For the Sake of One

In Nomine Iesu

Genesis 18:20-33

July 29, 2007
Pentecost 9C-Proper 12

Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. . . .” Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? . . . . Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare with the wicked! Far be that from you!”

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus~

Most people today are fairly ignorant when it comes to the subject of geography. Somewhere back in elementary school we all learned the fifty states and (probably) the state capitals as well. Unfortunately, for many of us, our study of geography never got much further than that.

But the problem gets even worse where the geography of the Bible is concerned—and even worse still when you go all the way back to Genesis. In Genesis we learn, for instance, that Abraham was born in Ur of the Chaldees, and lived much of his life in the city of Haran. In today’s OT reading Abraham is hanging out near the oaks of Mamre. Ur and Haran and Mamre are not places most of us could pinpoint on a map.

But today’s OT reading actually revolves around the fate of two OT towns that I suspect you’ve heard of before—Sodom and Gomorrah. You’ve heard of Sodom and Gomorrah because of the rampant and proverbial wickedness that went on there. At the heart of that wickedness was the sin of homosexual acts—rampant, unbridled, sexual sin. Reading through these chapters of Genesis makes it clear that the problem wasn’t just a handful of folks engaged in an “alternate lifestyle,” but an entire population that lived according to their lusts, squelched all self-control, preyed upon the weak, the helpless, the vulnerable. You’ve heard of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their sin, and because of the flaming judgment that the Lord ultimately poured out upon them.

But in between the rampant sin and the flaming judgment, came prayer—the intercessory prayer of faithful Abraham. It’s nothing less than amazing that Abraham chose to pray on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah! Cities of sinners! Dens of depravity! Towns that thumbed their collective noses at God’s natural law, making their residences ripe for destruction. For them . . . Abraham prayed. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, you need to recall that Abraham’s nephew Lot and his family were living in Sodom at this time. But notice that Abraham doesn’t mention them at all in his prayer. Abraham’s petitions are not purely personal. He’s asking for God’s mercy and patience for all the notoriously wicked residents of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Is that what you would have prayed for? After all, Sodom and Gomorrah may be long gone, but our very neighborhoods today are filled with folks who would feel right at home in Sodom and Gomorrah—folks who have no regard for God’s natural law, whose lusts and appetites drive them to depravity, who prey on helpless children, who exploit the weakest and most vulnerable in our world for personal pleasure and greedy gain. When was the last time you prayed for one such person? And was it a prayer for mercy and patience on God’s part, or was it a request to speed up the delivery of fire and brimstone? People like that don’t typically top our list of prayer petitions. But Abraham did not hesitate to bring those sinful souls right before the throne of God. I find that amazing.

I want you to see, as well, the basis for Abraham’s prayer. On what grounds could he justify such an amazing request? He doesn’t base his prayer on his own importance or good works. He doesn’t say, “Well, Lord, since you’ve chosen me to be a great nation, and since you’re going to bless all the nations of the earth through me, I’d like to ask a personal favor.” Not at all. In fact, Abraham couches his request by confessing to the Lord that he’s nothing more than “dust and ashes.” Nor does Abraham pitch his petition by downplaying the sins of these cities. Nowhere does he say, “Well, things aren’t really that bad in Sodom. Fire and brimstone is really uncalled for in this situation.”

No, Abraham bases his request on who the Lord is—on God’s revealed nature and characteristics. Specifically, Abraham knows that God is just. He’s fair. It would be entirely out of character for the Lord to treat the righteous in the very same way He treats the wicked. God isn’t careless and indiscriminate in doing His thing in this world. Abraham knew that. And on that basis Abraham prayed to the Lord with boldness: “Lord, You don’t sweep away the righteous with the wicked. That’s not who You are! Have mercy for the sake of fifty righteous souls—for 45, for 40, for 30, for 20, for ten.”

Now hear this you children of Abraham—you who pray to the same God that Abraham did. Note this well. The Lord never lost his patience with Abraham’s prayers. Never stops him. Never rebukes him. Never says, “That’s enough” or “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” The Lord is never angry with Abraham as he prays. The Lord listens and answers according to His mercy, grace and love. The gracious God of all listens to His child, Abraham, speak and plead with Him. And God never tires of it. Never.

And He will never tire of hearing you either. He will listen with His divine patience. Because He simply loves to hear from His children. You cannot ask too much or too little. You cannot pray too often. You will not try His patience with your pleading. He will listen. He will answer in His time and in His way.

He will listen to you for the very same reason He listened to Abraham. Abraham, you see, was a man of faith. When God called Abraham at age seventy-five, and when promise after promise came tumbling out of the Lord’s mouth concerning Abraham—including the promise that this childless old man would have descendants more numerous than the stars—Abraham believed the Lord—Abraham had faith—and the Lord credited it to him as righteousness.

