St. Luke 14:1–11
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Who can say that they have it all figured out? Who knows what’s really true for everyone? Shouldn’t we be humble enough to admit that when it comes to God and faith we might be wrong on some things? None of us are perfect. We might have our opinions, but who are we to say what’s right for everyone? After all, Jesus said: Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. And St. Paul said that we should live with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. So, who really knows what’s right? Who really can say what’s true?
God knows. God says. What God speaks is the Truth. His Word is truth (John 17:17)—another quote from Jesus. God has it all figured out. So that means we can also know what is right and speak what is true when we know and speak God’s Word. If we get our teaching, our doctrine, our ideas from God’s Word, then we can say with confidence, “I know the Truth that is true for everyone.” And that is actually real humility.
The world doesn’t see it that way. When we claim to know and speak the Truth, the world sees us as prideful. But it is really the opposite. The world is guilty of the worst pride when they ignore God’s Word, when they pretend that He’s not clear, or when they twist and redefine what He says to suit their own ideas. This is real arrogance. This is from the devil.
Hannah sang against this in her prayer with all humility: Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed (1 Sam. 2:3). Hannah knew, and she warns us, what God thinks of those who proudly go their own way, ignoring what He says. But in pride, the world usually tries to force things its way.
This is especially obvious when it comes to unity in the Church and the Holy Communion. The worldly minded (whether they hold membership in a church or not) would like to make everyone take Communion together so that it looks like we’re united even though we are not. They want to force a show of unity based on their own ideas of unity, fellowship, and love. But think of how prideful it is to act like we can be more welcoming than Jesus, or to think that we can be more understanding than the Holy Spirit. Some people would like to see forced communion with everyone so they can prove by our “unity” that we are the Church, as if the Church or unity within the Church is something we made up and can control. And you can have the same error among some of us, if you think that Closed Communion is just the LCMS policy. Thinking that we only commune with members of fellow Missouri Synod congregations is just our policy, just our backward way of doing things—that is also taking the view that the Church and unity are things we create and control, not God.
But the Church is not something we made up. So also the unity of the Church is not something we make happen. We confess: I believe in the one holy Christian and apostolic Church. I can’t make something that I believe in. I can only believe in things that God makes. The Lord Jesus Christ died for His Church and shed His blood for her. From His pierced side came water and blood, and with that water and blood He cleansed and created His holy Bride. The Church is her Lord’s body and He is her Head. The whole Church lives by His death and the whole Church lives in His now risen body. So indeed, only God makes the Church and her unity.
St. Paul said: There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. One body, one Faith—so with the one Lord there is one Church made by God the Holy Spirit. And St. Paul said that we should be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. That means true Christian unity is made by the Holy Spirit as He joins Christ’s members in the one living body. The one united holy Christian Church is created where the Holy Spirit is working through His Word, through the Holy Scriptures. This means that even though we cannot create the unity of the Spirit, we can maintain it, as St. Paul said. And we do this by paying attention to the Scriptures. We maintain the unity of the Spirit by paying attention to the Holy Spirit’s teaching. We listen for the unity of His doctrine. We must first receive and keep that unity, what we believe, teach, and confess from the Bible. Then, and only then, can we rightly commune with those are united in God’s doctrine.
I’ve said this before, and I really mean it when I say that I want all people to be able to come to the Holy Communion. I want everyone to have real communion, real unity with God and His Church. And that means having unity in doctrine, unity in God’s Word, agreeing with and repeating what the Holy Spirit teaches. And this goes for all of us, regardless of where we hold official church membership. Only if we have that unity in our teaching, in our faith, only then can any of us come to this altar and take together our Lord’s Supper. If we don’t want to hear what our Lord says, then we can’t have what our Lord gives. Maybe I should repeat that: If we don’t want to hear what our Lord says, then we can’t have what our Lord gives. But in humility, we listen to our Lord’s life-giving Word. We accept it and trust it, and so we are made one with Him and with one another, and so made worthy to eat and drink His holy body given for us and His precious blood shed for us.
So, listen again to Hannah: Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge. Real humility means saying what God says, believing the knowledge that He teaches. Listen again to Paul: Walk… with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Receive and keep the gift of unity where and when the Spirit gives it. And of course, that doesn’t mean we go around yelling at people who hold false ideas. Listen again to Jesus: We are not putting ourselves forward, trying to sit down in a place of honor by claiming that we are in the right. As those who know the Truth that comes from God, we are not claiming to have it all figured out on our own. I don’t claim that any of it comes from me. Truth comes from the Lord.
Last week, the Rev. Dr. Norman Nagel, a beloved professor at our seminary in St. Louis, was taken to rest in the arms of Jesus. He has been one of the most influential teachers for me, even though I was never in his class or able to meet him on this side of the resurrection. But as I prepared for this sermon, I was reminded of a story he told once: Someone comes complaining to the pastor, arguing with him about something in God’s Word. And the pastor politely responds, “Don’t take it up with me. I only work here.” When we speak the Truth from God, we are not representing ourselves or our own ideas. We only work here. We only speak what the Lord has given us to speak.
And that does mean we must not be shy to speak what God tells us to speak. We do it with humility and gentleness and patience, but in the end we must still do it. That is really how you humble yourself. You stop your own ideas and you just repeat what God says. And it’s not hard to know what God says. You don’t need a special insight or secret knowledge. The Holy Spirit tells you. It’s all laid out clearly in His Word. He’s got it all figured out. This is what we sang for, calling on the Holy Spirit in our Opening Hymn: Lord, by the brightness of Your light In holy faith Your Church unite (LSB 497:1). The Church belongs to the Lord. The Holy Spirit makes the Church and He unites the Church. It’s all His doing, not ours. And He does it all by His Light—His Word, which is a lamp unto our feet and light unto our path (Ps. 119:105).
This prayer for the Spirit and His Word only shines out even brighter in stanza two:
Come, holy Light, guide divine,
Now cause the Word of life to shine.
Teach us to know our God aright
And call Him Father with delight.
From ev’ry error keep us free;
Let none but Christ our master be
That we in living faith abide,
In Him, our Lord, with all our might confide (LSB 497:2).
The Holy Spirit is the only one who can teach us the right way to know God. Only the Holy Spirit can give us the ability to call God our Father. And only the Holy Spirit can keep us free from error, from false doctrine, from the pride of our own ideas. The Holy Spirit brings us to Christ, so that Christ is our only Master, so that we are not masters of ourselves. Only then can we be humble and confident: humble when it comes to ourselves and our ideas, but confident in what God says is true.
This can be difficult when so many in the world want to challenge us and prove us wrong. So, we pray to the Holy Spirit for comfort, for strength, and for courage, to rely not on ourselves, but to trust that the Holy Spirit has it all figured out for us in His Word. Let us pray:
Come, holy Fire, comfort true,
Grant us the will Your work to do
And in Your service to abide;
Let trials turn us not aside.
Lord, by Your pow’r prepare each heart,
And to our weakness strength impart
That bravely here may contend,
Through life and death to You, our Lord, ascend.
Alleluia, alleluia! (LSB 497:3).
In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.
Preached at Trinity, Clinton, IA and Immanuel, Charlotte, IA
