Drowning Myself Whenever I Can

Rev. Charles Lehmann + Trinity 23 + Matthew 22:17-22

 In the Name of + Jesus.  Amen.

 A lot of preachers use today's reading from Matthew 22 to talk about taxes.  That makes sense.  After all, the Pharisees were the tax protestors of their day.  They hated paying because it forced them to admit that they were under the thumb of the pagan Romans.  And, even worse, the coin of the day claimed that Tiberius, the Roman emperor, was the son of a god.  Having that filthy lucre in their pockets must have angered the legalistic Pharisees something fierce.

 Other preachers use this text to talk about tithing.  They say that you should pay your taxes both to the state and the church.  Those sermons go something like this:  “The state gets twenty-five percent or more from most of you, so why not give the church at least ten percent.  Isn't God worth at least half as much to you as the government?”

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Rev. Charles Lehmann + Trinity 22 + Matthew 18:21-35

 In the Name of + Jesus.  Amen.

 I wonder if Peter got the point.  He had asked Jesus if he should forgive someone up to seven times.  Seven seemed like a good number.  If someone wronged you in the same way over and over again, to forgive them seven times seems like it would be more than fair.  Enough is enough, right?

 But seven times is not even a drop in the bucket for Jesus.  He says, “Not seven times, but seventy times seven.”  That comes out to 490, and not even the most resentful person we can imagine is going to keep a running tally of sins for that long.  And that, people loved by God, is exactly the point Jesus is making.  Stop counting.  Love keeps no record of wrongs.  For the Christian, our tally of our neighbor's sins should never rise above zero.  The Lord has forgiven us such a multitude of sins that the sins of our neighbor are nothing by comparison.  When our neighbor sins against us, we should forgive them freely and completely.  You are never so free as when you have not counted your neighbor's sins against them.

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Hey, I have a question on Romans 7 that has been troubling me. I have always thought that in Romans 7 Paul is speaking about his dual nature as a sinner/saint, his flesh versus his new heart in Christ. But recently I heard someone argue that what Paul is actually doing here is engaging in a typical Greco-Roman rhetorical practice (also found in Jewish literature, including the Qumran Psalms) in which the personal "I" and the present tense is used as a literary convention. In other words, where the personal "I" is combined with the present tense, the author is utilizing a practice called "speech in character" to represent a universal experience. Paul would thus be bringing out the universal experience of those who do not know Christ (and that did include him, at one time) and their struggle with moral law and sin. He would not be giving a biographical account of his present experience (as I have always thought). Which is accurate? How do you interpret this? And what implication does your interpretation of this have for someone struggling with sin? I eagerly await your response. Thanks!

I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.  The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.  For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.  So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.  Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.  For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.  For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.  Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.  So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me...

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

"The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."
     - 1 Corinthians 2:14

"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience--among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."
     -Ephesians 2:1-3

"You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.  But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness."
     -Romans 8:9-10

Rev. Charles Lehmann + Reformation Day + Romans 3:19-28

 In the Name of + Jesus.  Amen.

 “Though devils all the world should fill, all eager to devour us, we tremble not, we fear no ill; they shall not overpower us.  This world's prince may still scowl fierce as he will.  He can harm us none.  He's judged.  The deed is done.  One little word call fell Him.”  The message of Luther's hymn is clear.  Satan wants to kill you.  He and his minions fill all the world trying their best to drag you and all whom you love into the pits of hell.  We too often forget that wherever Christ is, Satan is not far away.  Satan is absolutely implacable in his hatred of God and His Church.  Since most of the world is already under Satan's control, the devil focuses his efforts on the church.  He tries his best to pull you away from Christ.  He wants you to doubt what Christ has done for you, and he wants you to look to yourselves instead of Christ for life and salvation.

 For this reason, Saint Paul writes that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the spiritual forces of darkness in the heavenly places.  Have no doubt, dear Christians.  The battle is taking place here, right now, in this place.  There is nowhere more heavenly than the Church.  It is here that the Gospel is proclaimed.  It is here that the forgiveness of sins is given out.  It is here that your Lord comes to you with His promise of life and salvation.  And so it is also here that Satan is always working to draw your attention away from your Savior and toward other things.  He will work at this throughout your earthly life.  He'll never stop until you draw your last breath.

