22nd Sunday after Pentecost Proper 24

Then he said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Matthew 22;21

I did not preach on the gospel lesson this week, so a few thoughts about that lesson.

Jesus says we are to render what is Caesar's and render what are the things that are God's. But aren't all things God's? Don't we receive from God all that there is, all of us all of our abilities?

I think Jesus is trying to say that we should first and foremost render to God, thanking and praising Him for everything, then give to our government.

And notice, Jesus has in a sense separated the state from religion. Give to Caesar, give to God.

But I think he is also saying that God is above all things including Caesar.

A closing story says it well about where our priorities should be.

"What we need," a wise member reasoned, "is to cultivate generous hearts."
We then made a covenant to invite people every Sabbath to the cross. Every
sermon, every song, every drama would in someway highlight the cross of Jesus.

We agreed that as people contemplate the generous grace of God, their hearts
would naturally respond in generous grace to God.

That proved to be a life-defining moment. Not only did the experience revamp
giving in our church (for the next four years we rarely missed making our
budget), it also caused me to do some deep reflecting about my own motives for
giving to God.

Really, there is only one reason to give to God, and that is because He's
given so generously to us.

Milo Kaufman said it well: "Christian stewardship most certainly is not a
scheme to deprive men of their cash. It is the natural consequence of an
experience with God-the natural reaction of the human heart that has been
touched by the divine spirit." 1



1Karl Haffner is senior pastor of the Walla Walla College Church and writes
from College Place, Wash.

18th Sunday after Pentecost Proper 20

"For the kingdom of heaven is......."

" So the last will be first, and the first last." RSV

This parable of Jesus at first seems unfair. Those who worked just a few hours received the same wage as those who worked all day. But Jesus is not talking about earthly things, he is speaking about the Kingdom of God. And the Kingdom of God is different than this earth.

The Kingdom of God is where God dwells and His ways are different than our ways. For if God went by our ways, then all of us should be forsaken and left to our own devises.

But showed us as Paul says that while we were still sinners, God died for us. God had his son die for us while we are and remain sinners so that we might have eternal life. This kingdom of God cannot be judged by earthly standards, but only Godly ones.

A closing illustration that I did not use in my sermons says it well. Listen

Let me share an illustration that for me, clears up the difference between these three concepts. If you don't know I spent 12 years in law enforcement. So, let's say I'm still a police officer. I arrive at a scene where through your carelessness you've jumped the curb, you've damaged your car and you've knocked down and destroyed a city sign. Now, I survey the scene and you admit that the accident was your fault so I give you a ticket for careless driving, I assign you a court date and I inform you that the city will be in touch with you so that you can pay for a new sign - that's justice - deserved punishment. But let's say out of the goodness of my heart I say, "Well, I know this can happen to anybody and you've already got to pay for the damage to your car so I'll just let it go, no ticket and you don't have to pay for the sign." You'd say, "That's incredible," but that's MERCY - Exemption from punishment. But let's say that I was really generous and I tell you, you're not going to get a ticket; but not only that-I pull out my check book and I write you a check to pay for the full amount of the damage done to your car and further, I tell you that "I'll pay the city for the damaged sign and your ticket too." You say, "That's impossible!" But that's grace. Favor given when punishment is deserved.

But that isn't a good illustration of God's grace because God just didn't give out of his riches. His grace cost Him everything He had.


Contributed by: Timothy Smith found at www.sermoncentral.com

A sermon on this text can be found at the link below.

Link

17th Sunday after Pentecost

21* ¶ Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?"
22 Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.

Forgiveness is a subject that we cannot fully understand. We cannot understand how God can fully forgive our sins and remember them no more, and we cannot fully understand how we can do that to those around us.

Forgiveness means forgiving the sin and forgetting about it.

The dictionary says this about forgiveness; "to say or feel that one is no longer angry about and/or wishing to give punishment to (someone) for (something)"

God through Christ is no longer angry about our sin, the sinfulness of humanity. He forgave what happened in the garden of Eden through His son Jesus Christ. and because God through Christ has done that for the whole sinfulness of humanity, God asks us through Christ to try and o that in the world in which we live.

The following illustrations says it best.


A young man borrowed the family car without permission, knowing he could have it home and safely in the garage before his father found out. He hadn't reckoned on getting rear-ended at the second intersection he came to. No way to conceal the damage, the parked the car and closed the garage door, then spent an evening agonizing over how to deal with his father when he arrived home. When his dad walked in, the young man flashed a look of terror

He told his father everything, complete with profuse apology. His father walked with the son to the garage and looked long and hard and silently at the damage. Then he said, "Insurance will cover it. It wouldn't have covered the broken trust between you and me, however. Fortunately your apology took care of that."

"Can you ever forgive me, Dad?"

"I have already."

"You have learned your lesson. Forget about it."

A week later the son, still guilt-driven, came to his father and said, "Dad, in case they raise our insurance rates because of the accident, I'm willing to earn the money to pay the difference in the premiums."

His father didn't even look up from his newspaper as he said, simply, "What accident?"


A sermon on the subject can be found in the link below.

Link

14th Sunday after Pentecost Proper 16

13 ¶ Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do men say that the Son of man is?"
14 And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
15 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
16 Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Peter's great confession of who Christ is, is the cornerstone of this text. Peter had pulled everything together. Peter for one brief moment understood who Jesus was. Jesus was more than a prophet. More than Moses. More than John the Baptist. Jesus was the son of God. And Peter finally got it right.

And today the question begs to be answered. Who is Jesus? Is he the one who the moral majority sees as the one who can get the Republicans into the majority for a generation? Is Jesus the one who makes life for every believer healthy, wealthy and wise?

Or is Jesus the Christ who died on the cross and rose from the dead so that we might have eternal life?