Your God is eager to listen to you for the very same reasons. Abraham believed the Lord . . . and you do too. You too trust His promises. Only your belief—your faith—is centered in one particular descendant of Abraham . . . named Jesus. Without Jesus, we couldn’t talk with God in prayer. You don’t talk with God unless there’s peace with God. Jesus brings that peace to you through His cross—through the water of your baptism. Where there is peace with God, there is prayer with God. All the record of all our sin, God has dealt with through Jesus.

Make no mistake, our just and holy God hates sin. He hated the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. He hates our sins too. He hates our pride and thanklessness. He hates our greed and selfishness. He hates our cursing and lustful thoughts. He hates them just as He hated the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. Fire and brimstone is what we also rightly deserve.

But for the sake of one—not 50, not 40, 30, 20 or 10, but for the sake of one righteous man—you don’t get what you deserve. For you know full well that there was only one truly righteous man who ever lived. And in mercy God the Father allowed Jesus to be swept away and put to death with the wicked—one on His right, one on His left. All of your trespasses, all of your debt, all of your sins—they were all nailed to the cross of Jesus, set aside by the God who loves you. For the sake of this one man, Jesus, the debt of your sin has been cancelled, because Jesus has paid that debt in full, not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death. Your God did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. How will He not also graciously give us all things?

He does indeed give us all things—all the things we need, all the good things we can’t do without. He invites you to pray for those things with a promise: “Ask and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you.” It doesn’t say that we receive exactly what we ask for, nor that we will find the exact thing for which we’re looking. It doesn’t work that way (thank God), and praying harder and believing more won’t change that. God is still God, your heavenly Father. He doesn’t always give what we want. Sometimes He gives better.

St. Paul prayed three times for the Lord to take away the thorn in his flesh. Paul didn’t get that. What he got instead was grace. “My grace is sufficient for you,” was God’s reply. In his weakness, Paul came to know the mighty strength of Jesus Christ. Abraham didn’t save Sodom and Gomorrah from destruction through his amazing prayer. But righteous Lot and his family escaped.

For the sake of one—for the sake of Jesus—your heavenly Father has forgiven all your trespasses and made you alive in Christ forever and ever. For the sake of this One, the just and holy God calls you His child, and He longs and loves to hear from you. Thou art coming to a King, Large petitions with thee bring; For His grace and pow’r are such None can ever ask too much. Amen.

The Lord Gives Liberty, Not License

Galatians 5:1, 13-25
July 1, 2007
Pentecost 5C

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus~

It’s really just a happy coincidence that today’s text is all about freedom on this, the Sunday before the Fourth of July. You’re going to hear an awful lot about freedom this week—about the freedoms we enjoy as citizens of the United States. These freedoms are a great blessing, and it is good, right, and salutary that we should all celebrate this Wednesday.

But when St. Paul wrote to the Galatians about freedom, he didn’t have in mind the freedoms we celebrate this week. The freedom that comes from Christ isn’t the freedom of speech, or of the press, or even the freedom of religion. It’s got nothing to do with the Bill of Rights. No, Paul had in mind an entirely different kind of freedom—specifically, freedom from the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament.

What does that mean? It means that the Old Testament laws regulating worship no longer apply in the New Testament. It means that God’s people can gather for worship on any day, not just the Sabbath (or seventh) Day. It means that God’s people can eat any food they want, not just “kosher” foods. It means that God’s people can tithe and return to God exactly ten percent of their income, or they can return eight percent, or nine percent, or eleven or twelve percent. And most importantly for the Galatians (who were Gentiles), it meant that circumcision was no longer a requirement. This is the freedom Paul proclaims. Doing these works of the law won’t get you any closer to God. You are justified by faith. You don’t have to earn God’s favor by what you do; you’re already in God’s favor through faith in Jesus, who died and rose for you. This is the freedom Paul proclaims. The freedom in which you and I live as baptized children of God.

But what does this freedom look like? How does it play out in our lives? That’s the question Paul addresses in today’s text from Galatians chapter 5. He says we should “walk by the Spirit.” What does this mean? Well, picture it this way. Picture life as if you’re driving down the road. If you veer too far to the right, you’ll go into the ditch. But if you veer too far to the left, there’s another ditch to watch out for. I got to thinking the other day, there really aren’t any ditches in Whitefish Bay. We’ve got all this fancy shmancy curb and gutter. But where I come from—where I grew up—we had ditches.

To walk by the Spirit—to live in the freedom of Jesus—means to stay out of the ditches—to stay up on the road. The ditch on our right is called “legalism.” This is what was being pushed on the Galatians. Legalism is requiring what God doesn’t require. After Paul preached the pure Gospel to the Galatians, other folks came in later saying, “Sure you’re saved by faith in Jesus, but you also have to be circumcised, you also have to tithe, you also have to worship on Saturday, you also have to do this, and this, and that—if you’re ever going to make it to heaven.” That’s legalism. We Lutherans are pretty good at staying out of that ditch. We know that we’re saved by grace, through faith in Jesus alone. Our works don’t save us, Jesus does. When He said, “It is finished,” from His crucifixion cross, it meant that your sins have been paid for in full. And this is the wonderful Gospel freedom we enjoy in Jesus.

