“God’s Word is Effective,” Isaiah 55.10-13, Pentecost 5A, July ’14

1.       Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  The message from God’s Word this 5^th Sunday after Pentecost is taken from Isaiah 55:10-13 and is entitled, “God’s Word is Effective.”  Here Isaiah reminds us that God’s Word is effective because it’s divine (vs. 11), it satisfies our hearts like rain and snow (vs. 10), and it always accomplishes God’s will (vs. 11).

2.      Juan Chavez, a “most wanted” desperado in Mexico, who had long evaded every attempt to apprehend him, suddenly turned himself in at a courthouse in Saltillo, Mexico. “Who brought you in?” he was asked.  Chavez held up a Bible and replied, “This book brought me back—back to pay my debt to society.” He explained, “When I came back from a raid, this book was among the loot. I was hiding in a cave at the time, and since I had nothing else to do, I began reading this book. I couldn’t get away from it. This Bible has changed my life.”

3.      The example of Juan Chavez turning himself in for his crimes in Mexico is just one example of many where people have been led to repentance of their sins and received a new life all through power of God’s Word.  Here in Isaiah 55, God tells us that His Word will always accomplish the purpose for which it was intended by him.  God tells us that his Word is divine by stating, “My word that goes out from my mouth.” The Bible isn’t of human origin but originates in God himself. We think of such passages from the New Testament that talk about the Word of God such as Romans 10:17, which says, “¹⁷So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

4.      This Word goes out like a special messenger of God on a mission to change the lives of people and bring them under God’s grace and forgiveness in Christ. God’s Word won’t return to him empty.  There’s a divine purpose behind every proclamation of his Word in this world. God’s Word creates faith in the hearts of men, women, and children. It’s that same Word of the gospel that produces fruits of faith in the lives of believers.

5.      But, there are times when we don’t want to listen to God’s Word.  Sure, we’ve listened to God’s Word, but we’ve given that up, we desire to hear something different as Jesus tells us in Matthew 13 our Gospel lesson for today.  We’ve listened to other voices and followed after other offers.  Other voices and other religious teachings and philosophies have called out to us and promised us rich food and drink, wealth and prosperity, and glamor and excitement beyond compare.  Their voices are like a siren song to our ears and we’re drawn in, pulled into ways that aren’t healthy and onto paths that aren’t safe.  We’ve listened and we’ve gone, and we’ve suffered want.

6.      And, the promises that poured from the lips of these cries have proven to be false hopes and empty words.  Come, they cry out; come to a way that is full and beautiful; but, the path leads to want and shame.  We weep when we consider our own foolishness, and we mourn.  What have we done?  Where have our feet led us?  How have we so easily gone astray and sought an evil path and a wicked way?  Why did we listen?

7.      A woman came home one night to her dark house and saw that someone had broken in the front door. She cautiously stepped into the house and heard a burglar rummaging through her valuables with a flashlight. What should she do? Certain Scripture texts ran through her mind, and she thought of a passage that said, “Turn from your sin.” Then shouted at the burglar, “Acts 2:38.” The burglar froze and raised his hands. The lady quietly called 911 and explained the situation. When the police cuffed the burglar the officer asked, “Why did you just stand there? All the old lady did was yell a Scripture at you.” “Scripture?” replied the burglar. “She said she had an ax and two 38’s!”

8.      Now this situation of the woman calling out a Scripture verse from Acts 2:38 isn’t exactly what Isaiah means when he describes to us how God’s Word is effective.  But, we do know that God carries out his purposes through the giving of his Word.  The desire of God’s heart is that we enjoy life with him forever. It delights him when a person receives the gift of faith.  Lk 15:10 says, “⁰Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”  His Word accomplishes what he desires. It brings about the knowledge of sin and of our need for a Savior in Jesus. It provides the way of forgiveness and eternal life. It begins a work in us that is ongoing throughout our lives and which will be brought to perfect completion at the Last Day.  St. Paul writes in Phil 1:6, “⁶And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

9.      God’s desire for us is that we also enjoy life with him right now. We don’t have to wait for eternity to know God’s abundant blessings. Jesus came to bring the abundant life (Jn 10:10). God’s Word provides aspects of the abundant life—comfort, hope, joy, encouragement, and guidance. These gifts from God aren’t only for us to enjoy, but we also are privileged to share them with others.

10.  God’s power comes through his Word.  Only God could accomplish the plan of salvation. It’s his power manifested in the Word made flesh that overcame sin, death, and the devil. It is his power that brings that victory to us through the gift of faith.  The power of God through the Word always produces a response. Sometimes that response is guilt and conviction, and other times it is comfort and freedom.