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Rev. Charles Lehmann + Marriage of Amber Close and John Stark + Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

 In the Name of + Jesus.  Amen.

 Ecclesiastes is one of those books in the Bible that most people have heard of but have never read.  That's very unfortunate, because Ecclessiastes is a wonderful book, and it is filled with wisdom.

 It is good, John and Amber, that you wanted to hear words of wisdom on your wedding day.  The longer you are married the more you will find that God's words in Ecclesiastes are true in important ways.  Before I was married, I sometimes would wonder why it was that husbands and wives slept in the same bed.  On the surface, it doesn't really seem necessary.  In fact, there was a time when only poor couples who could not afford separate beds slept  in the same bed between the same sheets and under the same blankets.

 Solomon throws this old so-called wisdom on its head.  He says, “If two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?”  The answer is simple.  They can't.  This week my wife has been on a short vacation in Savannah, Georgia.  I haven't slept well all week.  Why?  I'm cold.  Even if I leave the heat turned up all night, I wake up in the middle of the night trying to find a way to keep warm.

 It's a futile effort.  I'll be warm tomorrow but not before then.  Without Jen, I can't be warm.  Tomorrow night she will be home.  She, and she alone, is the one whom God has given to keep me warm at night.  But why make so much of it?  Keeping warm in bed at night seems mundane.  If we listen to the world, marriage is supposed to always be popping with excitement.  Hollywood makes hundreds of millions every year by telling us stories of love that are epic in scope.  Keeping warm at night is too mundane for the big screen.  It's a day to day part of marriage that just isn't worth the world's time.

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Rev. Charles Lehmann + Trinity 18 + Matthew 22:34-46

 In the Name of + Jesus.  Amen.

 Hear, dear Christians, a small portion of what the Scriptures say about love.  “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”  “You were called to freedom. . .  Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”  “The one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”  “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”   “Let all that you do be done in love.”  “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.”  “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.  In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  This is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

 Love is important.  We all know that.  Even the world thinks it knows it.  The world thinks love is important even though it doesn't know what love is.  Turn on the radio.  You won't have to wait long until you hear the world saying all sorts of things about love.  But, the world can only ever get part of the way there.  At best, the world can only see a shadow, a broken picture, a flawed and imperfect copy of the self-giving love that is revealed only in the Scriptures.

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Dear Rev. Rossow,

I have on at least three separate occasions requested that I and my congregation's e-mail addresses be removed from the mailing list for the Brothers of John the Steadfast.

At least once per week I receive material from you.  What part of "stop e-mailing me" do you not understand?

I have, in the past, written to you about why I don't want to receive your material.  Let me reiterate it once more.

1.  You do not address people in a respectful manner.  I have, at times, read racial slurs and other sorts of personal attacks in comments on your blog and the offenders continue to be allowed to comment months later.

2.  Sometimes the personal attack is in the body of the post itself.

3.  You send unsolicited e-mails and fail to remove addresses from your list when requested.  Today I received one from you and from Jesus First at the same time.  They also have ignored my requests to be removed from their list.

4.  You pretend that your behavior is acceptable because you're "right."  That doesn't play.  Being right does not entitle your organization to behave poorly or to give a forum to others who desire to behave poorly.  On points 3 and 4, you are at best no better than those whom you oppose.

tutal

It is the rich young ruler that the synoptics say Jesus loved.  Specifically, we hear that Jesus loved him just after he brags about obeying the commandments and just before Jesus tells him to sell all he has and give the money to the poor.  Though this person is not explicitly identified in the Gospel as Mark, he is referred to as a "young man" in Matthew 19:22.  That same word is used of the man who loses his underwear in Gethsemane (Mark 14:51).

If they are the same man (and I'm suggesting that they are), then we see that the rich young ruler did just what Jesus commanded him to do.  He gave up everything except his underwear and then followed Jesus, and then he lost the underwear at Gethsemane.