Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

2 Corinthians 3:4–11

St. Mark 7:31–37

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

And taking the deaf man aside from the crowd privately, Jesus put His fingers into the man’s ears,—Gross!—and after spitting—Ugh! Droplets. Aerosolized particles.—touched the man’s tongue. Come on, Jesus! This is totally unsanitary! You’re not supposed to touch your own face, let alone someone else’s. Why is no one wearing masks? While we’re at it, back up, Jesus. Six feet, if you please.

Jesus is not a neat and tidy kind of God. He won’t be ordered around or quarantined. He’s not what you might call divinely hygienic. He doesn’t care for social distancing. He is a close God, a God who breathes in your face. He does not fit in well with our sanitized world. That’s because Jesus is the only kind of God who actually deals with sinners. Though He committed no sin, He came to live in the mess that we’ve made of this world. He did not shy away from our filth, all the vile things we do to ourselves and to others. And He took all of that—the iniquity, the uncleanness, the stains, the infirmities. He took it all on Himself. He became the unclean one, the one stained by our sin, the one made weak by our sickness, the filthy one left and forsaken by God, hanging on a cross, in order that we might become clean, whole, healthy, accepted, reunited.

So, no, Jesus was not worried about getting the deaf man’s ear wax on His fingers. He was not concerned about getting infected by whatever germs the man had on his broken tongue. This was why Jesus came—to get infected—to take our infection on Himself.

But the important thing is not only what Jesus does here—all the poking and spitting—but it’s also what He says. “Ephphatha,” that means, “Be opened.” He told the ears to hear. He commanded the tongue to move. He said it, and it happened. The Creator remade His creation right there, healing it, restoring it, calling it to do what it was made to do. Ears were made for hearing God’s Word. Tongues were made for singing God’s praise. Jesus wants that to happen, whatever the circumstances, however gross or sick we might be. None of that stuff matters in the end if we are with our God.

So Jesus’ Word brought the power of His Spirit in His very human fingers and spit. His Word went along with His physical action. He joins His Word to created things, like fingers and ears, spit and tongue, or water, bread, and wine. He is a close God—God with us—God in our business, in our bubble, dealing with all our junk. But it’s not like He just plays around in it. He cleanses us, heals us. Jesus touches us, taking away the guilt of our sin, taking away the fear of our shame, and replacing it with confidence in Him. His very flesh brings life to us.

So, Jesus gives us Baptism, where He sticks His fingers in our ears so that we can hear our Father’s voice and call upon His name. With His Word, He gives us His Spirit in that water, and so washes us clean from all the filth we cover ourselves in. And Jesus gives us the Holy Communion, where He touches our tongues so that we can taste and see that the Lord is good and sing His praise. With His Word, He gives us His body and blood in that bread and wine, and so heals us from all the sickness and death that so infects and corrupts us, body and soul. Do not think little of these lowly gifts: a little water sprinkled with a few words; a bit of bread, a sip of wine while hearing words that appear to our eyes to be nonsense. These lowly things are the medicine you seek. These are the things that make you immortal.

And while we’re all concerned about disease and safety, I think it’s time for me to say something about the chalice of our Lord’s blood—the common cup. Communion means that we share something in common. We share the same body of our Lord, we share His same blood. And drinking from a common cup, a sharing cup, shows that. It is a clear, unmistakable picture of our unity in Christ. And it is frankly a little shameful that so many Christians seem to be afraid of their Lord’s cup. They fear the negligible risk of germs, more than they love the blood of Christ, or at least, so it appears. I am not demanding you all come drink from the chalice today. I am not saying you ever have to. But Jesus took the cup and shared it with His disciples. The one cup is the cup He gave us. And so also I am not saying the individual cups are sinful. But sinful men were the ones who came up with the idea, not Jesus. In fact, the first churches to ever use individual cups, only back in the 1800s, were churches that did not believe the Words that Jesus said about that bread and wine. They feared disease based on their human knowledge, and they denied the Lord’s body and blood based on their sinful understanding. But besides all that, let me just ask, don’t you think Jesus knows what’s best? Is Jesus God? Then He knew about Covid and germs. He knows how this world works better than any scientist. And He thought it best for His church to drink His blood from the one cup He gave them. How can it hurt us? How can our Lord who loved us and died for us give us something that was bad for us? From those vessels, in this meal, Life itself comes to us and pours into us.

But beyond the common cup, what about singing? What about gathering? What about hugging and showing love? In the end, what is more important? Preserving this life for a few more years or days, or receiving the life that will never end? Are we going to follow the example of the Jews and stick with what is passing away? They clung to ministry of death, the ministry of condemnation through the Law and its demands. And it had been a glorious ministry, full of the fire and power of God from Mount Sinai. But then will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? We have the ministry of Christ here in His Word and Sacraments—His Word and Spirit attached to lowly, created things so that His holy flesh can touch us and cleanse us. The Law was brought to an end with the death of Jesus. And this whole world is passing away and being brought to an end as well. But the life that Jesus gives in His Word, in His holy touch, His holy washing, His holy food—that life is permanent. So which do we want? Do we want what is passing away or what will go on forever? If what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. So what do we want? Do we want to get Jesus and all His glory, or do we want to stay safe?

Jesus did not stay safe. He laid down His life. And He didn’t die so that you would never have to. He didn’t suffer so that you can escape all suffering. He suffered to redeem your suffering, to cleanse it and make it work for your eternal salvation. He died so that you can die with Him, and rise with Him. He is a close God, a God who breathes in your face and spits. He does His own kind of sanitary work. He does His washing, His feeding, getting into your mess, into your ears, eyes, and mouth, and so into mind and heart. He’s not interested in keeping you safe just for now. He’s after perfect healing. And His Word with His touch can make that happen.

