July 10, 2022                                          Text:  Luke 10:25-37

Dear Friends in Christ,

    Rabbinic scholars before and after Jesus have always debated the meaning of the word “neighbor.”  Fellow Jews, were considered “neighbors.”  Some were more “neighbor” than others, especially those that kept the law.  Shepherds, tax collectors and sinners not so much.  Gentiles were outside the realm of “neighbor.”  You didn’t have to be unkind, but you didn’t have to love them.  A Jew wouldn’t push a Gentile into the Sea of Galilee, but if they fell in, well, they didn’t need to be in a hurry to rescue them.

    Do we disqualify people as “neighbor”?  Someone of a different political slant?  A person from the wrong neighborhood?  Those who live differently than we do?  Do we ever feel justified in treating people in a not-so-neighborly way?

    Jesus is going to help us with this question this morning.  He is going to help us see who our neighbor is.  He isn’t going to debate but he will get to the truth.  In fact, He will lead the questioner to the answer.  May the Holy lead us as well to see . . .

“THE RIGHT ANSWER IS . . . JESUS?”

    Lawyers love questions.  It is part of their vocation.  It was no different in Jesus’ time.  The lawyer stood up, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (v. 1)  It’s a test.  Is this Jesus as qualified as He claims to be?  The lawyer wants to prove his case.  Jesus turns the tables and asks him a question.  Now who is being tested.  “What is written in the Law?  How do you read it?” (v. 2).  

    We heard a lot of Old Testament Law in our reading from Leviticus this morning.  And we would agree with not stealing and not profaning God’s name and not oppressing our neighbor and everything else listed there.  We don’t want to be the robbers in Jesus’ story.

    The law is on the lawyer’s mind, imagine that?  It is on our minds as well.  The law is written in our hearts.  We know right from wrong, good from bad.  We have a conscience.  We know how we should be.

    The lawyer uses the law unlawfully.  So do we.  We ask the wrong question.  The premise is wrong.  The only way to inherit something is to be born to someone who has it and wait for that person to die.  When we mix up our doing with God’s giving, we have a problem.

    The problem is the lawyer wanted to justify himself.  He asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”  If we use the law as a guidebook, then we can skip some of the parts.  We can justify our actions when we don’t love or we don’t help or we don’t have compassion in certain situations.  “Lord, it wasn’t my fault, that person is hard to do anything good for.”  We need some help.

    After telling the story Jesus gets to the right question.  “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” (v. 36). 

    This man is us.  We are knocked down, beat up, ripped off – by life, by sin, by our desires, by our questionable choices.  Nobody is a perfect neighbor to us except Jesus.

Jesus is the right answer to all the questions.

    It is a running joke in our circles, ever since we were a kid, that if we weren’t sure of an answer, the answer Jesus would do.  Many times it is the correct answer.  In our text it is as clear as the blue sky.

    Jesus is the Good Samaritan.  He comes to each of us who are beaten by sin, the devil, the world.  He comes to us left half dead.  He touches with words.  He heals with Baptism.  He provides shelter in His Holy Church and food in His Holy Supper.  He will come back to take us to heaven.

    Jesus is a neighbor to us all.  He does not pass by anyone.  His compassion shines through in his life of loving service and in His sacrificial death.  On the cross, he paid all the cost to nurse us back to life.  He shows His compassion to us daily.

    In a sense, Jesus is our Lawyer, He is our Advocate with the Father.  When Jesus stands to speak, it is not to test anyone, but to defend us, the guilty ones, with His blessed innocence.  He does not ask us what we have accomplished to gain eternal life.  He tells us what He has done to give us all eternal life.

    Don’t try to justify yourself, because Jesus already has welcomed you as His neighbor in the kingdom.  It’s simple.  But simple can be best.  The Right Answer Is . . . Jesus.

                                            Amen.           

