Love and the Law

Sermon based on Mt. 22:34-46

Dear loved children of God: grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Love. That’s it. That is the Law and the Prophets. Love is the only thing demanded form us by the Law and the Prophets. Love. It sounds so simple.

The world will agree. It’s all about love. Love is the answer for every problem in the world. But what is the world’s concept of love? The world says that you just need to have a loving and accepting attitude towards others. You just need to be tolerant and non-judgmental. In reality, the world’s idea of love is really nothing except an expression of tolerance for sin. The world says that love means not saying anything when those around you sin; that love means not opposing homosexuality, abortion, euthanasia, drug use, pornography, and whatever else the world loves to do. The world’s idea of love is to not get in the way of someone else doing whatever they want, so that they will not get in the way of you doing whatever you want. Thus, as long as I am loving and accepting of others, I can do whatever I want.

What kind of a concept of love is this?  Love isn’t something that you decide how to express or show.  God has already told you how to love your neighbour – He gave you the Ten Commandments.  And as Paul writes in Romans 13[:9 – 10], “The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”  Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

Love is the fulfilment of the Law because if you love your neighbour, you won’t steal from him. If you love your neighbour, you won’t sleep with his wife. If you love your neighbour, you will not seek to benefit at his expense. It is for this reason that Jesus says that the Law and the Prophets depend on love – loving your neighbour as yourself. Love is the fulfilment of the Law.

Herein we see the problem. We do not love our neighbours as ourselves. We do not put the needs of others above our needs. We are selfish and we love ourselves. As simple as the Law sounds with its command to love, we fail miserably to fulfil the command. And it’s not just our enemies that we don’t love as we should. It is our friends and families. We don’t love our parents, our siblings, or our children as we should. We fight over everything from taking care of elderly parents to inheritances. We are even selfish when it comes to showing love to our spouse.

Loving others is the second great commandment. The first is, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” That sounds simple enough, too. Just love God. Yet we fail at this command even worse than the other. You know the First Commandment: You shall have no other gods. “What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things” (SC I.1). Yet we fail to love God when we look for good from someone or something other than God. We fail to love God when we don’t feel secure without money in our bank accounts and food in our fridges. If we would fear, love, and trust in God above all things, we would not fear whatever He might put into our lives. We would have no fear of terrorism like it Ottawa last week. We would have no fear of natural disasters like the flood which hit our area recently. We would have no fear of disease or illness, whether one which already inflicts us or one which threatens, like Ebola. If we loved God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind, we would say, “Come what may, I have nothing to fear or worry about. I have no fear for my children. I have no fear of my next medical exam. I have no fear of financial hardship.”

Once again, herein lies the problem. We do not love God above all things. We do not love. As simple as the command is to love, we just don’t do it.

But before we despair completely and no longer want to hear about love, we should realize that our despair arises from the fact that we are talking about our love. If our salvation depended on our love, we would be lost. But our salvation does not depend on our love or our fulfilment of the Law which demands that we love.

Jesus fulfilled the Law of love for us. The Son of God came down from heaven and put Himself under the Law in order to keep all of God’s commandments perfectly for us [Gal. 4:4-5]. Jesus lived a perfect life of love and obedience to the Father’s will, not just to be an example for us, but to fulfil the Law of God on our behalf. Jesus bore our sin of not loving on the cross, and gave us His love. In our baptism, He covered us with His love. Now, when God the Father looks at us, He does not see our sin. Our sin is covered by Jesus. Our sin is forgiven. In Christ, we have fulfilled the Law.

So our salvation is not because of our love, but God’s love. John writes, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins [1 Jn. 4:10].”  Jesus was the propitiation, that is, the satisfaction of the demands of the Law.  He fulfilled the love that the Law demands and satisfied the Law’s demands.

Jesus loved the Father with all His heart, soul, and mind. And He loved His neighbour more than Himself – He loved His neighbour to the point that He gave up His own life on the cross for His neighbour.