A sermon on the text is can be found at the link below

Link

13th Sunday after Pentecost Proper 15

Our gospel lesson is about the Canaanite woman who sought out Jesus because her daughter was ill.

This was a difficult text to understand as it seemed that the woman's faith made Jesus cure the women's daughter. But as you examine the text further, you find that Jesus was testing the woman to see if she understood that He first came to the House of Israel, then to the Gentiles.

We as Lutheran always believe that God acts, then we respond. God acted in our Baptism to make us his children, then we respond with our whole lives in worship of Him through Jesus Christ and to then love our neighbor.

This text at first reading seems to be saying, that Jesus acted because this woman begged him.

He acted because she had faith, period.

Jesus acted not out of judgment of this woman, but out of love. He sees our lives through the sacrifice he made on the cross, so he sees us through the eyes of mercy. He saw that woman's plight, and though she was not a Jew, he acted.

We are not to be judgmental, but loving.

An illustration I did use in my sermon says it well

A story related to this text [summarized from _Sunday and Holyday Liturgies, Cycle A_, by Flor McCarthy] has a group of the very pious waiting in heaven for the judgment. As they are waiting and complaining about the wait, they begin to see some of the "sinners" they knew on earth coming into the waiting room: a corrupt politician, an itinerant woman who had been convicted of shoplifting numerous times, a prostitute, a drug addict, a man who spent most of his life in prison, etc.
With each of these arrivals, the feeling of hostility increased in the first group. They glare at the others. They talk among themselves. Within a short time, words were spoken to those others, "What makes you think you're going to get in with that evil, sinful life you lived on earth?"

"We are relying on the mercy and grace of God. What makes you so sure you're going to get in?"

"Our good lives, of course." They turned their backs to the others.

Time began to drag on for the first group. They began to complain to one another. "If those other people get in, there's no justice. After all the sacrifices we've made. It's not fair."

The Lord arrived. He turned towards the first group, "I understand you've been wondering why there has been no judgment."
"Yes!" they cried out. "We want a judgment. We want justice."

"The judgment has already taken place. You've judged yourselves. By judging these, the least of my brothers and sisters, you have judged yourselves. In rejecting them you have rejected me. You have shown yourselves unworthy of the kingdom of God."

from from Brian Stoffregen
Faith Lutheran Church, 1000 D St., Marysville, CA 95901
e-mail: b.stoffregen@worldnet.att.net
from pericopeonline@yahoogroups.com

My sermon on this text is at the link below.

Link

12th Sunday after Pentecost Proper 14

22* ¶ Then he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.
23* And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,
24* but the boat by this time was many furlongs distant from the land, beaten by the waves; for the wind was against them.
25* And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.
26* But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out for fear.
27* But immediately he spoke to them, saying, "Take heart, it is I; have no fear."
28* And Peter answered him, "Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water."
29* He said, "Come." So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus;
30* but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, "Lord, save me."
31* Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, "O man of little faith, why did you doubt?"
32* And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.RSV
33* And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."

There is a story that is found in the book The Transforming Friendship by Leslie Weatherhead that I would like to use as a part of my thoughts on this text.

It is a story about one man's relationship to Jesus that I find inspiring.

"There was an old Scotsman who was very, very ill. When his pastor come to see him, the suffering man told him about the empty chair by the side of his bed. The chair had held a key place in his life for many years. It began when he had trouble kneeling for prayer and a friend told him not to worry about kneeling. The friend suggested that he sit to pray and put a chair opposite him. In that chair, he was to imagine that Jesus was sitting and he was and talking to him as a friend.
He did it and continued to do it through the years. So the chair was still there by his bedside for his 'friend'.

Some days later, the pastor returned to call on the sick man, only to be met at the door by, his daughter who explained that her father had died during the might.

She explained that he had seemed to be resting well, and she had taken a brief nap. When she awoke to go check on her father, he was dead. He had not moved since she had left him except for one thing. He had reached out and placed his hand on the empty chair next to his bed.

The pastor smiled and thought, Jesus is indeed the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end and a part of each day's journey in between."

I really like that idea that we have Jesus as a comfortable friend to talk to. I see in my relationship with Jesus a comfortable friend that I can talk to whether I am angry about life, or happy about an event, or confessing a wrong deed. I think each of us needs to be comfortable with Jesus as he extends His grace in our lives.

Are you comfortable with Jesus?

Tim

A sermon on this text can be found at the link below.

Link

11 th Sunday after Pentecost Proper 13

16* Jesus said, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat."
17* They said to him, "We have only five loaves here and two fish."

Sometimes I think the disciples had no clue who Jesus was. Or they had no faith in Jesus' ability to care for others. They had seen people healed even raised from the dead, so didn't they think He could help them out of this food mess.

"You give them something to eat." Was Jesus testing them? If so they flunked. "We have only 5 loves and 2 fish" Didn't they think they could hand over the fish to Jesus and he would do something?

They did not take the initiative. I could see them looking at Jesus with a blank stare waiting for Him to do something. And Jesus did, he said "Bring them here to me."

But why did they not say, 'Jesus we have 5 loaves and 2 fish, can you do something with them"?

They still lacked faith in Jesus as the Lord of life.

When I decided to go to seminary it was a leap of faith. Wanda and I were teaching in her home town, but we left with neither of us having a job and went to Dubuque to Wartburg Seminary. Wanda found a good teaching job in the Western Dubuque system, and I found the I really wanted to be a pastor. We took a leap of faith and trusted everything would work out. I loved being a pastor and have never looked back at the leap of faith with any regret.

At this point the disciples had no leap of faith even to trust Jesus in providing a meal for 5000 people.

Tim

In the link below is a sermon on this text

Link