Ears were made for hearing God’s Word. Tongues were made for singing God’s praise. Men and women were made for life with God. Jesus wants that to happen. And He makes that happen in these lowly, physical ways, whatever the circumstances, however gross or sick or sinful we might be. Because none of that stuff matters in the end if we are with our God. He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. He even gets His body and blood to sinners during a health crisis. He does all things well. Alleluia.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

Genesis 4:1–15

Ephesians 2:1–10

St. Luke 18: 9–14

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Two men went up to worship… one man was justified by God. His offering was accepted. The other man was not. And he killed his brother. The story of Cain and Abel is a story about worship. Right worship and wrong worship. Obviously Abel’s worship was right and Cain’s was wrong. The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. 

What Genesis does not tell us is why Abel’s offering was accepted but Cain’s was not. The Book of Hebrews does tell us: By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts (Hebrews 11:4). True faith was the difference between Cain and Abel. Faith made Abel’s sacrifice acceptable to God. Faith made his worship right. And by faith Abel was justified—declared righteous. And God showed that He justified Abel, He forgave Abel, He accepted Abel, by accepting Abel’s offering. By grace Abel was saved through faith. And this was not his own doing; it was the gift of God, not a result of works or offerings or sacrifices, so that he could not boast in himself. By faith Abel offered God right worship, which really means, by faith Abel received from God the forgiveness, righteousness, and life of Christ.

Here’s how Lutherans describe the right worship of God, from the Apology of the Augsburg Confession in The Book of Concord: The difference between this faith and the righteousness of the Law can be easily discerned. Faith is the worship that receives the benefits offered by God. The righteousness of the Law is the worship that offers to God our merits. God wants to be worshiped through faith so that we receive from Him those things He promises and offers (Apology IV:49). The man who does not have faith, does not receive gifts from God, and so he is left to worship God by offering God his own works, merits, and sacrifices according to the Law. The worship of the Law is that we would give ourselves, our gifts, our praises, our works to God. But the man who has faith, worships God by receiving from God the merits, the benefits, the gifts and promises of Christ. The worship of the Gospel receives gifts from God. That is true and right worship. That is how God wants to be worshiped – by our receiving His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Two men went up to worship… one man was justified by God. His prayer for mercy was heard. The other man justified himself with his own merits. And he had contempt for his brother. The story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector is another story about worship. Right worship and wrong worship. 

Like faithful Abel, the Tax Collector did not offer to God his merits or works. He confessed that he had nothing to offer God. But he had faith to receive from God mercy, forgiveness, atonement for all his sins: He would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, make atonement for me, a sinner!’ On the other hand, the Pharisee offered to God all his good works, his keeping of the laws, his respectability, his merits in the eyes of others, his merits in his own eyes. All this he proudly offered to God, somehow thinking that this should impress Him. He trusted in himself that he was righteous and he had contempt for others. He had no need to receive any mercy or forgiveness from God. He did not ask for atonement to be made for all his sins. So, he didn’t get any.

Remember how Lutherans describe the right worship of God: The difference between this faith and the righteousness of the Law can be easily discerned. Faith is the worship that receives the benefits offered by God. The righteousness of the Law is the worship that offers to God our merits. God wants to be worshiped through faith so that we receive from Him those things He promises and offers (Apology IV:49). The worship of the Law offers to God our goodness, which does no good. The worship of the Gospel receives Christ’s goodness as a gift from God.

These stories about worship should tell us then why we go to church. Why we gather and sing and speak and hear and eat and drink. What are we doing here? Are we giving something to God because we trust in ourselves to be righteous? Can we give Him something He doesn’t already have? Does He think more of us because of our being here? Does He think more of us because of anything we could give? Or are we here for an entirely different reason? To receive from God the gifts only He can give. True and right worship is not that we offer anything to God. But God wants to be worshiped by our receiving His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation in Christ. 

Only one Man ever went up to worship God purely and truly by offering Him something. Only this one Man gave the perfect offering to God, the once and for all sacrifice for sin. This one Righteous Man offered right worship to God, but not for Himself. His worship atoned for our sin. His offering according to the Law gave to God what we could not. His sacrifice was made in our place so that we don’t have to pay that price. This is the work, the merits, the worship, that Christ gave.

And that means there is nothing more for us to do according to the Law. Christ’s offering of Himself in death means that by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Christ’s right worship of God was His sacrifice for our sin, so that our right worship of God is receiving the benefits, the gifts and promises of that sacrifice. Our right worship of God is being justified by God, given the righteousness of Christ. Our right worship of God is hearing His Word, being baptized in His Name, absolved of our sins, eating and drinking His body and blood.

The right worship of God is faith, which is the empty hand, receiving and holding onto the benefits, the gifts, and promises of Christ. So with the Tax Collector we confess that we have nothing to offer God. But we have faith to receive from God mercy, forgiveness, atonement for all our sins, and we say, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner! I need your gifts, God. I am not even worthy to ask this of You, except through the merits of Christ.”

Two men went up to worship… one Man offered Himself to God and made atonement for the sins of the world. His altar was a cross, and His offering was His holy blood. The other man is you. Your worship has nothing of yourself to give. Your worship is only to come and receive from God those things He promises and offers. And so you go down to your house justified by God.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.