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Atlantis ‹the domain of the Stingray›
Everything is funny as long as it happens to somebody else.
‹Will Rogers›
Atlantis: the domain of the Stingray
16Feb
2014
Sun
19:20
author: Stingray
category: Sermons
comments: 0
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Septuagesima

Matthew 20:1-16

Septuagesima 2014 Wordle
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Logic dictates that if you want the reward, then you have to do the work; if you want the prize, then you have to run and win the race; if you want the recognition, then you have to do something deserving of that recognition; if you want the grade; then you have to complete the assignment correctly; if you want the pay, then you have to do the job. That’s the way the world works. The works that we do earn what we get, and if we don’t do the work, then we don’t get anything.

It only makes sense, then, that the same kind of thinking would invade how we deal with God, or perhaps more precisely, how God deals with us. If we want something from God, then we have to do something to please God. It goes so far as to say that there are those who want God to demand works of them rather than believing that He gives them eternal life and salvation freely, by grace, without merit, without works, not even by way of works.

Grace is a concept completely alien to us. This is especially true of those who have grown up in the United States, raised under the American ideal of rugged individualism. Americans are self-made people—the characteristic of self-sufficiency is seen as virtuous, perhaps even as the chief virtue of the ideal American. The idea of a welfare state is contrary to the ideal of being self-made. Everything the self-made American has, he has by way of his own hands, his own work, his own merit. He has earned it or created it himself. That he would accept a handout is despicable and unconscionable. He knows that such a handout has to come from somewhere—that someone had to work for the handout to be available, that that person no longer has what he worked hard for, and that he, himself, does not deserve what he did not work for.

Grace is a concept completely alien to us. That’s a bit of a loaded sentence, but it explains grace perfectly. Grace is a handout. What grace carries with it is given out freely, without being earned, to all who receive it. That is to say that it is alien, from outside of the recipient. If we are to speak of the grace of God as a handout, the self-made American is correct: Someone else had to earn it, it cost Him dearly, and it is undeserved—the very simply definition of grace is getting what you don’t deserve. However, the self-made American is also incorrect: the One who worked to earn this grace for others does also have what He worked hard for, not because He earned it, but because it is His by right. Of course the One of whom I speak is Jesus Christ, His work was His incarnation, birth, life, ministry, and especially His death in your place on the cross and resurrection from the grave on your behalf, and eternal life is His by right since He is the eternal God, and death could never contain Him.

Still, the idea that forgiveness, life, and salvation is given to the exclusion of works, by grace alone, is incomprehensible, given the logic of this fallen world. We deserve and earn our damnation. Likewise, we should deserve and earn our salvation. God must have something for us to do so that we are saved.

Dear hearers, this is why the Formula of Concord in Article III cites “exclusive terms.” The Concordists, in no uncertain terms tell us that the article of justification lies exclusively apart from our works: “This is what the apostle Paul means when he urges so diligently and zealously the exclusive terms in this article of faith (i.e., the words by which works are excluded from the article of justification: by grace, without merit, without works, not of works). These exclusives are all summed up in this expression: Through faith alone in Christ we are justified before God and saved (Romans 3:28).” And so you have passages like these:

  • “...knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.” (Galatians 2:16)
  • “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
  • “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:4-7)

What of James 2, then? In his second chapter, the brother of Jesus says things like, “Faith without works is dead,” and “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.” (cf. James 2:20, 24) The thing to remember about James here is that he is not denying that faith saves, but that faith is evident by the presence of good works, and so he exhorts the believers to good works, which Paul also does in his letters. That is why the Concordists also mock the idea of a work-less faith when they scoff at the idea that “justification and renewal [could be] separated from one another in such a way that a genuine faith sometimes could exist and continue for a time together with evil intention.” Therefore, it is as Dr. Luther once said:

Faith and good works well agree and fit together; but it is faith alone, without works, that lays hold of the blessing. Yet it is never, ever, alone.

That is to say that by grace alone through faith alone, without your works and merits, you are saved, but your faith is never alone and devoid of works. Such faith, devoid of works, if it could exist in such a state, would be, as James says, a dead faith. Such faith could not exist, as the Concordists note, saying this is not true faith, and those who believe this way are useless, secure Christians.

