Restoring Those Who Cause Grief

For my morning quiet time with God today, I considered 2 Corinthians, chapter 2. There, the apostle Paul refers to someone in the Corinthian churches who had brought grief to the Christians in that area by saying harmful things about Paul himself.

But after the churches had admonished and dealt with the Christian who had done this, Paul said this to the Corinthian Christians:

"...you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him." (2 Corinthians 2:7-8)

There's a difference between sisters and brothers in Christ exercising church discipline, holding each other accountable to their mutual community in Christ on the one hand, and judging others unworthy of the grace in Christ which we claim by faith despite our sinful natures, on the other hand. The former is appropriate and loving. The latter is sinful.

If we Christians use the faults and sinful actions of others as a pretext to withhold the forgiveness that Christ wants to give to those who are repentant and who believe in Him, we put ourselves in places higher than God Himself. We judge God to be too soft on sin. We judge ourselves to be holier than God. Not a good idea!

We are as Christians to speak the truth to each other in love (Ephesians 4:15), but always with the idea of bringing restoration between Christ and the person who has caused us (or Christ or the Church) grief. As Jesus famously puts it:

"I tell you that...there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." (Luke 15:7)

And, by the way, there ARE righteous people in this world, people made righteous by grace through faith in the only righteous One, God incarnate, Jesus.

But there are also NO human beings without the need of repentance and forgiveness. That includes those made righteous by God's grace through their trust in Jesus. Christians are simultaneously saints and sinners, in daily need of repentance and renewal in Christ's power, until the day of Jesus' return when He will make all things right.

Today, every time a sinner repents, that is, turns from their sin and turns to Christ for forgiveness, restoration, and life, there's a party in heaven.

Paul is saying that when that happens, the Church needs to join Jesus in forgiving and have a party too!

If you're a Christian:

(1) Ask God: Who in the Church might you need to lovingly confront--with the aim of reconciliation and restoration--today? (Jesus gives the guidelines for how Christians, who should always be mutually accountable to Christ's community, the Church, are to do this in Matthew 18:15-20.)*

(2) Ask God: Who do you need to release from the grudge you've been holding onto? (Jesus teaches us to pray, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."

(3) Remember that when we (or others) honestly own our sins before God through Jesus Christ, we are forgiven and heaven throws a party.**

*Jesus always speaks of Christian faith as a group activity. The Bible knows of no way that a person can be a Christian apart from the Church. 

**Now there's nothing in any of this to suggest that after we've forgiven people who have hurt us, we should have the same relationship with them that we had before. Years ago, I had to tell a woman caught in the snares of alcoholism and self-destructive behaviors, that, for the foreseaable future, she couldn't lead one of the ministries of the church I was then serving. A spouse or child of a repentant abuser is not expected to re-enter into the same kind of relationship they had with the abuser before confrontation and restoration take place. A school should not place someone once guilty of pedophilia alone with kids. Here, I think that Jesus' words to the devil after the devil had tempted Jesus to jump from the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem because God promises in Psalm 91 to faithfully uphold His people should they fall, are appropriate; Jesus told the devil that believers are not to tempt (or test) God. In other words, God doesn't call us to take absurd measures to test our faith. 

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

The Bearhug of Grace

[This message was shared this morning during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Luke 15:11-32
The story that Jesus tells in today’s gospel lesson is often called the parable of the prodigal son. 

But one scholar has said it would more aptly be titled the parable of the waiting father. Another refers to it as the parable of the running father. 

What they’re both getting at is important: The central character of the parable is not the son who leaves family and home behind. It’s the one who stands in for God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in the parable: the father. 

Just like the father of the parable, God lays aside His dignity to save the lives of all the prodigals of the world, who, absent His intervention in Christ, would die in our sins. The father in Jesus’ parable is the God we meet in Jesus of whom Scripture tells us: “...though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant…” (Philippians 2:6-7). We see this self-emptying God Who willingly divests Himself not just of dignity, but of life, presented in fictional form by Jesus in this parable. As you consider it remember that He did all of that for you.

We couldn’t do this parable justice if we spent ten Sunday messages on it, or fifty, but let’s take a look at it. Verse 11: “[Jesus says] There was a man who had two sons.  And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them.”

