{"id":3891,"date":"2021-07-31T17:06:21","date_gmt":"2021-07-31T17:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/?p=3891"},"modified":"2021-07-31T17:06:21","modified_gmt":"2021-07-31T17:06:21","slug":"living-under-mercy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/07\/31\/living-under-mercy-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Living Under Mercy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Eleventh Sunday after Trinity<\/strong>| <strong><em>Rev. Rolf D. Preus<\/em><\/strong>| <strong>August 27, 2006<\/strong>| <strong>St. Luke 18:9-14<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>No Audio<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>&#8220;Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:&nbsp; \u201cTwo men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.&nbsp; The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, \u2018God, I thank You that I am not like other men; extortionists, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.&nbsp; I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.\u2019&nbsp; And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, \u2018God, be merciful to me a sinner!\u2019&nbsp; I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.\u201d&nbsp; St. Luke 18:9-14<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today\u2019s Epistle Lesson and Gospel Lesson both define the gospel.&nbsp; The Epistle Lesson defines the gospel according to the fact of it.&nbsp; The fact is that Jesus died for our sins just as the Bible said He would.&nbsp; He was buried, and rose the third day.&nbsp; The gospel is the death of Jesus for our sins and His resurrection from the dead.&nbsp; This is no myth.&nbsp; He was seen by many witnesses.&nbsp; They were witnesses in the literal sense of the word.&nbsp; They did not simply have a religious experience.&nbsp; With their own eyes they saw Jesus alive from the dead after He had died on the cross.&nbsp; Over five hundred people saw Him at the same time.&nbsp; The gospel is fact, not fiction.&nbsp; Jesus died for our sins, was buried and rose from the dead on the third day.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector the gospel is defined according to the reception of it.&nbsp; The fact that Jesus died for your sins will not benefit you unless you receive the forgiveness of sins that His death provides.&nbsp; The fact of the gospel is rooted in history that has happened once and for all.&nbsp; Jesus died once and for all.&nbsp; He cannot die again or rise again.&nbsp; It\u2019s history.&nbsp; The reception of the gospel takes place here and now when and where we live.&nbsp; And it\u2019s not as if you receive it just once in a onetime dramatic religious experience.&nbsp; You receive it in your need and without your need you won\u2019t receive it.&nbsp; That\u2019s the message of the parable our Lord tells us or the Pharisee and the publican.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Luther once said that hunger is the best cook.&nbsp; Jesus said, \u201cBlessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.\u201d&nbsp; The gospel is factual.&nbsp; It is historical.&nbsp; It isn\u2019t simply a matter of opinion.&nbsp; It\u2019s true whether or not you believe it, or experience any joy from it.&nbsp; But the gospel is not just fact.&nbsp; The gospel is God\u2019s promise.&nbsp; The gospel does something for you.&nbsp; It gives to you what you hunger for.&nbsp; It gives you the righteousness that Jesus promised.&nbsp; It satisfies your spiritual needs.&nbsp; It quenches your spiritual thirst.&nbsp; But this promise is for the hungry.&nbsp; It is for the thirsty.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some folks see little point in going to church on a Sunday morning, or at any other time for that matter.&nbsp; Work, travel, and various social events take precedence over going to church.&nbsp; The idea that going to church on a Sunday morning is a religious obligation is somewhat pass\u00e9.&nbsp; There are few religious obligations these days.&nbsp; Where there is little sense of duty, there will have to be a sense of need.&nbsp; But there is often neither duty nor need.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Pharisee understood his duty.&nbsp; He took it quite seriously.&nbsp; And he wasn\u2019t willing to do just the bare minimum.&nbsp; He didn\u2019t fast just a few times a year as was expected.&nbsp; He fasted twice a week.&nbsp; He didn\u2019t just give a tenth on some of his income.&nbsp; He tithed on all of his income.&nbsp; He didn\u2019t just do what the law required.&nbsp; He went above and beyond the law\u2019s demands.&nbsp; He took his religion seriously.&nbsp; He gave thanks to God.&nbsp; He did his duty.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If more people practiced their religion with the seriousness of that Pharisee the world would be a better place.&nbsp; When he contrasted himself from other men he was not lying.