The entire second half of this sermon has been reworked. Please delete the previous draft of this sermon as too juvenile, even for my pulpit.
ER Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost Are YOU Talkin’ to ME? Theme: The sermon is about you. You need NOT to concern yourself with whether it might also be about someone else. Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. After Jesus preaches a sermon in today’s Gospel, telling His Parable of the Vineyard, St. Matthew adds a little explanation about the impact and result of Jesus’ preaching. “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His [Jesus’] parables, they perceived that He was speaking about them.” This is an amazing thing: Jesus never once says to the chief priests and the Pharisees, “Hey, this sermon is about YOU!” Nevertheless, upon hearing the powerful Word of God preached to them, “the chief priests and the Pharisees … perceived that He [Jesus] was speaking about them.” Jesus was speaking against Pharisees’ sin and He was calling the chief priests to repentance, so that they themselves would receive the personal benefit and blessing of Jesus’ forgiveness of their sins. There were probably other people listening to Jesus’ sermon that day, since it was preached in open public at the temple in Jerusalem (Matthew 21:23). Those other people did not matter, as far as the chief priests and the Pharisees were concerned. The Word of God was confronting them. “They perceived that He [Jesus] was speaking about them.” Dear Christian friends, Every once in a while, the absolute best thing you can do for yourself and for your neighbor is to totally ignore your neighbor. This does not happen all the time: God your heavenly Father requires and demands that you pay very close attention to your neighbor; that you guard and protect your neighbor in every way imaginable; that you supply to your neighbor whatever he or she may lack, not matter what it may be; that you especially regard your Christian neighbor as your brother—and that you be your brother’s keeper (Genesis 4:9). Nevertheless, every once in a while—maybe even once a week—the absolute best thing you can do for yourself and for your neighbor is to totally ignore your neighbor. When Jesus is talking to you—in the same way that He was talking in particular to the chief priests and the Pharisees in today’s Gospel—when Jesus is talking to you, the best and most loving thing you can do for your neighbor is to keep your neighbor out of the conversation. As you may already know, when I mention “Jesus talking to you,” I am NOT referring to some Pentecostal, demonic, supposed whispering of Jesus into your heart and mind. When I say, “Jesus is talking to you,” I am referring to the Word Jesus proclaims personally to you in here worship, both in the absolution and in the sermon: · In the absolution, Jesus speaks personally to you because He wants YOU to know that YOUR sins are forgiven. What He is likewise saying to others at the same moment is not the concern. The Word of forgiveness for YOU is the whole point of your worship attendance. · The Scriptures teach us to believe that the sermon is much more than brotherly advice. We believe the sermon—faithfully preached from the Word—the sermon is nothing other than Jesus’ own Words spoken personally to you (Small Catechism, Third Commandment), even if you must listen Jesus’ Words spoken to you from the lips of Baalam’s donkey. Even though I voice the sermon to you, the sermon is certainly not about me speaking, and it most certainly is not about me speaking to your neighbor. Faithfully grounded in the Scriptures of God, the sermon is nothing other than Jesus talking to you. When Jesus is talking to you—just as He was talking to the chief priests and the Pharisees in today’s Gospel—when Jesus is talking to you, the best and most loving thing you can do is to keep your neighbor out of the conversation. Now I am going to repeat myself about both of these, the absolution and the sermon, with a little more detail for each: The General Absolution is About You, Not about Your Neighbor When you hear the absolution at the beginning of the service, “I forgive you all your sins” Jesus wants you to think He is speaking directly to you and about you, just as “the chief priests and the Pharisees … perceived that He [Jesus] was speaking about them” in today’s Gospel. · When you hear your neighbor next to you say, “I a poor miserable sinner,” you might sometimes feel the urge to yell, “Dang right you are!” Keep your neighbor out of the confession-and-absolution conversation. · Again, when you hear Jesus say to your neighbor in the absolution, “I forgive you all your sins,” you might feel the urge to protest. “Are You sure You want to do that, Jesus? He