In those days, the property usually only went to the oldest son. Younger sons would work for the eldest until they acquired enough money to buy some land and move out on their own. But in Jesus' parable, is a father prepared to split his property equally among his sons. 

That wasn’t enough for the younger son though. He wanted the inheritance, the price it could fetch him on the market, and the freedom that the cash would give him to do what he wanted right now. These days, children leave home to seek their own lives all the time and they should. But in those days, the customs were different. The younger boy would have been seen as disrespectful. It was as though he was saying he couldn’t wait for his dad to be dead so that he could move on. 

The father knew all of this, yet did what the younger son requested anyway.

A man once came to me, his life a mess. He recounted how he had made one bad decision after another and then, in all seriousness asked me, “How could God have let me do those things?” He blamed God for the rotten decisions that, had God not let him take them, he would have resented God restricting him. Either way, he was likely to blame God. Look: God never forces His way on any of us. He never forces any decision on us. Unless God gives us the leeway to say no to Him and to His love, our confession of faith in Him, when and if it comes, will mean nothing. The Father gives grace so that when we say yes to Him, it really is in faith.

Verse 13: “Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.”

You don’t have to be a Jew, as Jesus’ original hearers were, to understand how far this son has fallen. He’s a slopper of pigs so hungry that he envies the pigs their feed pods. Of course, Jews regard pork as particularly filthy. Things are bad for this young man.

Verse 17: “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’  

The son has no thought that his father could ever again treat him as anything like a son. But he realizes that his dad’s servants live well. He’s going to throw himself on the mercy of his father and hope to be a hired servant. Even now, the son underestimates the love his father has for him. “I could never ask God for his forgiveness,” people sometimes tell me. “I’ve done too much wrong.” Listen: God’s grace is big enough to cover all our sins!

Verse 20: “And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.”

Notice: The Father doesn’t stay in the house, watching for the son to lay prostrate before him and recite all of his sins: all the prostitutes he’s been with, all the drunken nights he’s spent wasting his time and his life, all the dissipate days. The Father sees the boy and--once again--laying aside the dignity that fathers were supposed to effect in those days, runs to the son. He has his arms wrapped around the boy before the son could  stammer out a confession! Jesus says, “I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance (Luke 15:7).” Every time we confess our sins and are renewed by God’s grace in our relationship with Him, there’s a party in heaven led by God. (I’m the reason for parties in heaven every day!)

Grace, you know, is God’s charitable forgiveness for repentant sinners. It isn’t earned, any more than the son in Jesus’ parable earned the forgiveness and reception home of his father. Grace, salvation from sin and death, is a gift from a God too busy loving us to worry about His dignity...and because of that deserves more dignity, honor, glory, gratitude, and praise than the whole Church of forgiven sinners could muster for all eternity. Ephesians 2:8-9 reminds us: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Grace is hard for us to get, especially if we think that we’ve always led an upright, wholesome, commendable, religious life. Which leads us to the older son.

Verse 25: “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”

The oldest son refuses to enter his father’s house, refuses to join in the party for the one who has returned. He’s confident of his goodness and so certain of the younger one being undeserving of his father’s favor that he keeps himself outside. The father has to come outside to him, once more laying aside his dignity, and beg the older son to come inside. Listen: There are so-called Christians who have spent their lives in the Church, but have never entered the kingdom of God because they have refused to believe the gospel message that all of us are sinners who, need to turn to the Father we know in Jesus, humbly acknowledging our sin and our need of grace, and join the heavenly party.

Grace is free. But unless we are willing to lay aside our dignity, our pretense of being “good people,” we will never experience that bearhug of grace, forgiveness, new life that God has in mind for every human being! In Holy Baptism, God has turned to you and made you His own. He has also given us the freedom to turn away: to leave Him and His Church behind, to be contemptuous of Him, to ignore Him, to turn our backs on anyone who doesn’t seem companionable, who doesn’t look like us or think like us. But God never gives up on us. He offers us grace when we simply turn to Him, trusting that what Jesus did on the cross in dying for the sins of the world, covers our sins too, fills our need, bring forgiveness to us. Whenever we humbly turn to God in Christ, there’s a welcome that God wants to keep giving us for all eternity. Don’t be afraid to admit your need of God. Turn to Him each day and let the party begin again. Amen

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Encouragement for Seed-Scatterers

[This was shared with the people and guests of Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio, during worship this morning.]

