Sermon-Sunday-July 22, 2007
Eigth Sunday After Pentecost
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, that’s it, there is need of only one thing. This is what your Lord tells you in the words of the Gospel lesson for today, and it’s what He tells you right now through the words of my mouth; that there is need of only one thing.
One thing, you ask, well how can that be? I have bills to pay. I have a family to feed. I have people depending on me, how can there possibly be only one thing I need? Well, all of your worldly responsibilities and duties, as important as they might seem at times, mean nothing in light of the one thing that is needed. And that one thing that you need, that one thing that outlasts all the worldly burdens that you place upon yourself, is of course faith in Christ Jesus your Lord.
And here He comes once again bursting forth in His Word claiming you, redeeming you, giving you new life, as He has done time and time again, daily. He comes to you in His word this morning, breaking through into your reality, bringing the eternal, into the temporal, bringing forgiveness where there is only sin, bringing new-life where there is only death. Bringing you the only thing that is needed.
And that is what happens when Christ Jesus bursts upon the scene. That is what happened when Jesus entered the home of Mary and Martha. He comes into their home and brings with Him all His forgiveness, new-life, and eternal promise, and Mary gets it. Mary appears to be completely humbled that Jesus would even enter her home. She is so stunned that all she can do is to sit at the feet of her Lord and listen to Him. Mary appears to recognize that Jesus brings with Him, not just a new message, but a new reality, an eternal reality with Her Lord. Of course, Mary had the good fortune of not having been distracted by busy-ness and other tasks.
But Martha, on the other hand, was distracted. She was very distracted. And before we condemn her too much for her actions, let us remember that as this passage opens we see that Martha is the one who had the good sense to welcome Jesus into their home. But, then upon doing that she allowed herself to become wrapped up in her role as hostess.
She allowed herself to become bound by the social customs and conventions of the day which would have actually dictated that Martha behave in the manner that she did. Notice that none of the disciples appear to be too bothered or put off by Martha’s actions. She was probably just doing what they would have expected of her.
But again, Jesus here is bringing forth a new reality; one that is not bound by social, political or even moral conventions and customs. He is continuing the work of bringing release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. Martha was just still trapped in the blindness of her own distractions and her own busy-ness.
And so it is with you with, and all that you find yourself distracted with. Like Martha, you also find yourself distracted away from the One who claims you in baptism. In the midst of your daily life with all the distractions of the world that sin, death, and the devil will use to try to take your focus off the One who redeems you, you find yourself, like Martha, losing sight of the One Thing that you need, Christ Jesus.
And it is not just the task of hospitality that the devil will use to try to distract you. He will use whatever means he can. He will use the daily burdens that you impose upon yourself. He will use your pride to seduce you into thinking that you deserve everything that you have and even that you deserve more. He will use this same pride to instill jealousy in you over others. He will again use this same pride to instill resentment in you toward those who you think might not be pulling their own weight, and thus like Martha in today’s lesson you can become so obsessed with your own efforts, you start to convince yourself that you deserve this grace that comes to you in Christ because of all that you do for Him, and you lose sight of what He has done and continues to do for you.
But heed the words of the psalmist who asks "O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?" And the answer given back is those who walk blamelessly, and who do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart, and who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take a reproach against their neighbors, in whose eyes the wicked are despised, but who honor those who fear the Lord and who stand by their oath even to their hurt.
And there is only One who fits that bill, and it’s not you. It is the One who claims you in baptism as His own. It is the One who comes to redeem you and pay the price for your sin. It is Christ Jesus your Lord, who took your sin with Him to the cross. It is the One who stood by His oath, not just to His hurt, but to His death on a cross.
Jesus did not leave Martha in her distractions. He would come to her again when her brother Lazarus was sick and eventually died. And later in Luke’s gospel we read that there was a group of women who followed Jesus to the cross. I think there is a pretty good chance that Martha might have been among those women, thus indicating that she eventually got it.
Regardless, we know that she was not left in her distractions. Jesus would come walking victoriously out of the tomb, and He would appear once again, except this time it would be after He had defeated sin, death and the devil. It would be after He had ushered in the new reality.
And so, today and everyday He comes to you in the midst of your daily life, refusing to leave you in your distractions, refusing to leave you in bondage to sin, refusing to leave you in death, He comes bursting forth to you in His word bringing you forgiveness, bringing you redemption and reconciliation and bringing you new life.
He comes to you in the sacraments reminding you once again of the claim that He has made on you in the waters of baptism. He comes to you in fellowship with each other reminding you that you are a beloved part of the body of Christ. And He comes to you in the still, small moments of solitude as you sit at His feet, simply to say to you that you are His.
And that is the only thing that you are in need of, and Christ Jesus promises that it will never be taken away from you.
Now what is there left for you to do but to sit at the feet of Christ, to cling to Him, knowing that you have been freed from sin, death, and the devil and all the distractions that come with them, and then to know that you have also been freed to take the focus off yourself, and put it on your neighbor so that you can live out your calling to share the love of Christ with them.
Amen
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, that’s it, there is need of only one thing. This is what your Lord tells you in the words of the Gospel lesson for today, and it’s what He tells you right now through the words of my mouth; that there is need of only one thing.
