{"id":4049,"date":"2021-08-14T14:44:09","date_gmt":"2021-08-14T14:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/?p=4049"},"modified":"2021-08-14T14:44:09","modified_gmt":"2021-08-14T14:44:09","slug":"faith-and-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/08\/14\/faith-and-worship\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith and Worship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity| <strong>Rolf D. Preus<\/strong><\/strong>| <strong>September 6, 2015| St. Luke 17:11-19<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CFUS090915.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.\u00a0 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.\u00a0 And they lifted up their voices and said, &#8220;Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!&#8221;\u00a0 So when He saw them, He said to them, &#8220;Go, show yourselves to the priests.&#8221; So it was that as they went, they were cleansed.\u00a0 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks\u2014he was a Samaritan.\u00a0 So Jesus answered and said, &#8220;Were there not ten cleansed?\u00a0 Where are the nine?\u00a0 &#8220;Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?&#8221;\u00a0 And He said to him, &#8220;Arise, go your way. Your faith has saved you.&#8221;\u00a0 St. Luke 17:11-19<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus went through Samaria on purpose.&nbsp; Jesus was a Jew.&nbsp; He was a descendent of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, an Israelite of the tribe of Judah.&nbsp; He was of the royal line of David.&nbsp; He was the King of the Jews.&nbsp; He came to seek and to save the lost sheep of Israel.&nbsp; God chose Israel by his grace alone.&nbsp; That\u2019s how God operates.&nbsp; He graciously chooses his children.&nbsp; They don\u2019t choose him.&nbsp; He chooses them.&nbsp; It is always by grace alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some folks reason that if we sinners are saved by grace alone this must mean that God doesn\u2019t want to save everyone.&nbsp; Otherwise, everyone would be saved.&nbsp; Subjecting God\u2019s word to the judgment of human reason, Protestants generally fall into one of two camps: those who teach salvation by grace alone but deny universal grace and those who teach universal grace but deny salvation by grace alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But our sinful and fallen human reason has no right to stand in judgment of God\u2019s word.&nbsp; We are to believe what he says because he says it regardless of whether we can figure out how this fits with that.&nbsp; The Bible teaches both grace alone and universal grace.&nbsp; It teaches grace alone.&nbsp; In Romans 9:15-16 Paul writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For [God] says to Moses, \u201cI will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.\u201d &nbsp; So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The same Paul writes two chapters later in Romans 11:32, \u201cFor God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.\u201d&nbsp; Sinners are rescued from their sins and delivered from death and the devil by God\u2019s grace alone.&nbsp; They contribute nothing to their salvation.&nbsp; And God wants all people to be saved.&nbsp; If you cannot reconcile grace alone with universal grace, that\u2019s your problem.&nbsp; It\u2019s not God\u2019s.&nbsp; He teaches both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God\u2019s grace is universal.&nbsp; Jesus deliberated traveled through Samaria.&nbsp; That the Jews were God\u2019s chosen people didn\u2019t keep him from reaching out to the Samaritans.&nbsp; The Jews despised the Samaritans.&nbsp; After the Exile, they had intermarried with heathen tribes and had compromised the truth of God\u2019s word.&nbsp; They distorted many biblical teachings and made many false religious claims.&nbsp; They certainly had no claim on Christ, who was a true Israelite sent to Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But beggars beg and lepers were reduced to being beggars.&nbsp; There was no difference between a Jewish leper and a Samaritan leper.&nbsp; They were all ostracized by law from the healthy and clean.&nbsp; They were afflicted with a skin disease.&nbsp; It was physically painful.&nbsp; The pain reminded them of the fact that as lepers they were excluded from fellowship with others.&nbsp; A healthy Jew wouldn\u2019t join together with a healthy Samaritan for religious reasons.&nbsp; Leprous Jews and leprous Samaritans were cast together by their common miserable condition.&nbsp; They weren\u2019t in fellowship with anyone but themselves.&nbsp; They gathered together in little bands often sleeping in caves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Misery loves company.&nbsp; That company of lepers \u2013 all ten of them \u2013 banded together for whatever solace miserable people can offer each other.&nbsp; So it is with religious fellowship.&nbsp; Folks of similar circumstances band together to do corporately what they cannot do alone.&nbsp; Religious fellowship is in most cases a purely human affair.&nbsp; You want to hang out with our crowd?&nbsp; You seem to fit in.&nbsp; And so the lepers hung out together in shared misery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then Jesus came by.&nbsp; What was he doing here?&nbsp; Never mind why he\u2019s here.&nbsp; He\u2019s here.&nbsp; He not only loves the outcast, he can actually do something to help them.&nbsp; So they join their voices in a common desperate plea: \u201cJesus, Master, have mercy on us.\u201d&nbsp; They cannot go right up to where Jesus is.&nbsp; They are required by law to stand a distance away.&nbsp; They put everything they have into their weakened voices and cry out to Jesus for mercy.&nbsp; They don\u2019t have to specify what they need.&nbsp; It\u2019s obvious.&nbsp; They need to be healed from this painful disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus fulfills the prophecy written in Isaiah 65:24,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It shall come to pass<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That before they call, I will answer;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And while they are still speaking, I will hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He tells them to go and show themselves to the priests.&nbsp; The priests did not heal anybody.&nbsp; They certified that a leper had been healed.&nbsp; This was necessary for those who were cleansed to reenter society.&nbsp; They had to get the okay from the priests.&nbsp; All ten men were cleaned of their leprosy.&nbsp; One of them was also cleansed of his sin.&nbsp; He was the one who returned to Jesus to give thanks.&nbsp; Listen once more to how St. Luke records this event.&nbsp; He writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks\u2014he was a Samaritan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He saw he was healed and he returned.