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus gives His family, the Church, encouragement.

We need encouragement. We live in a world that is often indifferent or even hostile to the good news which you and I have been sent by Jesus to share with the world through our actions and our words.

The news--the gospel--that God the Son, Jesus, has died and risen so that all who turn from sin and surrender to Him--trust in Him, believe in Him--have life with God in this world and will have an eternally perfect life with God beyond the grave is really good news, of course.

But this message, isn’t something the world always wants to hear. That can be discouraging for Christ’s Church.

But we of Christ’s Church can also become discouraged by our own self-righteousness. We know that we are saved from sin, death, and futility not by our works or our virtues, but solely by God’s grace operating through our faith in Christ. But we get confused. Self-righteousness creeps into our hearts. We start to think we are good, the rest of the world is bad, and that we’d better just stay separated from the world, the frozen chosen hermetically sealed from this bad old planet. Living in isolation from God's will that we reach out to the world behind us, thinking of the world as irredeemable, disdaining others only brings us isolation from God Himself and that brings discouragement. 

Wallowing in discouragement though, will never help us to pursue the mission Christ has given to you and me.

Jesus shares a parable in the first portion of this morning’s Gospel lesson, Matthew 13:1-9. Later, He explains it in verses 18-23.

Take a look at Matthew 13:1, please: “That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake.” In Matthew’s gospel, the word house often stands symbolically for the Church. The Church is the group of people who have been called into relationship with God through the good news about Jesus.

The Church, of course, is called together to hear God’s Word, to enjoy Christian fellowship, to be baptized and welcome the newly baptized (as we did this morning), and to receive Christ’s body and blood.

But as was true for Jesus Himself, we as His people, after we’ve gathered to do these things, are called to leave the safe confines of our house, our home in Christ, and go into the world.

In fact, the entire purpose for Christians to gather in worship and Bible study and prayer is to be empowered to scatter, taking the word about Jesus into our homes, places of work, schools, the places we hang out each day, the world.

If the only place we live our our faith in Christ or talk about Christ is the church or with fellow Christians, we just aren’t fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives.

Hebrews 10:24-25 says: “...let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,  not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another...”

In other words, the Holy Spirit gathers us in Christ's Church in order to empower us to be scattered through the world with the Good News of Christ.

In our Gospel lesson, Jesus left the cozy confines of the Church and went out into the world to teach a crowd that had been following Him. Because Jesus had been reaching out in love to the world around Him, He had earned an audience for His message. We do the same today as Christians when, in Jesus’ Name, we love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Beginning at Matthew 13:3, Jesus tells a parable, a story that conveys lessons about the kingdom of God Jesus has come to bring to all who believe in Him. “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

Jesus’ parable is a picture of the Church moving out into the world. Like the farmer with his seeds in Jesus’ parable, you and I are meant to indiscriminately and lavishly spread the word about Jesus wherever we go, however we can.

Eleven days ago, our Conspiracy of Kindness class went to the corner of Main and Central, just a few yards from the church, and gave away 120 cans of Coke in about forty minutes. Attached to each can was a card that told recipients that this was a practical way of telling them that God loves them. As in other such outreaches, we shared with teens and twenties and little kids, with working class folks and professionals, with people who had white faces, black faces, yellow faces, old faces, young faces.

We didn’t target a particular group.

We didn’t consider how we could do our work more efficiently.

And we didn’t stop giving when some people refused the gift.

We just gave the Coke away to help people understand that the God we know in Jesus is a lavishly giving, gracious God!

As members of the Church, you and I are called to do crazy stuff like that, to keep scattering the seed, spreading the word about the gracious God we know through Jesus, who forgives our sins and opens eternity with God to all who believe. And we do that no matter what reactions we get from some people.

The apostle Paul told the young pastor Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2: “Preach [that literally means proclaim or, we might say, scatter] the word; be prepared in season and out of season...” Not everyone, when we encounter them, will be receptive to receiving the word of the gospel. It may not be the right season of their lives for surrendering to Christ.

And many of God’s people will have to scatter the seed in some people’s lives for many years before the people with whom they share it begin to understand their need of the Savior and the depths of His love for them.



