SERM: Jude 8-13, Midweek Lent 3
The Book of Jude for Lenten Repentance The Third Midweek Service in Lent Relying On Their Dreams Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! In tonight’s reading, Jude points to God’s Scriptures as our only shield and defense as we “contend for the faith” against those who “pervert the grace of our God.” · First, Jude warned us not to cut anything away from God’s Scriptures. Jude did this by saying, “I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it.” · Now Jude warns us not to add anything to the Scriptures, either. Those “certain people [who]… crept in unnoticed” were adding to God’s Scriptures by “relying on their dreams.” As Jude said, “these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.” Dear Christian friends, The Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY, is an appealing fieldtrip destination, even for many Lutheran schools. The slogan on the museum’s website is “prepare to believe.” In addition to showing you exciting things, such as the actual size of Noah’s Ark and what the Garden of Eden might have looked like, the Creation Museum also wants to present you with geological evidence to support what you believe about the creation. Here is the deal the Creation Museum can offer you: They will show you a fossil and a thick layer of silt; you “prepare to believe.” “Prepare to believe.” This slogan is telling you that, if you are given the right amount of visual evidence and other proof, you will finally be able to believe. You can become convinced to embrace creation as the true explanation for how our world came to be. Just look at the evidence. The evidence demands a verdict. When we shuttle our Lutheran schoolchildren off to the Creation Museum, we deny the power of God’s Word. When we bring guest speakers into our schools to show us the evidence for creation—speakers who usually reject God’s miracles of Baptism and Holy Communion, but who have lots of exciting proof for creation—we again deny the power of God’s Word. We deny the power of God’s Word when we pretend that we can build our faith upon those things that we see with our eyes and touch with our hands. Forget that God has said, “Faith is… the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). The supposed evidence for creation is persuasive and compelling! The supposed evidence is helpful and exciting and it gives our children our reason to believe! No. The supposed evidence for creation labors against our children’s faith. The supposed evidence for creation will destroy their faith in the same way that the devil’s lie of evolution will destroy their faith. The supposed evidence for creation is just subtler in dealing its deathblow. “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the Word of God” (Hebrews 11:3). “Faith is… the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). “Hope that is seen is not hope” (Romans 8:24). The supposed evidence for creation threatens faith because “faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). Christ does not speak through the supposed evidence. Christ speaks through His Scriptures. “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son” (Hebrews 1:1). Aorist verb; once and for all; conversation is over! Thus says the LORD: · “You shall not add to the Word that I command you” (Deuteronomy 4:2). · “Everything I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it” (Deuteronomy 12:32). · “Do not add to His [God’s] Words, lest He rebuke you” (Proverbs 30:6). This is exactly what the supposed geological evidence for creation hopes to do, adding to God’s Scriptures even in the name of Christianity. The evidence claims to give you a reason to believe. The museum’s slogan is “Prepare to believe.” In reality, the evidence only offers you false comfort and counterfeit consolation. Yet isn’t this desire for proof the very thing that you and I feel tempted to do every day of our lives? There is a reason why this Creation Science stuff is so popular among Christians! False comforts and counterfeit consolations are like heroin for our sinful, fallen nature. You and I might be running off to Petersburg, KY, so we can prove creation. Nevertheless, the sinful nature, alive within us, would love · to replace God’s spoken promises of forgiveness and peace with inward feelings of happiness or sensations of peace and satisfaction. That way, we can inwardly feel that we are saved, rather than believe on the basis of God’s Word and Baptism that God promises to save us. · hear God’s voice whisper inwardly to our hearts and our minds, rather than speaking to us exclusively through the Scriptures. That way, I can know God’s personal will for my life, as if the Ten Commandments were not enough!
SERM: Numbers 21:4-9, Lent 4B, LSB 3-Year Lectionary
Intro The command to put a snake on a pole must have sounded ridiculous to some of the Israelites. Stare at a bronze snake and you’ll be healed? Who came up with that stupid idea? It must’ve just sounded silly enough that some Israelites started to look for more reasonable solutions to the snakebites. Main Body Now, one elder among the Israelites couldn’t bear telling people that these poisonous vipers were the result of God’s judgment on their sinful behavior. He didn’t want to wound people’s self-worth and hurt their sensitive, inner-child. So, instead of directing people to the snake on the pole, Elder Self Esteem set up support groups, hoping to make people feel better. And people did feel better. But they still died, because they never bothered looking at the snake on the pole. We can chuckle, but don’t we think the same way? Don’t we prefer those who make us feel happy about ourselves instead of telling us the truth? But what happens when this happens in the Church? We then never see that sin has poisoned us and that we are dying of its venom. Then, we never look to the snake on the pole--I mean, the Christ on the cross--to get the life that God is giving us. One elder in the Israelite camp believed the real problem was the people’s lack of faith. “We need to speak faith into what’s happening here,” Elder Look Within shouted. He said that it’s faith that saves! So, Elder Look Within taught people to look to their own faith for salvation, instead of looking at some stupid snake on a pole. What did it matter, anyway? The snake merely represented what God was doing. And so, some of these inward-looking people died because they didn’t look at the snake on the pole. Some in the camp became angry with Moses. Who was this man not allowing women to help hold up the snake on the pole? One woman complained, “I’m not going to look at any snake on a pole that only men are holding up.” Soon after that, she died of snakebite. Many in the camp held a candlelight vigil in her honor. Others asked, “Did God tell Moses to put a snake on a pole? Or did Moses just make that up?” One group, led by Elder Higher Criticism, felt that this was merely Moses’ opinion. After all, he could explain any healings that had taken place by natural causes. Another group doggedly defended the divine inspiration of Moses. Elder Fundamental led this group. What was essential to him was that people realize that what Moses said was true. So, that became his focus. But sadly, Elder Fundamental’s teachings reduced the opportunities for people to see the snake on the pole. For, when they were proving what Moses said was true, they weren’t looking at the snake, and so some died. One elder believed that each person had to decide for the snake, whether he would look at the snake on the pole. And so, Elder Make A. Decision concentrated on that. He began having gatherings where he would first condemn the horror of poisonous vipers. Later, he would invite people to come forward and decide to look at the snake on the pole. One elder agreed that life in the camp had, indeed, become dire. But he thought the idea of immediately directing people to a snake on the pole was a poor business model. “We should find out what people are looking for,” he said. Elder Synagogue Growth asserted that it might take up to six months of working with “snake-seekers” before they would be willing to look at the snake on the pole. So instead, he surveyed the people to find out what they wanted. Some wanted aerobics, so they could more quickly run away from the snakes. Others wanted to learn real-life, practical principles for living in a camp infested with snakes on the loose. Others wanted only to get together and sing lighthearted, emotional songs to forget about the snakes. Yet, while Elder Synagogue Growth waited for people to be willing to look at the snake on the pole, many died. Elder Moderate, a new leader within the camp, felt that his reasoning had advanced beyond everyone else’s. He simply smiled at all the constant bickering. “People, please,” he begged, “in the end, the differences we have about the snake on the pole won’t matter. After all, they’re just mere matters of practical application. Can’t we just get along?” Some these allegories may make you laugh. Others may hit close to home. But when the poisonous snakes attacked, God had set up only one specific way for the children of Israel to survive. They had to reject everything else. They had to look up at the bronze snake that Moses made and placed on the pole. If a snake had bitten them and they did this, they would live; if not, they would die. It didn’t matter what else the Israelites did, how they felt, or how spiritual they seemed. It didn’t matter if they prayed to the transcendent Father in heaven, or sought the immediate aid of the Spirit. If they didn’t look at