And this gets very personal for you. Not only did Jesus fulfil the Law for you, but He fulfilled the Law by loving you. His death on the cross was for you. And the love that the Law demands Jesus still shows towards you. He is patient with you, showing His longsuffering even when you sin against Him.

Even though Jesus is God, He humbled Himself to the point of dying for you. He showed love to you in every way the Law demands. Jesus was not selfish, but sought your salvation. He was self-sacrificing – He sacrificed His very life for you. Jesus does not bear a grudge when you sin, but He forgives, even when you sin against Him repeatedly.  And Jesus’ longsuffering is seen not just in His death for you, but also in that He endures all that you still put Him through with your sins.

See, it’s not our love that we need, but God’s love. And His love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit [Rom. 5:5].  God fills us with His love, so that we can then love Him [1 Jn. 4:19].  God fills us with His love so that we can then love our neighbour.

We will continue to struggle with loving others because of our great weakness, but our focus should not be on our weakness, but on God’s strength.  Our focus should not be on our love, but on God’s love.  And God promises us that nothing can separate us from His love in Christ Jesus our Lord [Rom. 8:38 – 39].

Love. That’s it. That is the Law and the Prophets. Love. It sounds so simple, and it is. Jesus showed His love for us by fulfilling everything demanded by the Law and the Prophets for us. So our salvation does not depend on our love, but on the love which God has already shown us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

 

 

Divinely Inscribed

Divinely Inscribed

Sermon based on Matt. 22:15-22 for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Dear people inscribed with the name of God: grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

The empty flattery of the Pharisee’s disciples and the Herodians did not fool Jesus when they plotted to entangle Him in His words. They set their trap: “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” Jesus told the Pharisees to show Him the coin for the tax, asking them whose likeness and inscription is on the coin. The Pharisees showed Him a denarius, which bore the image of Tiberius Caesar, with the inscription “son of the divine Augustus”. Caesar claimed to be the son of god, and thus divine himself. Put to the test, what will the true Son of God say concerning giving money to this false son of god?

Further, the Romans were occupying the Jewish lands with their armies. Most Jews hated the Roman occupation. The armies of a foreign nation walked their streets and forced them to pay taxes. If Jesus would condone paying taxes to this Caesar who is not only a foreign occupier but also one who calls himself a god, isn’t that both anti-Jewish and idolatrous? Certainly all those Jews following Jesus would stop following Him if He said they should pay taxes to Caesar. Or so these hypocrites thought.

On the other side, the Romans were the ruling government in the land. If Jesus said that the Jews should not pay taxes to their ruling authorities, those ruling authorities would swoop in and charge Him with sedition and inciting a rebellion. Such charges were taken very seriously by the Roman government and they had crushed more than one rebellion in those days.

So, whose likeness and inscription was on the coin? Caesars. Jesus responds, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Give to the owner what belongs to him. If Caesar is the rightful owner, give it to Caesar. If God is the rightful owner, give it to God. Here Jesus makes clear first of all, that Caesar is not God. Jesus mentions two possibilities: give to God or give to Caesar. Thus Caesar is not God. But He also doesn’t fall into the trap of saying the Jews should not pay taxes. He says, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s”.

Caesar minted coins on which he had his own image and inscription. He had them made in his mint, for his empire. Based on this, he by right charged his subjects tax, and they were to pay their rightful, legally required share. So what’s the problem? Caesar made the coins, they have his image and inscription, and he expects you to pay some tax. Pay it.

But Jesus doesn’t stop there. On the other hand, He continues by saying, “And [give] to God the things that are God’s.” What is God’s? Well, what has His image and inscription? Genesis 1 says, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (v.27). We were created in the image of God. We bear the image of God.

Revelation 14 tells us where God’s name is inscribed, “Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads” (v. 1). These servants of God had been “sealed” with God’s name (cf. Rev. 7:3).