One thing, you ask, well how can that be? I have bills to pay. I have a family to feed. I have people depending on me, how can there possibly be only one thing I need? Well, all of your worldly responsibilities and duties, as important as they might seem at times, mean nothing in light of the one thing that is needed. And that one thing that you need, that one thing that outlasts all the worldly burdens that you place upon yourself, is of course faith in Christ Jesus your Lord.
And here He comes once again bursting forth in His Word claiming you, redeeming you, giving you new life, as He has done time and time again, daily. He comes to you in His word this morning, breaking through into your reality, bringing the eternal, into the temporal, bringing forgiveness where there is only sin, bringing new-life where there is only death. Bringing you the only thing that is needed.
And that is what happens when Christ Jesus bursts upon the scene. That is what happened when Jesus entered the home of Mary and Martha. He comes into their home and brings with Him all His forgiveness, new-life, and eternal promise, and Mary gets it. Mary appears to be completely humbled that Jesus would even enter her home. She is so stunned that all she can do is to sit at the feet of her Lord and listen to Him. Mary appears to recognize that Jesus brings with Him, not just a new message, but a new reality, an eternal reality with Her Lord. Of course, Mary had the good fortune of not having been distracted by busy-ness and other tasks.
But Martha, on the other hand, was distracted. She was very distracted. And before we condemn her too much for her actions, let us remember that as this passage opens we see that Martha is the one who had the good sense to welcome Jesus into their home. But, then upon doing that she allowed herself to become wrapped up in her role as hostess.
She allowed herself to become bound by the social customs and conventions of the day which would have actually dictated that Martha behave in the manner that she did. Notice that none of the disciples appear to be too bothered or put off by Martha’s actions. She was probably just doing what they would have expected of her.
But again, Jesus here is bringing forth a new reality; one that is not bound by social, political or even moral conventions and customs. He is continuing the work of bringing release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. Martha was just still trapped in the blindness of her own distractions and her own busy-ness.
And so it is with you with, and all that you find yourself distracted with. Like Martha, you also find yourself distracted away from the One who claims you in baptism. In the midst of your daily life with all the distractions of the world that sin, death, and the devil will use to try to take your focus off the One who redeems you, you find yourself, like Martha, losing sight of the One Thing that you need, Christ Jesus.
And it is not just the task of hospitality that the devil will use to try to distract you. He will use whatever means he can. He will use the daily burdens that you impose upon yourself. He will use your pride to seduce you into thinking that you deserve everything that you have and even that you deserve more. He will use this same pride to instill jealousy in you over others. He will again use this same pride to instill resentment in you toward those who you think might not be pulling their own weight, and thus like Martha in today’s lesson you can become so obsessed with your own efforts, you start to convince yourself that you deserve this grace that comes to you in Christ because of all that you do for Him, and you lose sight of what He has done and continues to do for you.
But heed the words of the psalmist who asks "O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?" And the answer given back is those who walk blamelessly, and who do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart, and who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take a reproach against their neighbors, in whose eyes the wicked are despised, but who honor those who fear the Lord and who stand by their oath even to their hurt.
And there is only One who fits that bill, and it’s not you. It is the One who claims you in baptism as His own. It is the One who comes to redeem you and pay the price for your sin. It is Christ Jesus your Lord, who took your sin with Him to the cross. It is the One who stood by His oath, not just to His hurt, but to His death on a cross.
Jesus did not leave Martha in her distractions. He would come to her again when her brother Lazarus was sick and eventually died. And later in Luke’s gospel we read that there was a group of women who followed Jesus to the cross. I think there is a pretty good chance that Martha might have been among those women, thus indicating that she eventually got it.
Regardless, we know that she was not left in her distractions. Jesus would come walking victoriously out of the tomb, and He would appear once again, except this time it would be after He had defeated sin, death and the devil. It would be after He had ushered in the new reality.
And so, today and everyday He comes to you in the midst of your daily life, refusing to leave you in your distractions, refusing to leave you in bondage to sin, refusing to leave you in death, He comes bursting forth to you in His word bringing you forgiveness, bringing you redemption and reconciliation and bringing you new life.
He comes to you in the sacraments reminding you once again of the claim that He has made on you in the waters of baptism. He comes to you in fellowship with each other reminding you that you are a beloved part of the body of Christ. And He comes to you in the still, small moments of solitude as you sit at His feet, simply to say to you that you are His.
And that is the only thing that you are in need of, and Christ Jesus promises that it will never be taken away from you.
Now what is there left for you to do but to sit at the feet of Christ, to cling to Him, knowing that you have been freed from sin, death, and the devil and all the distractions that come with them, and then to know that you have also been freed to take the focus off yourself, and put it on your neighbor so that you can live out your calling to share the love of Christ with them.
Amen
posted by Steve at 11:41 AM
2 Comments:
Wonderful! This paragraph really hits the excellency of this sermon:
"And there is only One who fits that bill, and it’s not you. It is the One who claims you in baptism as His own. It is the One who comes to redeem you and pay the price for your sin. It is Christ Jesus your Lord, who took your sin with Him to the cross. It is the One who stood by His oath, not just to His hurt, but to His death on a cross."
I've noticed you have been really talking about the devil the past few weeks. Is there any collelation with this in something that is happening in your life or churches? Not that it is bad-just different from what you have used before
No, it's not due to anything going on. I think it could have something to do with reading Bondage of the Will. I am also reading Hannibal Rising, it could have something to do with that. Ha ha.
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