didn’t tell you everything!” Keep your neighbor out of the conversation. In today’s Gospel, among the many people who were probably listening to Jesus preach in the crowded temple, “the chief priests and the Pharisees … perceived that He [Jesus] was speaking about them.” In the same way, when the forgiveness of sins is announced here in a general way to all, even with many people listening, Jesus is nevertheless speaking personally to you. “I forgive YOU all YOUR sins.” In the Sermon, Jesus is Likewise Speaking to You Let’s work with the assumption that the sermons you hear from me are faithful to the written Word of God. (If a sermon is not faithful to God’s Scriptures, you do well to ignore it and even to oppose it openly.) When you listen to a sermon, you should listen to it as if it were a private message Jesus is speaking only to you. Set aside the question of whether the sermon might bore you or excite you, comfort you or irritate you. The chief priests and the Pharisees in today’s Gospel understood the point of preaching, even though they did not like what they heard from Jesus. They even hated what they heard from Jesus. They nevertheless “perceived that He [Jesus] was speaking about them.” They carefully kept their neighbor out of the conversation, not attempting apply Jesus’ Parable of the Vineyard applied to those others who were listening that day. Jesus was speaking about them. Jesus singled them out in His preaching. In the same way, Jesus likewise singles you out when His living and powerful Word comes to you from this pulpit. It does not matter whether you feel as though the sermon has kicked you, or whether you find it so un-engaging that you fight sleep. In His Word, Jesus singles you out, even when His Word is preached to a large crowd. (Rest assured that, in very these same moments, Jesus singles me out, too. I, like you, must listen to what Jesus is saying to me through my own preaching, and God requires that I, like you, take my preaching to heart.) Neither you nor I need to say to ourselves, “Boy, I wish so-and-so were here today. He or she really needs to hear this sermon!” We may each content ourselves to say instead, “God brought me here today. I need to hear these words of Jesus.” “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His [Jesus’] parables, they perceived that He was speaking about them.” Jesus was speaking against Pharisees’ sin and He was calling the chief priests to repentance, so that they themselves would receive the personal benefit and blessing of Jesus’ forgiveness of their sins. Stated another way, Jesus was pointing out their sin and death so that He could give them resurrection and life. Perhaps, like these men, you also have heard Jesus say things to you that you did not like. Jesus is only diagnosing your deadly condition, so that you may receive the medicine of eternal life. He is only identifying your perpetual darkness so that “the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19). Jesus says these things to your neighbor, too. That simply is no concern of yours. Learn from chief priests and the Pharisees. “They perceived that He was speaking about them.” Keep your neighbor carefully out of the conversation. Jesus and His powerful, life-giving Word will attend to that person well enough. Like the Scriptures Themselves, Absolution and Preaching Are God’s Breath of Life Upon You! Like the absolution at the beginning of the service, preaching is simply the Word of God delivered personally to you. Like the absolution, preaching is the same breath that God first exhaled into Adam (Genesis 2:7), and likewise now exhales into you for your life. Disregard your neighbor in these moments. As an analogy, some of you have traveled on an airplane at some time in your life. Before take-off, the flight attendant always explains to you that there are oxygen masks stored overhead, and if there is a problem, the mask will drop down to you. The attendant always emphasizes that you must put your own oxygen mask on first, before you turn and help the person next to you. Never do anything else until you have your own mask securely in place. Regard absolution and preaching in a similar way, as if these gifts were an oxygen mask given to you by God. Make it your first and only priority the mask onto yourself. Then breathe the air. In his Word, your resurrected Lord Jesus is right here, right now. He is speaking personally to you. Breathe the air! Perceive that He is speaking to you. Believe that He is speaking to you. Jesus has “the Words of eternal life” (John 6:68) and here in this place, His Words—not my words—His Words deliver eternal life to you. The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen. _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