Throughout the New Testament, the word “seal” is used to indicate baptism, the receiving of the Holy Spirit (cf. Eph. 1:13, 4:30, 2 Cor. 1:22). In your baptism, God sealed you with His name. You were inscribed with the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

So, give to Caesar what has his name and inscription – coins to pay your taxes – and to God what has His name and inscription – you. But do not misunderstand. This isn’t the Evangelical, “Have you given yourself to God” question they ask unbelievers to try and convert them. An unbeliever is not capable of giving himself to God. Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). And in Ephesians Paul writes, “And you were dead in… trespasses and sins” (2:1). A dead man cannot decide anything. A dead man cannot give himself to God. God must draw him. God must give life to the dead.

Yet we cannot throw out this phrase altogether. We are called to give ourselves to God. But this is written for those who have first been given life from the dead – those who have been inscribed with God’s name. Thus Paul writes in Romans 6, first talking about baptism – how through baptism we have been baptized into the death of Christ. In baptism we died to sin (Rom. 6:2). In baptism we were born again by water and the Spirit (Jn. 3:5) and raised to new life in Christ (Rom. 6:4). In baptism we received all the benefits of Christ’s death on the cross. We received forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Paul then follows this up, speaking to baptized Christians and says, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Rom. 6:12-14). You belong to God. You have been brought from death to life, so do not live like you are dead. Do not live like you belong to yourself or to sin. Give yourself to God.

But you say: do we not already belong to God? How then can we give ourselves to God? Well, in the same way as the denarius already belongs to Caesar, yet we can cling to it and refuse to pay the taxes we owe. So also, although we already belong to God, we can cling to ourselves and keep ourselves and our bodies for our own use and not give ourselves completely to God.

And Jesus does not say, “Give also a little something to God”, but “[Give] to God the things that are God’s” – give God everything that belongs to Him. Do you understand that you belong to God? You are His own. So when you want to present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, following your own desires and passions, then remember this – you are not your own, you were bought with price (I Cor. 6:20). You belong to God. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 6:19).

So since you belong to Jesus, you can be exhorted to behave like a Christian: to give yourself to serve God in your daily life; to present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God (Rom 12:1). You cannot live like you belong to yourself or like you belong to sin.

So when you are being tempted, remember you are not your own, you were bought with a price. You bear the image of God. You have been inscribed with the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. So do not covet. Do not steal. Do not defraud the government by evading taxes or by cash transactions which have the sole purpose of avoiding taxes. Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.

And when you remember that you are not your own, you also realize that what you have is not your own. This opens your heart to support God’s work – not just here within these four walls, but around the world: wherever God sends preachers to proclaim His Gospel; wherever God sends ministers who make disciples of all nations by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt. 28:19); wherever God is sealing His image by inscribing His name.

Remember, you are not your own, you were bought with a price. This price was the holy precious blood of Christ, and His innocent suffering and death. Jesus paid for your sins and He made you His own. You have been inscribed with God’s name and thus you belong to God.

This is your comfort as you go about your daily life, knowing that you belong to God and bear His inscription. This is your comfort when the devil accuses you of your sins. You can say, “I do not belong to you, I bear the name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” This is your comfort when dying. You can say, “I belong to Christ, I have His name inscribed on me.” In your baptism, God marked you as His own and inscribed you with His name. You belong to God. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

 

 

Come, Invited Guests

Sermon based on Mt. 22:1-14 for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Dear guests invited to the wedding feast: grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

People have all kinds of ideas as to what the Kingdom of heaven will be like. Some think it’s like sitting in church all day listening to boring sermons. Some think maybe it’s a place where we can’t ever do what we want or anything fun. Or maybe it’s like Hallmark baby angels bouncing around on clouds while playing their harps.

Well, Scripture doesn’t describe the Kingdom of heaven in any of those ways. Rather, our Old Testament lesson describes it as, “a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined” (Is. 25:6). The Kingdom of heaven is described as a great feast; the ultimate banquet where there will be only joy. Our Gospel reading describes it as the wedding feast of the King’s Son; a great feast to which you are invited. It will be the greatest party ever given, the ultimate feast of feasts.