&nbsp; He glorified God.&nbsp; He fell down on his face at his feet.&nbsp; Whose feet?&nbsp; God\u2019s feet.&nbsp; That\u2019s what the text says.&nbsp; He fell down on his face at God\u2019s feet, giving him thanks.&nbsp; He recognized in Jesus, not just a miracle worker who could cure disease, but his God who could cure his soul from sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The other nine went on to show themselves to the priests.&nbsp; That brought them to the temple.&nbsp; The temple was God\u2019s house.&nbsp; It was where God met his people.&nbsp; Where the blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat in the holiest part of the temple was where God was reconciled.&nbsp; The temple pointed to Christ.&nbsp; Jesus referred to his body as the temple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is the true religion of faith and there is the bogus religion of religious ritualism.&nbsp; The nine go through the rituals that will enable them to rejoin society.&nbsp; Religion can be good for you, you know.&nbsp; Getting the right connections, knowing the right people, becoming part of a respectable community.&nbsp; And face it: religious people tend to be better quality folks.&nbsp; Compare church going religious folks to irreligious mockers of God.&nbsp; Who are more likely to go to prison, engage in drunken brawls, or commit fornication and other family-destroying sins?&nbsp; Who would you rather have as a next door neighbor?&nbsp; One who observes his religious duty or someone who doesn\u2019t think he has any religious duties?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The nine faithfully follow their religious duty.&nbsp; They show themselves to the priests who examine their bodies and declare them to be fit to reenter the community.&nbsp; What a relief!&nbsp; To be back home again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But they didn\u2019t know the first thing about true religion.&nbsp; Apparently, it never crossed their minds that the reason they suffered from leprosy was because of their sin.&nbsp; All sickness is the result of sin.&nbsp; Not that this sin causes that sickness, though sometimes that is the case.&nbsp; It\u2019s not usually a direct cause and effect, but there wouldn\u2019t be any sickness if there weren\u2019t any sin.&nbsp; That we suffer and die means that we have sinned against God and we need something more than healing for our bodies.&nbsp; We need the forgiveness of our sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leprosy is a very ugly disease.&nbsp; The body, while living, is dying.&nbsp; You literally see death.&nbsp; But what you see is the result of a cause.&nbsp; What\u2019s the cause?&nbsp; The Samaritan knew.&nbsp; He returned to God.&nbsp; How?&nbsp; He returned to God by returning to Jesus.&nbsp; Jesus is God in the flesh.&nbsp; In falling down at Jesus\u2019 feet and giving Jesus thanks the Samaritan confessed the faith that receives from God the forgiveness of sins.&nbsp; He received healing of both body and soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All ten lepers were cleansed in their body.&nbsp; The ugly evidence of a dreaded disease was taken away.&nbsp; Religious respectability was restored.&nbsp; They were once again a part of the crowd.&nbsp; They were accepted by their fellows.&nbsp; They didn\u2019t have to yell, \u201cUnclean!\u201d to keep people away.&nbsp; Life was good again.&nbsp; They had fellowship with their fellows.&nbsp; But they had no fellowship with God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The single leper who gave thanks to God by falling on his face at Jesus\u2019 feet looked past the sign to what it signified.&nbsp; When Jesus healed him of his leprosy, he was forgiving him of his sins as well.&nbsp; He knew that he who could cure his leprosy could forgive him his sins.&nbsp; Surely, the one with power to remove the results of sin has the power to forgive sin.&nbsp; Jesus does.&nbsp; Jesus is both priest and sacrifice.&nbsp; He offers up himself as the bloody sacrifice to wash away all sin.&nbsp; He sacrifices his own body on the cross, offering to God the one and only sacrifice that atones for all sin and takes away the anger of God.&nbsp; This man felt God\u2019s anger against sin and sinners in his own body.&nbsp; Where Jesus our priest shed his blood for us God\u2019s anger is taken away and we are restored to fellowship with God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We kneel at God\u2019s altar and give thanks to Jesus.&nbsp; The Lord\u2019s Supper is called the Eucharist, which means thanksgiving, because we receive it in thanksgiving.&nbsp; Three things go together: faith, confession, and thanksgiving.&nbsp; We believe the same thing.&nbsp; We trust in the same Jesus whose blood has washed away our sins and restored us to fellowship with God.&nbsp; We confess the same thing.&nbsp; We confess together the pure and saving doctrine of the gospel that saves our souls.&nbsp; We join together in thanksgiving.&nbsp; This is no mere human fellowship where we all get together on our own terms for our own purposes.&nbsp; This is the communion of saints, gathered together in one mind, by one Spirit, to confess the one faith.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Religious worship without faith is empty ritual.&nbsp; It has only social benefit and provides nothing of spiritual value.&nbsp; True faith without worship is impossible.&nbsp; Faith cannot but be confessed.&nbsp; The Samaritan who returned to give thanks to God went to Jesus because he was a Christian.&nbsp; Christians go to Jesus.&nbsp; We go to church.&nbsp; We join in common praise of our God.&nbsp; We confess the same faith.&nbsp; Jesus says to us what he said to the leper who returned to give him thanks: \u201cArise, go your way.&nbsp; Your faith has saved you.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Amen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity| Rolf D. Preus| September 6, 2015| St. Luke 17:11-19 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.\u00a0 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.\u00a0 And they lifted&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/08\/14\/faith-and-worship\/\"> 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":[8,17,4,74],"tags":[559,238,217],"class_list":["post-4049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-sermons","category-sermons-by-historical-lectionary","category-sermons-by-rolf-preus","category-trinity-14","tag-luke-17","tag-rolf-preus","tag-trinity-14"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4049","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=4049"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4051,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4049\/revisions\/4051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}