July 3, 2022                                      Text:  Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Dear Friends in Christ,

    When soldiers in Vietnam had 30 days or less to serve in that country, they were called short-timers.  It was a tradition that once a soldier reached that status he made himself a short-timer stick.  He would carve this stick with notches which would indicate how many days he had left before returning home.  This way they were showing tangible evidence that they yearned to go back to their own country, which they often referred to as God’s country.

    Today’s Epistle teaches us that all Christians are really short-timers in this earthly country.  But we are short-timers who know that . . .

“GOD’S COUNTRY IS OUR FATHERLAND”

    Hebrews is written to persecuted Christians who are spiritually weary.  They haven’t faced martyrdom, but they are in danger of losing hope in God’s promises and even falling away from the faith.  To revive their faith, the writer of Hebrews proclaims Christ as God’s final Word.  To further explain what their faith looks like we have chapter 11.  It gives definitions of faith from the Old Testament.  The focus of our text is Abraham.

    Abraham was a short-timer.  He was an alien and a stranger.  He lived in tents and very rarely had a permanent home.  His life was always changing, always on the move.  We too are short-timers.  Our life is transitory.  What is meant by that?

    It means that we can make all the plans and choices we want but we are not ultimately in control.  Haven’t you had an illness or injury that disrupted your life?  Weather events can throw changes our way.  Maybe you’ve been set to move somewhere and make a job change and what looked good at the moment isn’t quite as bright as it used to be.  Like a boxer we bob and weave to try to get out the way of the punches to the gut that life brings our way.

    Our text says Abraham, “went out, not knowing where he was going.”  One of the greatest faithful followers of the Lord, not knowing where he was going?  Who was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write this?  This Bible we believe in is not an earthly nirvana of good times for God’s people.  They struggled.  We struggle.  That had times they didn’t know where God was leading them.  We have times where we think the same thing.  Lord, where do you want me to go?

    What Abraham and these others had was a strong belief in what God was doing.  How else could Abraham go all the way to the point of plunging a knife into Isaac?  Faith.  Faith in the assurance of things hoped for.  Faith in creation and the Creator.  Faith in the Word of God.  Faith that life here is temporary.  We are a short-timer on this earth.

    God’s country is our fatherland.  God Himself has built a country for us through the life and sacrificial death of his Son.  Only there will the foundation be without defect.  The perfect Son lived the perfect life to die our death.  

    We are not natural citizens of God’s country.  By nature sin excludes us from God’s country.   We can wander aimlessly seeking the false shelters provided by the devil and the world.  But God the Father through His Son Jesus has made us His own.  Through Holy Baptism we are made citizens.  

    Interestingly enough what we find in the Greek word for fatherland in our text is different than the way we think of it.  A fatherland is usually the place where one was born, but our fatherland is where we are going.  

    We are citizens of God’s country through faith.  Right now we can’t see what we hope for, but it is real and it has substance.  We don’t base our certainty of future blessings on subjective feelings.  We base it on a demonstration of God’s faithfulness through His Word.  Haven’t you seen this in your life?  In our ups and downs, God’s presence is always level.  He knows you.  He looks forward to greeting you in your fatherland.  He rejoices when the fulfillment of our citizenship takes place but until then he tasks you with work in his Kingdom.  An American soldier in Vietnam was a full citizen of the United States.  But he wouldn’t experience that full citizenship until he returned home.  Letters and cards upped the ante and the anticipation of going home.  God Word and promises do the same for us.  

    Imagine a frigid winter’s night.  Snow and wind.  Two men are walking down the street.  One is wandering because he has no home to go to.  He is looking for whatever shelter he can find.  He’s lost.  The 2nd man is walking in the same storm, but he has pep in his step and a tune on his lips.  He sees the lights of his home – warmth and family and a good meal await.  He represents the Christian.  We are weary Christians traversing these streets of life.  Yet we see God’s country in our future.  We see our fatherland and eternity with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  That is our home.  Prepared by God for you and me through our Savior Jesus Christ.  Welcome.

        Amen.