11.  But, if God’s Word is effective as Isaiah chapter 55 tells us this morning, why is it that we find some people rejecting His Word, especially those who’ve grown up with it in their childhood?  Here, I believe the words of Jesus from our Gospel lesson this morning from Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 can be helpful.  I’ve had numerous occasions as a Pastor these past 7 years where a parishioner has started a conversation with me with something like this: “Pastor, all my children grew up hearing the Word. Why do some of them believe, and others do not?” It’s important to remember that Isaiah 55 isn’t attempting to answer that question. Isaiah isn’t saying that everyone who hears the Word will come to faith. He’s simply telling us the effectiveness of the Word in accomplishing God’s purpose.

12.  There remains much that is a mystery to us and is known only to God. This is certainly true of the doctrine of election. When two identical seeds are planted side by side in good soil, no farmer or gardener can tell you the reason why one grows up to bear much fruit while the other doesn’t. But he can certainly tell you about the effectiveness and necessity of the rain that God so generously provides. In the same way, no one can tell you the reason why some believe the Word while other hearers don’t. But still, we believe the mystery that the gracious Word is the effective power of salvation. The purpose of theology isn’t to do away with mystery, but to confess those truths God has revealed to us in his Word.

13.  The power of God comes through his Word, going beyond all else.  Beyond our feelings: The assurance of our salvation in Jesus isn’t based on our feelings, but on the promises of God’s Word.  The power of God’s Word goes beyond our circumstances: Because of God’s Word, we can look at difficult circumstances without becoming overwhelmed by them, for we know that Jesus has overcome all (1 Thess 5:18).  And God’s Word goes beyond death: We’re never without hope, even in seemingly hopeless situations, because God’s Word assures us of our ultimate victory in Jesus through his death on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins and his resurrection from the dead for us.

14.  In his love for us, God provides for our daily and eternal needs through his Word. His desire for us is that we would enjoy the abundant life and eternal life that Christ has won for us. His Word carries out his desires, always producing a response and continuing to work in his children throughout their lives. God’s Word is effective in all circumstances and for all time. Amen.

“The Christian’s Constant Dilemma” Romans 7.14-25 Pentecost 4A, July 2014

1.             Please pray with me.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word this 4^th Sunday after Pentecost is taken from St. Paul’s words to the Church at Rome, from Romans 7:14-25.  Today we see, “The Christian’s Constant Dilemma.”  St. Paul reminds us that we as Christians want to follow God’s law (vv. 16, 22), but sin still resides within us and opposes our new life we have in Jesus (vv. 15, 17–21, 23), because of our constant dilemma with sin we as Christians yearn for final deliverance from sin (vv. 24, 25a).

2.                        In Romans 7 St. Paul captures the Christian’s constant dilemma. We’re both saint and sinner. As Luther put it, simul iustus et peccator. On the one hand, we’re saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, and in our hearts we want to do what’s right. But on the other hand, we’re still in the body, which is full of sinful lusts and desires. The two natures found in the Christian, the Old Man full of sin and the New Man wanting to do what is right according to God’s Word, is reflected in our culture in many ways. One of the most famous is the classic story by the nineteenth-century writer Robert Louis Stevenson. Everyone knows the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll was a respected scientist who discovered a potion that turned him into a monster. This has become well-known among us to describe someone with a split personality: sometimes he’s nice, sometimes he’s terrible. We’ll say, “He’s a real Jekyll and Hyde.”  But on a deeper level this is a parable about the dynamic between sin and grace that we have in Romans 7. For the evil Mr. Hyde was a genuine part of Dr. Jekyll trying to get out. And that’s our dilemma. Even though saved, we’re real sinners. But our text concludes by saying, “Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (v 25). Though we struggle with sin in this life, God has given us forgiveness through Christ’s death and resurrection. And though because of sin we will die, we will rise to eternal life by faith in Christ.

3.                        In this section of Romans, the Apostle Paul is discussing the relationship between three terms: the Christian, God’s law and sin. God’s law shows sin for what it really is—as that which results in eternal death. Faith in in Jesus frees us as Christians from the demands and condemnation of God’s law and assures us of eternal life. In joyful response to God’s love we as Christians then strive to keep God’s law but still fall into sin. So St. Paul asks the question, why do we keep on sinning when we don’t want to sin? That’s the question which haunts Paul, the Christian, in our text.  Paul describes for us the Christian’s constant dilemma.