&nbsp; He didn\u2019t extort money from others the way tax collectors did.&nbsp; He didn\u2019t cheat his neighbor.&nbsp; He didn\u2019t commit adultery.&nbsp; He was a decent man and a good citizen.&nbsp; And he thanked God for it.&nbsp; He saw what a righteous man he was and did not neglect to give credit where credit was due.&nbsp; He thanked God.&nbsp; He remembered that he owed thanksgiving to God for God\u2019s great generosity toward him.&nbsp; So he went to the temple to offer praise to God.&nbsp; His work, his leisure, his social life, and his travels did not keep him away from his religious duty.&nbsp; But he did not go home justified.&nbsp; God did not accept his praise.&nbsp; God did not receive his thanksgiving.&nbsp; His worship was in vain and his duty was left undone.&nbsp; He might as well have stayed at home.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What was lacking?&nbsp; Faith was lacking.&nbsp; But surely the man believed in God!&nbsp; He took God\u2019s law seriously.&nbsp; He went to God\u2019s temple to pray.&nbsp; He thanked God for making him the man he was.&nbsp; How can anyone say that the man lacked faith?&nbsp; He certainly gave greater evidence of believing in God than do those who don\u2019t bother to go to church at all or only when they feel particularly religious.&nbsp; And they claim to believe in God!&nbsp; Surely the Pharisee believed in God!&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, yes, he did, after a fashion.&nbsp; He believed that God was good.&nbsp; He believed that God blessed him with good things. He believed that God required obedience.&nbsp; He believed that God calls on us all to do our duty.&nbsp; If this is what faith is then the man had faith.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But this is not what faith is.&nbsp; Faith is born in humility.&nbsp; Faith is the gift of God.&nbsp; God elicits, established, and strengthens faith in your heart only after he humbles you.&nbsp; Whoever exalts himself will be humbled.&nbsp; It will happen now or it will happen on Judgment Day, but it will happen.&nbsp; You cannot exalt yourself.&nbsp; God is not impressed by our claims.&nbsp; When we presume to think we are more righteous than others we need to remember that God knows how righteous we really are.&nbsp; He doesn\u2019t look merely at the outward act.&nbsp; He sees every motive.&nbsp; He knows where our hearts are.&nbsp; He understands sin better than sinners do.&nbsp; There is a knowledge from which we will run and hide.&nbsp; We must be abased.&nbsp; We must be humbled.&nbsp; And God Himself must do it.&nbsp; When He does He is preparing us to receive the gospel.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now I\u2019m not saying that there is a certain kind of religious experience that you must experience.&nbsp; You must feel just this way.&nbsp; You must say just these words.&nbsp; You must be able to examine your inner contrition and find the right level of sincerity, the correct amount of humility.&nbsp; Not at all.&nbsp; The tax collector went home justified.&nbsp; What did he see in himself?&nbsp; Nothing but sin.&nbsp; \u201cGod, be merciful to me, the sinner.\u201d&nbsp; That\u2019s it.&nbsp; He lays claim to nothing but God\u2019s mercy.&nbsp; This is what repentance is all about.&nbsp; We don\u2019t quibble with God.&nbsp; We don\u2019t engage in a spiritual comparison with others.&nbsp; We don\u2019t measure how deep our sins are and how good our righteousness is to see if perhaps our righteousness might outweigh our sin.&nbsp; No, we confess.&nbsp; How can we possibly understand our own sin?&nbsp; The very nature of sin is that it darkens the mind, confusing and misleading us.&nbsp; The humility out of which God exalts us is not a precondition that we must meet.&nbsp; It is rejecting any and all reliance on ourselves, confessing our utter sin and unworthiness, and throwing ourselves on the mercy of God alone.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Faith is trust.&nbsp; But it is not an unfocused trust in the general goodness of God.&nbsp; The tax collector prayed: \u201cGod, be merciful to me, the sinner.\u201d&nbsp; It was a plea for forgiveness.&nbsp; He was asking that God not look upon his sin but look instead at the sacrifice for sin.&nbsp; God be propitiated to me.&nbsp; That\u2019s what he prayed.&nbsp; Turn aside your anger.&nbsp; Don\u2019t judge me according to my sins.&nbsp; Judge me according to your mercy.&nbsp; Don\u2019t look at what I have done.&nbsp; Look to the blood shed for me.&nbsp; For the sake of the blood, turn your face of anger away from me and let your face of grace shine upon me instead.&nbsp; It is as we sing in the hymn:&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have naught, my God, to offer,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Save the blood of Thy dear Son;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Graciously accept the proffer:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Make His righteousness mine own.