In Jesus’ parable, there are four responses of those invited to the great banquet. One group, upon receiving the invitation of the King, responds by treating the King’s servants shamefully and murdering them. The King is being gracious and merciful towards them, inviting them to his eternal banquet, but they respond in hatred. The King has prepared a great feast and sends out invitations so that he might serve those invited, but they respond with hatred. They hate the King and the gifts he seeks to give so much that they murder his servants.

As shocking as this sounds, it shouldn’t surprise you. This is how God’s servants have often been received by the world. The world doesn’t want to hear about the free forgiveness of sins on account of Jesus’ death on the cross for them. They would rather work their way into heaven. They want to think highly of themselves. They don’t need Jesus. Recall that all except for one of the twelve apostles sent by Jesus met a martyr’s death. They were murdered for bringing God’s invitation to His eternal banquet to people who hate God and His gifts.

A second group of invitees respond to the King’s gracious invitation by paying no attention to it. They had better things to do. They went to their farms and businesses to work. They said: I don’t need to have my sins forgiven; I need to grow my business. I cannot worry about spiritual things now when I have so many worldly things I need to take care of. I don’t have time to go to church; I have too many earthly things to deal with.

This shouldn’t surprise you either. Out of the roughly 300 members here, how many show up regularly to receive the gifts of God? 70? The rest have something better to do. They worry about the matters of this life more than the eternal gifts God wants to give them. They pay no attention to the invitation of the King to dine at the altar of eternal life – this altar where we receive a foretaste of the feast to come.

But lest we get smug and proud of ourselves for being here this morning, there is another group of invitees who responded by accepting the invitation to the wedding feast. A man comes to the wedding feast, but he has no wedding garment. The King as host gladly provides the wedding garments to his guests. Recall that he has invited everyone. He sent his servants to search along the roads and invite everyone – the bad and the good. The King has prepared everything for the banquet. He provides his guests with festive wedding garments for the feast to cover them and make them worthy. But this man thinks he doesn’t need to be covered with the King’s garment. He thinks what he has is good enough. He thinks that he is worthy to be served by the King.

This man is not one of those who responds with hatred towards the King and murders his servants. He isn’t one of the invitees who think they have better things to do. He appears to be just like all the others who accept the invitation. But he thinks he deserves to be there. He doesn’t need the robe of righteousness which God gives to cover his sins. He doesn’t see his sins because he thinks he’s a good guy. He says, “Look at me; I’m here in church because I’m better than other people.” Well, the King responds by showing him exactly how good he is by binding him hand and foot and throwing him into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Finally, there is the fourth group in invitees. The parable says almost nothing about them. All we know is that the King’s servants search high and low; they went along the streets of the city and invited everyone – “the bad and the good” the text says. They were invited and brought to the wedding feast. The text doesn’t say anything else about them, but we can infer from the other three groups that these invitees didn’t respond in hatred. They didn’t make polite-sounding excuses, and they didn’t think that they deserved to be there on their own in their own garments. Rather, they accepted the wedding garments their King graciously offered them. They wanted to be covered with the righteousness of Christ because they knew they were sinful. Their worthiness is not in themselves, but in the fact that their unworthiness is covered by the garments with which the King covered them.

So dear invited guests of the wedding feast: do you despise God’s gracious invitation? Do you have something better to do? Are there things that preoccupy you and get in the way of your invitation to the eternal banquet? Perhaps even seemingly important things in this life, like looking after your farm or business. Or do you see that you are sinful, and the absolute most important thing in your life is to receive the forgiveness of sins and to be received into God’s eternal banquet?

As in the Gospel reading, the heavenly banquet to which we have been invited is open for everyone. All are invited. But those who respond in hatred or have better things to do will not be there. Those who reject the King’s garments will not be at the feast. Only sinners covered with Christ’s robe of righteousness will be at the heavenly banquet.

