who calls things what they are. The Father who offered his Son to die for you, so that you don’t perish, but have a blessed life; so that you have eternal life.

        Speaking of fathers, Jesus asks us to pray for more labourers. It includes ordained ministers for sure, but not only them. It includes royal priests[3], you and I. Here, I think especially of fathers. They are labourers in the vineyard working in the smallest Church there is, their home. As Luther puts in the Catechism, the head of the family should teach his household. And fathers also call things what they are as they educated their children for life. With their blessings and their difficulties, they are labourers in God’s Vine.

Cc – One last thought about the Gospel: many people have many interests in you: your money, your company, your position, your influence… different interests. Jesus however, has interest in YOU. Period. You’ve got nothing to offer him, and he still is compassionate at you. You are a sheep who have a Shepherd. You know His Voice and his Word. Don’t’ trade it for any other offer of spirituality. Stay with the One who calls things what they are. He is the Shepherd who paid your Bill, so that your heart has peace, your mind direction and your life salvation.

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Sermon – June 18th, 2023 – 11:00AM
Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Regina, SK
Matthew 9:35-38
Theme: “Calling things what they are”
___________________________

SERMON OUTLINE - Listen to the full sermon on the link above

Intr – What about the game last Friday, was it good or bad? For us, it was certainly bad as the Riders lost it. But I think that it has been considered good on the other side of the border, Manitoba.

         Chocolate and strawberry pizza, how does it sound to you? I see many showing in their face how “bad” it should be, but I can’t express to you how good it tastes to me.

         What about a bank balance of 1 million dollars or more? Super good eh? But when you observe the big problems money brings to some peoples’ lives, you might be tempted to consider it bad.

          These things are open to discussion, where more than one opinion is valid. But there are situations where deeper assessment and discernment is needed, for there is only one option, either good or bad. For example:

-Doing your best to be accepted by God;
-Adapting the Bible to address the time without offending anyone;
-talking about sin and Grace, Heaven and Hell.

        Here’s the reason I bring this illustration today. One thing stood out in the Gospel to me: Jesus says that the people where “like sheep without a Shepherd”. How could Jesus say that? Look at how many spiritual leaders they could rely on: Priests, rabbis, Scribes, Pharisees to quote a few.[4] Would someone say this also about our day and time? For if we just look around we see how many spiritual leaders and guides one can have to help them in their spiritual journey.

     Jesus is compassionate of the people without a shepherd because most of the Shepherds available at the time called what is good bad, and what is bad, good. Sort of an upside-down spirituality. Here are some examples:

Calling what is good, bad
-Jesus as the Messiah
-Healing on a Saturday
-Eating with sinners
-talking with women in public
-Relieving people from the traditions and added laws given by the current Shepherds.

Calling what is bad, good:
-You must follow all the 600+ laws we have
-The Messiah will deliver us from Rome;
-You need to live up to God’s commandments to deserve his Grace;
-avoiding the company of sinners;
-trying to be pure and holy before people;

        The Shepherds of the time were not feeding the people green pastures and still waters, so they were left on their own; either skeptical and looking only for the material blessings Jesus offered; or feeling anxious and totally burdened.[5]

        Is it something only of the past? Certainly not. There are lots of shepherds, be it Christians or from other ideologies around us offering pastures and waters, ideas and ideologies that call what is bad good, and what is good, bad. Here are some examples.

Calling what is bad, good:
-avoid talking about sin and guilt. People need to be free from these entanglements and be free to pursue the best version of themselves;
-Churches who are welcome here are the ones doing some social work. If you are not helping the neighbourhood socially, why do you exist at all?
-God must have made a mistake writing in the Bible that he created man and woman only. We need to set the record straight here.
_Every good thing you do comes back to you.
_If you don’t steal, don’t kill, love the animals, respect everybody and pay your bills, you are good person.

Calling what is good, bad:
-Cross and Sufferings
-God’s will, even when we don’t understand it;
-Being submissive to the Bible and upholding a Christian confession of faith;
-Loving your enemies;
-having babies;

      What the problem is here? It is avoiding the Cross, avoiding the Bible; avoiding calling things what they are. [6]

 It can also be described in two broad categories.

_The spirituality where you have a bill to pay. 

_the Spirituality where someone has paid your bill. Jesus.

        If you stop to think, all religions and all forms of spirituality in the world, past or present, can be summarized that way.