That brings us to the parable in today’s Gospel. There, Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a landowner who hired laborers for his vineyard. He went out in the morning as well as the third, sixth, ninth, and eleventh hours to hire workers. When it came time to pay the workers, the twelfth hour, he paid the eleventh hour workers first, and gave them their day’s wage, all the way down to those hired first, also a day’s wage. Now, of course if God worked in the way of the logic of this world, then those who were hired at the beginning of the day should get more than those who only worked an hour. Yet, the landowner paid them all the same.

The kingdom of heaven is like this in that those who have gone before us with the sign of faith and now sleep the sleep of peace receive from the hand of God by way of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross the same thing as those who are the youngest among us. They have both received the sign of faith, and it is the same sign of faith, and so when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead at the twelfth hour, the wage for St. Adam will be the same as the wage for the young saint who was joined to the church mere moments before Christ returns: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 25:34)

The thing is, it’s not just about the length of time since one has been joined to the church. That’s the easy temptation, to complain as one who has been a life-long Christian that the newly baptized Christian receives the same blessing of forgiveness, life, and salvation. The idea that one deserves more extends also to the one who has suffered more for being Christian, who has toiled more as a Christian, who has done more work in the local congregation, who is a pastor and not a layman, who is a church executive and not merely a pastor.

Try as you might, you cannot divorce the idea of reward and blessing from your work. You hear it again and again, that works do not save you, that you are saved apart from works, yet the voice in the back of your head always compares what you have done and what you do and who you are and how long you’ve been in the church and your standing in the church to the next guy. You begin to tally your works—and let’s be clear, all of these things are your works—and if some of them were good, God-pleasing works—and let’s be clear again, these do exist, and you who are saved by grace through faith do them—when they are tallied, they have quickly turned to a work which harms you. That is to say, when you do this tallying, you become no better than the goats who decry Jesus’ condemnation and state, “Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?” (Matthew 25:44) “If we had seen you like this, surely we would have attended to you...if only we would have known it was time to do a good work, we would have done that good work.”

Over and against this, the real joy and comfort in how the landowner treats his workers is that he gives them what they don’t deserve, no matter how long or how hard they worked, no matter if they received their blessing joyfully or complained and contended with the landowner. So it is for you. Jesus died on the cross as the propitiation for your sins. You have done nothing to deserve the forgiveness He won, but because He won it for you, it is yours—freely! Jesus died on the cross in your place, so that you would not have to die the eternal death that is separation from God in hell, the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. (cf. Matthew 25:41) You have done nothing to deserve the eternal life He won, but because He won it for you, it is yours—freely! Jesus died on the cross as the condemnation that is due sin—He who knew no sin became sin for us. (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21) You have done nothing to deserve the salvation he won, but because He won it for you, it is yours—freely!

This is the case whether you have recently come to faith or were baptized as an infant and are now in your 60s, 70s, or 80s, whether you suffer much for being in Christ or little or none at all, whether you give of your time and talents to the congregation every day or come only to receive His gifts on Sunday morning, whether you are pastor or layman. Your brothers and sisters in Christ have put on Jesus Christ just as you have in Holy Baptism—you are all clothed with Christ and His merits—you have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus your Lord. Rejoice, dear baptized; to you is given the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. You are sealed in Christ, and these are sealed to you by Jesus’ work and merit, which are given you—freely! You have all been given faith in Jesus Christ, trust in His work and merit for your salvation; it is this faith which “alone applies and makes Christ’s merit [your] own.” (SDIII)

Furthermore, you are now set free to serve your neighbor. From the grace that you have been given flow the good, God-pleasing works. Which are these? If you are a mother or a father, then you please God when you raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. If you are a child and student, then you please God when you give your best in the classroom and in the books, as God has given you to do. If you are an electrician or custodian or accountant or engineer or whatever, then you please God when you give your best to the vocation into which God has placed you. If you want more, I commend to you the Ten Commandments, Luther’s explanation of the same, and the Table of Duties in the Small Catechism. Do these works save you? Absolutely not! Do not begin to tally what you have done and present it to God as an offering, for Jesus Christ as already offered all that was needed to please God to salvation: His life on the cross. And that’s the grace of it:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

Therefore, continue in your good works, but do not look to or rely on them, for it is by grace that you have been saved through faith in the merits of Jesus Christ your Savior. He has done all of the work, and by His work and merit, freely given to you, you are forgiven for all of your sins.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Download media: 20140216.septuagesima.mp3 (7.84 MiB)
audio recorded on my digital recorder
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