So also the foretaste of the feast to come, the Lord’s Supper, is only for sinners – sinners clothed in Christ. The Lord’s Supper is only for sinners, all others are excluded. And the preparation of this feast was not an easy one for our Master – it required His suffering and death on the cross. It required Him to be forsaken by the world, His disciples, and even God the Father. But Jesus did it for you, so that He could invite you to this meal, in which He gives His own body and blood for you to eat and drink.

If you hate the free gift of the forgiveness of sins, do not accept the invitation. If you don’t want free gifts from God and don’t want eternal life, then don’t come to the Lord’s Supper.

If you have something more important to do than to receive the body and blood of Christ; if you have something more important than receiving the forgiveness of sins, do not come. The Lord’s Supper is only for those who need it.

If you have some sin to which you want to cling because you’ve made polite-sounding excuses to yourself and others; if you think this sin is perfectly fine in your life and you don’t need forgiveness for it, do not come. The Lord’s Supper is only for those who see that they are unworthy because of their sins and seek to turn away from their sins and to be covered with Christ’s worthiness. If you do not see your unworthiness, then you will receive the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner, and you will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord (I Cor. 11:27), so do not come. This is the reason we practise closed communion. It’s not because we think we’re better than others, but because we want to protect those who do not believe as we do from being guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. We want to protect those who do not confess what we confess, especially our visiting friends and family, from eating and drinking judgment on themselves (I Cor. 11:29). So if you do not believe what we confess and have not made this confession your own by publically confessing the faith through the rite of public confirmation in Lutheran Church-Canada, do no come to the Lord’s Supper. Instead, join our adult instruction classes and learn what it is that we believe, teach, and confess. We long for unity in the church, but this can only be possible by being united in what we believe, teach, and confess.

But if you confess what we confess, and if you see your sin, and there is nothing more important to you than receiving the forgiveness of your sins, come to the Lord’s Table. If you struggle in your fight with sin and are weak and heavy laden, come to receive Christ’s true body and blood. Come if you see that you are unworthy and that you have nothing to offer God. In this case I urge you, I compel you to come to the Lord’s Supper and receive the forgiveness of your sins. In this meal God has promised to forgive your sins and strengthen you to life everlasting. This meal strengthens you to eternal life – to the great marriage feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom which has no end.

So I urge you: do not respond with hatred. Do not respond with polite-sounding excuses. Do not look at your worthiness but at the worthiness with which Christ covers you. God our King invites you to His Son’s wedding feast. He covers you with His worthiness so that you can eternally enjoy the “feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined” [Is. 25:6]. The joys in this feast will never end, and this banquet is prepared for you as invited guests. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

No More Sour Grapes

Sermon based on Is. 5:1-7 for the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Dear pleasant planting of the Lord: grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

“What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it?” asks the Lord of hosts. What more could He have done?

First of all, He places His vineyard on a very fertile hill. It’s placed in the richest of soil, in an elevated and protected place. Then He dug it, doing the work of tilling the rich soil. He cleared it of stones, removing anything that might negatively affect growth. He planted it with choice vines – nothing but the best quality cultivated vines that are known to produce the best grapes. He built a watchtower in the midst of it so that His servants could look out for animals or thieves coming to steal the grapes or damage the vines. He built a stone wall around the vineyard to protect it; a hedge to shelter it. He hewed out a wine vat in anticipation of a good harvest, hollowing out a rock that would serve as a winepress.

What more could the Lord have done? He did everything to build up the vineyard, to provide for the vineyard, and to protect the vineyard. He anticipates a great harvest of grapes so that He can produce a fantastic vintage, like a 2005 Châteauneuf du Pape Cuvée La Reine des Bois.

But, “He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.” The vineyard produced stinking, worthless, rotten grapes; grapes that were no good for any kind of wine, much less a good wine. The vineyard produced grapes that could not be eaten or even used in jams or desserts by adding tons of sugar. The grapes were completely worthless.

“And now, O inhabitants of [Saskatchewan], and men of [Melville], judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?”

Therefore God Almighty, the Lord of Hosts says, “And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.”