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His holy life gave He, was crucified for me;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His righteousness perfect He now pleads before Thee;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His own robe of righteousness, my highest good,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shall clothe me in glory, through faith in His blood. (ELH #182, verse 6)&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a popular opinion held by folks who don\u2019t go to the temple to pray.&nbsp; It is that religious folks are generally like the Pharisee.&nbsp; The alleged hypocrisy of churchgoing Christians is frequently given as an excuse to avoid going to church altogether.&nbsp; Look at all of the hypocrites that go to church!&nbsp; Yes, a whole lot of hypocrites go to church.&nbsp; And a whole lot more stay home.&nbsp; Religious hypocrisy is not limited to those who set out to do their religious duty as the Pharisee in Christ\u2019s parable did.&nbsp; Religious hypocrisy is endemic among those who ignore their religious duty.&nbsp; There are two features of the Pharisee\u2019s religion that they retain with vigor.&nbsp; They trust in themselves that they are righteous and they look down on others.&nbsp; They trust in themselves that they are righteous.&nbsp; They don\u2019t need to hear the gospel.&nbsp; The fact of it is irrelevant to them.&nbsp; The reception of it doesn\u2019t cross their minds.&nbsp; They think they are good enough for God just as they are.&nbsp; And when you trust in yourself that you are good you will look down on others.&nbsp; It\u2019s easy to see their faults when you are blind to your own.&nbsp; Indeed, the less you can see your own sins the easier it is to see the sins of others.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those who live under mercy can show mercy.&nbsp; You know yourself as a sinner.&nbsp; You don\u2019t trust in yourself that you are righteous.&nbsp; You know you are not.&nbsp; You cry out for God\u2019s mercy.&nbsp; God justifies you.&nbsp; He covers your sin with the blood of Jesus.&nbsp; He directs against His dear Son the anger that you earned by your repeated disobedience.&nbsp; His innocent Son became your brother.&nbsp; Now God punishes His innocent Son in your place.&nbsp; His anger against all of sinful humanity is poured out upon Christ alone.&nbsp; Jesus Christ, true God and true man, quenches that anger.&nbsp; He takes it away.&nbsp; He bears all your sins away.&nbsp; And every time you come to church to pray, Jesus is here.&nbsp; Every time you confess your sins, Jesus, through His minister, absolves you.&nbsp; You don\u2019t throw up to God any kind of promise or merit or excuse.&nbsp; You plead only two things: your need and God\u2019s mercy.&nbsp; God\u2019s mercy is only in Jesus Christ, and wherever Christ is, there God is merciful.&nbsp; So you come to the temple to pray.&nbsp; You come to meet Jesus.&nbsp; He never fails to cover your sin with His righteousness and your shame with His holiness.&nbsp; You receive the gospel.&nbsp; You eat and drink the body and blood of the Lord Jesus.&nbsp; You go home justified.&nbsp; That means you\u2019re a saint.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But you don\u2019t get to see your righteousness.&nbsp; You don\u2019t get to feel it.&nbsp; You might feel just as sinful as when you arrived.&nbsp; Don\u2019t go by what you see or feel.&nbsp; Listen to the words of Jesus instead: \u201cI tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.\u201d&nbsp; God exalts us to heaven, even while we struggle with our sins here on earth.&nbsp; But in God\u2019s own time, when He is ready, He will reveal to our sight and all our senses the full depth, height, width, and breadth of His love.&nbsp; We will enjoy the love of heaven that God\u2019s mercy in Christ guarantees.&nbsp; Meanwhile, we live alone by mercy.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amen.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eleventh Sunday after Trinity| Rev. Rolf D. Preus| August 27, 2006| St. Luke 18:9-14\u00a0 No Audio &#8220;Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:&nbsp; \u201cTwo men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.&nbsp; The Pharisee&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/07\/31\/living-under-mercy-2\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,4,71],"tags":[267,238,214],"class_list":["post-3891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-sermons","category-sermons-by-historical-lectionary","category-sermons-by-rolf-preus","category-trinity-11","tag-luke-18","tag-rolf-preus","tag-trinity-11"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3891"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3892,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3891\/revisions\/3892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}