4.                        St. Paul says in Romans 7:15, “¹⁵I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”  Here Paul, the sinner-saint, is trying to understand the conflict he feels within himself. He’s a saint and a slave to God (Ro 6:22); he’s also a sinner and a slave to sin (Ro 7:14).  “I do not understand what I do,” Paul confesses.  He goes on further, “For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” Paul’s will according to his new man is to follow God’s law to the letter. He sees all those actions that please God and in his heart Paul fully intends to do them. His will says, “That’s for me!”  Then he checks what he has done or has left undone and discovers something quite perplexing; his performance doesn’t even come close to his intentions.

5.                        St. Paul continues in Romans 7:16-17 saying, “¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. ¹⁷So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”  Since Paul according to his new man desires to follow that law, he puts his stamp of approval on the law as something good. The law tells him what God wants. Paul’s failure to live up to the specific requirements of the law doesn’t tarnish the image of the law. The fault for Paul’s conduct can’t be credited to God’s law.  So Paul clarifies the duality found in himself and in every Christian. Although his real self, his new man, isn’t responsible for his constant sinning, an unwelcome intruder, lives within him and is responsible. Paul says that this is sin dwelling within him. He recognizes sin within himself but is powerless to control that intruder. As a consequence sin overpowers Paul’s will and causes him to commit numerous sins. Paul can’t duck responsibility for those sins; he commits them when the sin within him wins out over his new man.

8.                        St. Paul continues saying in Romans 7:18-25, “¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.  ²¹So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. ²²For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, ²³but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”

9.                        If you’re anything like me, what God wants loses far too often. We’ve probably got it easier than Paul, though, in a way: our consciences perhaps aren’t quite so sensitive. Still, when on occasion they do bother us, we find ourselves thinking just as Paul did: “No, it wasn’t really me. It was the sin that lives in me. The devil made me do it. I’m in bondage to sin and can’t free myself.”  “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (v 24).

10.          It didn’t take Paul long to come up with his answer: “Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (v 25). And he didn’t stop there. He went on to write ch 8. There he spelled out what kind of deliverance he was talking about: “If the Spirit of [God] who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you” (v 11). So, if the sin living in me brings death, the Spirit living in me brings life. After all, he is the same Spirit that raised Jesus himself from the dead, and he is the only one powerful enough to overcome the sin that lives in me.

11.          Thanks be to God that there’s an end for us as Christians with our constant dilemma against sin. There’s a power at work in you that’s stronger than yourself, stronger than your sin. You know there is, because you’re a a baptized child of God, and the Spirit of God does live in you. He came to live in you at your Baptism; he has renewed his presence within you every time you have partaken of the Lord’s body and blood in the Sacrament of Holy Communion.  And Jesus is renewing his presence within you right now, as in faith you listen to his Word and trust his promise.

12.          In today’s Gospel Jesus our Savior gives to us an answer to our constant dilemma as Christians.  Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28). And then he adds, “Take my yoke upon you . . . for my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (vv 29–30).  I doubt if any of you has ever plowed with a team of oxen. I haven’t either. But I have it on good authority that, when using a team of oxen, the fit of the yoke is crucial. If the yoke doesn’t fit right, it rubs the ox’s shoulders raw. In order for both oxen truly to work together, the yoke has to fit perfectly. I can’t help remembering that our Lord may have grown up becoming an experienced woodworker. He might very well have made many ox yokes in his day. I can almost picture the sign over the door of his shop: “My yoke is easy.”

13.          It is. Because the Gospel of Jesus tells us that our standing before God is gift, not achievement. On the cross Christ gained for us our standing before God. We enjoy God’s love and his favor because of Christ. Our faith didn’t cause that. Neither did our obedience. St. Paul reminds us that nothing in us caused anything in God! Even the pagan philosophers knew that God was the uncaused first cause. We don’t cause God to . . . anything! Rather, God’s grace, his undeserved love, is the cause of our faith and our obedience . . . and the strength that enables us to continue to struggle against sin.

14.          A man was on trial for murder. He bribed a juror to hold out for the lesser verdict of manslaughter. The jury was out for a long time, and when they finally returned to the courtroom, they found the defendant “guilty of manslaughter.” The defendant breathed a sigh of relief. Later he looked up the juror he had bribed and asked if he had had a hard time convincing the others. “Yes,” he said, “I had a terrible time. They all wanted to vote ‘not guilty.’ ”  Now, that was futility on the part of the accused man. But, wretched, guilty men and women that we are, because of Christ’s cross, our dilemma against sin isn’t just an exercise in futility. Through Jesus we’re not only declared not guilty, but by the very power of God, we also live before him in righteousness and purity forever.  Amen.