The vineyard is not producing what it was built to produce. Since there is nothing more that He can do for His vineyard that He has not already done, He will destroy it. He will remove the shelter of the hedge so that animals will come in and destroy the vines. He will break down the wall so that the vines will get trampled. He will no longer take care of the vineyard through pruning or hoeing. He will allow briers and thorns to take over the rich soil and will command the clouds not to rain on the land. He will put an end to the vineyard and destroy it completely.

God is not merely talking about vines and grapes in this parable of His vineyard, but He is speaking about you, His pleasant planting. You are the vines in his vineyard, and He is looking for you to yield the fruit of faith.

What more is there that the Lord of hosts could do for you? He has placed you amidst His Word and His people. He has watered you, washing you’re your sins through baptism. He has removed things from your life that are harmful to your salvation. He has built a wall around you to protect you, the wall of His Law which guides you for your own protection. This wall of His Law is there to keep you from living like the godless world, which would lead you away from God. He has placed a watchtower and those who have watched out for you and warned you of false teachers and dangers to your soul. He has pruned you, trimming off what is harmful, rebuking and convicting you of your sins. He has tilled around you, breaking down the hardness of your heart to receive the forgiveness of your sins. He has nourished you with His Son’s body and blood for the forgiveness of all your sins and the strengthening of your faith. What more is there that He could do for you?

The original recipients of this parable of the vineyard did not heed the warning. Israel turned away from the Lord, provoking Him to jealousy. Instead of receiving the gifts God was giving them, the Israelites turned to seek the favour of other gods. Instead of following God’s Law which He put as a wall around them to protect them, the Israelites were unfaithful to God’s Word and did as they pleased. Instead of listening to the prophets sent by God to speak His Word, they followed their itching ears and sought prophets who would say what they wanted to hear. They themselves brought in briers and thorns – those who did not believe as they did – and the Word of God was choked among them (Mt. 13:7). God punished them and the kingdom of Israel ceased to exist as the Northern Kingdom was annexed with the population exiled to various parts of Assyria.

This vineyard parable remains a warning for us, that we would not despise the gifts God gives to us. It warns us not to long for those things that are harmful for our salvation or resent God for taking them away. We are warned not to resent the wall of His Law that He has placed around us to keep us from wandering from Him. The parable warns us not to be surrounded by briers and thorns at God’s altar – those who do not believe what we believe yet because they are related to us or are friends with us we allow them to sneak up to receive the body and blood of our Lord to their own judgment. We are warned not to resent it when God sends someone to warn us of false teachings to which we cling because we prefer them to the truth. We are warned not to resent it when God trims our attitudes through trials, or softens our hard hearts with tribulations.

These warnings remain for us, but notice who is acting in all the verbs throughout the vineyard parable: it is God. God does the planting, the digging, the pruning, the hoeing. God even says it is He who commands the rain. God does everything, thus He asks, “What more could I have done?”

Everything He has done for you is for your benefit. His Law is to protect you like a wall and to guide you as to how you should live. Yet He sent His only Son to die for your sins because you cannot follow God’s Law perfectly. Your sins were nailed to the cross and your sins forgiven in your baptism. God continues to nourish you with His Son’s body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins and the strengthening of your faith. God does everything to keep you in His vineyard, the Church, so that He will produce faith in you, which is the fruit that God is seeking.

We should not seek to produce fruit from ourselves. We are sinful, so what fruit can we produce? The only fruit we can produce is sin. But when God produces fruit in us, it is good fruit. It is God who works faith in our hearts to trust His promises. So stop hanging on to your own fruit – your sins – those worthless, stinking, sour grapes that are good for nothing. Why would you cling to your sins, when God wants to take them from you and forgive you? God has done everything for you to take away your sour grapes and forgive you all your sins, producing the good fruit of faith.

So remain in the Church, the vineyard of the Lord of hosts. Remain here, where He guides you with His Law. Remain here where He forgives you all your sins. Remain here where He nourishes you through His Supper and gives you everlasting life. It is here that the Lord of hosts does everything for you, so that He can ask you, “What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it?” Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.