But it’s the other ditch—that ditch on the left—that tends to be a problem for folks like us. This is the ditch of “license.” License means “lack of restraint.” License is freedom in behavior that exceeds what is appropriate. License is freedom gone haywire—freedom abused. St. Paul puts it this way: “Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.” Don’t use your freedom in Christ as an excuse for sinning. The Lord gives liberty, not license.

What does this “license” look like? What’s it look like when Christians abuse their freedom? St. Paul gives us a sampling—a smattering of vices. At the top of the list is sexual immorality. This broad term applies to any kind of illicit sexual activity, including adultery, sexual intercourse outside of marriage, homosexuality and the like. The Greek word is actually porneia, from which we get the word “pornography.” In our world today the epidemic of pornography is passed off as harmless, but God views it as sexual immorality—sexual sin—faith-deadening sin. Christians who would dare to look at pornography have left behind their Christian freedom (and their Christian faith!) and landed in the ditch of license.

The abuse of our Christian freedom is also seen in other things: acts of enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, divisions and envy. These things aren’t quite as titillating as sexual immorality, but they’re far more common—common even in the church. Anger, jealousy and division can destroy homes and marriages and congregations. Christian freedom is also abused, Paul writes, by drunkenness. Christians aren’t called to be teetotalers, but Christians who become drunk have left behind their Christian freedom (and their Christian faith!) and landed in the ditch of license.

And here’s the irony: sexual immorality and drunkenness and anger are often viewed as “freedom.” “I’m free to do whatever I want!” But these and many of the things listed here by Paul can easily become addictions. And addictions are the polar opposite of freedom. Some of these things can kill you, or eat you up on the inside, rob your life of joy, and all will deaden your faith. They comprise not a lifestyle, but a death-style.

Then comes just about the stiffest dose of law you will ever read in your Bible: “Those who do such things—those who live like this—will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Note the verb tense in Paul’s words: Those who do (present tense) these things. Those who are living in these sins. Let me be clear: Pornography and immorality and anger and drunkenness and everything else listed here are not unforgivable sins. Paul doesn’t write that anyone who has ever done these things cannot be saved. If that were the case, we should all just pack it up and head home right now. BUT if pornography and immorality and anger and drunkenness are something you are presently “doing”—if these things are a part of your life today—if you’re wallowing in the ditch of license, wantonly abusing your freedom in Christ, then the apostle’s words are clear: “Those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

If you’re living in the ditch of license—if you see yourself in this list—well then, I have good news for you—the best of news, in fact. You can leave it all behind in Jesus—in His holy wounds, in His precious cross, in His death by crucifixion. You can leave the ditch of license behind. Like the prodigal son who went hungry wallowing in the pig pen, you can leave your mess behind and enjoy a Father’s welcome. Angels will rejoice over your repentance for the sake of Jesus Christ, your Savior.

If you want to make a God-pleasing change in your life—if you want to climb back up out of the ditch to live in the joy and freedom of Jesus—well, that desire shows the Spirit at work in you. That’s the Holy Spirit who first set up shop in you in the watery surprise of your baptism into Christ. St. Paul describes it this way: “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” When did that happen? When was your sinful flesh with its passions and desires nailed to the cross of Jesus? It happened in your baptism. “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life” (Rom. 6:4). That new life is yours through faith in Jesus—a new life without legalism, a new life without license.

In this new life you have, you’re led by the Spirit. In you the Holy Spirit is at work producing fruit—fruit that lasts and shows itself in all circumstances of your life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This is the fruit of the Spirit. And everyone knows you can’t make an apple tree bear apples by threatening it, kicking it, and yelling at it to be fruitful. You water it, feed it, prune it at the proper time, and it bears fruit automatically. That’s how it is with the fruit of the Spirit in you. It comes automatically, when you are fed and watered by the Word in worship, by Baptism, by the Lord’s body and blood in Holy Communion.

The Lord Jesus gives liberty, not license. Live in that liberty! Celebrate that freedom as you confess your sins and receive His sure and certain absolution. Walk by the Spirit in the joy of Christian freedom. It’s a road that leads to heaven. When the temptations of your flesh try to run you off the road, don’t begin to say (as many do) “I can’t help myself. I’m a sinner.” That’s true, but it’s no excuse. Don’t live that lie. You’re a justified sinner, a redeemed child of God, a new creation in Christ. There’s no reason for you not to live like one—to walk by the Spirit—to live in the liberty of Jesus. Amen.