This is what Jesus demonstrates in the latter part of our Gospel lesson, when He explains the parable.

He says that the seed of His Word flung along the path gobbled up by birds represents those who hear about Jesus but don’t understand its importance. The evil one, the devil, removes the seed from such people.

Others, Jesus says, will initially welcome the word about Him but their faith will be shallow and they will soon forget the gospel sort of like a fashionista flushes last year’s hemlines.

Still others, Jesus tells us, will start to grow in their faith, but then get caught up in the cares of this world and lose touch with Christ.

Jesus says that some though, will receive His Word, believe in Him, grow in their faith, and have a life of faithfulness, becoming useful servants under the direction of the Holy Spirit.

There are four things I find encouraging in Jesus’ parable.

First, the power of the Church doesn’t reside in our programs. It doesn’t reside in our people. It doesn’t reside in buildings or liturgies, wonderful as those can be. The power of the Church resides in God’s Word, the Word about Jesus, alone. That takes all the pressure off of us in sharing the word about Christ with others. The seeds God gives us to scatter are the best seeds in the universe, God’s seeds of love! But as we scatter them, we’re not even required to have a good aim. We just scatter God’s love and leave the rest to God!

Second, as Christians all we have to do is spread the Word. We don’t have to be innovative. We don’t have to make up a new message. We don’t have to be marketing geniuses. God's Word about Jesus Christ doesn't mean additions or subtractions. It doesn't need to be made more palatable or politically correct. It doesn't need to be made cute. God is the only true innovator anyway: He makes new, eternal beings out of sinners otherwise destined for eternal death simply by calling them to trust in the crucified and risen Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Third, Jesus’ parable tells us that we shouldn’t be discouraged when the seeds we scatter don’t all grow.

The farmer in Jesus’ parable found that only 25% of his seeds survived, grew, and thrived. But that 25% grew like crazy and had an impact on the world in which they grew.

Whenever we invite people to events like Our Own Backyard, or serve others on our mission trips, or house the homeless, we may only plant the seed of faith in 25% of the people we touch. But what’s wrong with that?

If only 25% of the people we touched in that Kindness Outreach a week and a half ago are nudged closer to Christ, that's 31 people!

If just 25% of the men we served at Saint Vincent a few weeks ago grew closer to Christ because we served in Christ’s Name, that’s still 38 men!

And if a quarter of the 168 people served through yesterday’s kindness outreach have their wills cracked open a bit to Christ, that's 42 souls drawn closer to Christ’s orbit.

And just imagine how many people may be having the seed of faith in Christ planted in their lives through Upward, Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN), our mission trips, and the work Dan Mershon does with our community’s young people--our "parking lot kids"--day-in and day-out!

Christ depends on us. If we Christians never scatter the seed of Christ’s gospel in the world, we are guaranteed to fail. Nobody will ever know about Christ if we in the Church don’t tell others about Him, His cross, and His empty tomb.

If we do scatter the seed, we’re guaranteed that often we will fail from the world's point of view. But we are also guaranteed that we will reach some people with the news about Jesus that can change their lives for eternity.

Jesus says in Luke 15:7: “...there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” I totally dig the idea that by sharing Christ with others, I can be part of getting a party started in heaven!

The fourth encouraging thing I take from Jesus’ parable is that when we scatter the Word of God, we are fulfilling the highest calling of our lives! You and I were formed in our mothers’ wombs to give glory to God in this way!

1 Peter 2:9 says: “...you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

As Christians, we’ve been born and reborn to be seed-scatterers!

Today, I think, Jesus wants us to learn one thing and to do one thing.

We’re to learn this: As His followers, you and I have been saved for all eternity by Jesus so that we can be indiscriminate seed-scatterers, sharing Him all the time.

And the one thing He wants us to do is to live that lifestyle, spreading the seed of God's Word about Christ everywhere.

Sign up for serving with Saint Vincent or IHN.

Show up for the next Kindness Outreach or do one yourself with some friends from the congregation.

Look for opportunities to develop relationships with spiritually disconnected people and ask God to help you share the Good News.

Share the Savior Jesus, Who loves you completely, with others He loves completely in all your words and all your actions.

That’s it.

That’s the message.

As Jesus says in our lesson, “Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

Amen