       Our world needs this voice, for it is the Voice which calls the things what they are. Churches of the Cross call things what they are:

-Your brokenness is real. You don’t need to sugar coat it with “everyone is imperfect”. “I am a victim of my circumstances”, “I got to be strong”. “if I admit I am weak no one will respect me”;
-This brokenness doesn’t need to be elaborated, dismissed or hidden. It can be confessed, for it can be healed. For free. The presence of Jesus is a safe place to be open and wide about your sin, because his Grace and Forgiveness are not only open and wide. They are undending.
-That his Grace and love are never ending. Even when you feel miserable, weak, sorrowing, disappointed.
_There are times God allows things to happen that we don’t understand. But we trust. Because He is good, and we aren’t; because he is wise, and we aren’t. Because he saves us, and we can’ save ourselves.
_God is good all the time. But not when you distort the Bible to make Him look good to current moral and ideological standards. God is good as described in the Bible.

        Sheep today still need to hear this voice, The Voice of the Good Shepherd. The One who paid the bill and offers you forgiveness, for free. The One who calls things what they are. The Father who offered his Son to die for you, so that you don’t perish, but have a blessed life; so that you have eternal life.

        Speaking of fathers, Jesus asks us to pray for more labourers. It includes ordained ministers for sure, but not only them. It includes royal priests[7], you and I. Here, I think especially of fathers. They are labourers in the vineyard working in the smallest Church there is, their home. As Luther puts in the Catechism, the head of the family should teach his household. And fathers also call things what they are as they educated their children for life. With their blessings and their difficulties, they are labourers in God’s Vine.

          And what do labourers in a field do? Do they make the seed germinate and grow? No. They can do lots, but not that. Labourers in God’s field are called to teach, preach, to sow. The sprouting, growth and harvest come from the Lord.

Cc – One last thought about the Gospel: many people have many interests in you. Your money, your company, your position… different interests. Jesus however, has interest in YOU. Period. You’ve got nothing to offer him, and he still is compassionate at you. You are a sheep who have a Shepherd. You know His Voice and his Word. Don’t’ trade it for any other offer of spirituality. Stay with the One who calls things what they are. He is the Shepherd who paid your Bill, so that your heart has peace, your mind direction and your life salvation. In Him, the flavour, the win and the riches are eternal.

 ________________________________

 [1] When we read through the Gospels, especially St. John, we realize what type of “shepherds” they had. The religious leadership of Israel had the tendency of focusing always more on exterior things, like ceremonials, rituals, unending lists of commandments and duties; the interior of the people, their hearts, was not being properly nourished. The food was there – the Scriptures -, but it was not being properly prepared and served. Lenski, p. 382.

[2]In a rather anachronistic way I want to use a definition Luther ised in the Heidelberg Disputation (1518). He was making the distinction about Theologians of Glory and Theologians of the Cross. Cross here not meaning only Jesus’ cross, but everything that is implied in our life when we become Christians. “A Theologian of Glory calls good evil, and evil good. A Theologian of the Cross calls things the way they are.  “So, why do the theologians of glory operate this way? The reason is that they are convinced that God must be lovable, and to be lovable, God must be good. Making people suffer isn’t good and isn’t lovable. Theologians of glory seek to uphold God’s glory”.  (Joel Okamoto) Luther, in the explanations to the 95 theses. “A theologian of glory does not recognize, along with the Apostle, the crucified and hidden God alone [I Cor. 2:2]. He sees and speaks of God’s glorious manifestation among the heathen, how his invisible nature can be known from the things which are visible [Cf. Rom. 1:20] and how he is present and powerful in all things everywhere. This theologian of glory, however, learns from Aristotle that the object of the will is the good and the good is worthy to be loved, while the evil, on the other hand, is worthy of hate. He learns that God is the highest good and exceedingly lovable. Disagreeing with the theologian of the cross, he defines the treasury of Christ as the removing and remitting of punishments, things which are most evil and worthy of hate. In opposition to this the theologian of the cross defines the treasury of Christ as impositions and obligations of punishments, things which are best and most worthy of love.”(LW 31.212, 225, 227).

[3] 2 Peter 2:9

[4] Further textual notes (based on Lenski):
_The casual observer of the multitudes would never have seen what Jesus saw (Lenski, p.383).
Jesus commissions the apostles. We must note that:
_Jesus mentions the harvest, not the whole process. God is the worker; he prepares, seeds and makes it grow. We are reapers, we go and reap the fruits He provides.
_We pray that GOD would provide. It is not up to us to provide them. God is the one doing the action. We will sing to the tune he has composed.
_Like in the Lord’s Prayer, God’s will is done even without our prayer. But God wants us connected to Him in prayer, as he strengthens us in our faith, and we learn every day to be connected to Him.

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