The Fourth Sunday after Trinity - July 17, 2011

The Church Season of Trinity
The Fourth Sunday after Trinity, One Year Series
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (July 17, 2011)

Readings:   
    Psalm 138
    Genesis 50:15:21
    Romans 12:14-21
    Luke 6:36-42

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 6th chapter of St. Luke, especially the following verse:

Luke 6:36-42 (NIV)

36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. 37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” 39 He also told them this parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. 41 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

And to begin this sermon, on the great reversal of God, in believing that Word of God, you have received every good thing.  You have received all the benefits that Christ won for you on the cross.  You have forgiveness.  You have life.  You have salvation.  The devil is bound can no longer accuse you.  You, like Lazarus, are rich.  You, like Lazarus, will live with your Savior forever.  So far the Word of God. 

So, the beginning is reversed in the end, the blessed sinner is in heaven.  The unrepentant sinner is in Hell.  Christ who is perfect takes your sin and reverses you so that you are given eternal riches. So today the sermon is preached backwards, listen and you will hear what I mean.

But you are not like the rich man, and you are not like the Pharisees.  You have heard Moses and the Prophets, and they are sufficient for you.  You have not seen in person the miraculous signs that  abounded in the first century.  You have not personally seen Jesus cast out demons and raise the dead.  You only know of these things through the Word of God that you have heard and read and believed.  You have Moses, the Prophets, and the Apostles. You have the Living Word of God, for you which is greater than your sins and gives you eternal life.

When Abraham, in heaven, heard the rich man’s first request, the rich man shows a glimmer of compassion.  But even then, it is not compassion for Lazarus, the man he ignored for years.  The rich man had compassion for his family.  Send that beggar Lazarus to warn my brother’s about what is to happen to them.  Not much real compassion there.

We are all in the same situation as the rich man and Lazarus.  We receive every good gift in Christ only listening to the Word of God.  But in addition to this we have the evidence that Jesus did rise from the dead, and that evidence is overwhelming.  But even knowing the at our Lord’s tomb is empty is not enough if we are unwilling to listen to the Word of God.  If we do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, we are like the Pharisees, like the rich man, of whom Jesus was teaching.

The rich man was different.  Though Christ shed His blood for him, the rich man wants nothing to do with that poor itinerant preacher from Galilee.  The rich man is satisfied with what he can get for himself. But actually the rich man has nothing in this life.  Oh he has good clothes and good food, and everything that a man could possibly want, but when he dies he loses all this because he did not have the treasure beyond imagination.  And that treasure is the Good News proclaiming salvation in God’s Word.   So the rich man was really not so rich indeed.

Lazarus had listened to God’s Word.  In that hearing of the Word God the Holy Spirit created faith in his heart which held onto the Old Testament promises.  Because of this Lazarus had the riches of heaven, both in this life and the life to come, Lazarus was rich beyond measure.

True riches both in this life and the next have only one source.  They come from the cross of Christ.  It is there that God suffered for all that we deserve to suffer and has died our death.  It is there on the cross that our sins have been forgiven, death has been destroyed, and the devil has been robbed of his power.

In fact the richest man in the parable is Lazarus.  Lazarus is the second man in the parable, He sits at the doorstep of a man as rich as Bill Gates.  But appearances are deceiving.  The one who is weak is really strong, the one who appears strong, is shown to be weak.  The rich man has many servants who are actually fed better than the beggar.  The rich man has food, lodging, and actually had listened and Moses and the Prophets, but he had not heard what they said, for him.  He remained selfish, stingy, and ungrateful he had it all but he had nothing, he is poor in many ways.  He does not see any reason to be connected to the church, he thinks he has enough success on his own.

Our Gospel lesson this morning presents us with a story that as repeated itself in various ways ever since our Lord first told it.  Not all of the details are always the same, but all the basic elements are usually there in Christ’s teaching.  In this parable, there are two men, one rich in the world, one rich in the gifts of God.  You were born poor just like Lazarus.  In your baptism you were made rich.  Though the trials and travails of this world make you look poor by human standards, you are made infinitely rich by the God-man  Jesus Christ.  It is the great reversal, Christ has taken your sin, and offered His life, His death, and His resurrection, so that you are given the riches of eternal life.  Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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