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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Pastor Galler is on vacation, but, for our reflection this morning on the Third Reading for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, on which Sunday this year many also observe Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, Pastor Galler edited a sermon written by The Rev. Michael W. Salemink, executive director of Lutherans for Life. Rev. Salemink’s sermon was published in the current volume of Concordia Pulpit Resources (30:1, pp.67-69), to which publication Pilgrim subscribes primarily in order to supply sermons on occasions such as this, when our pastor is away and the congregation has not otherwise supplied the pulpit. The edited sermon reads as follows:
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hearing is kind of hard with fruit stuck in your ears. Now, I am sure you are thinking, “How does he know that? Has he ever had fruit stuck in his ears? How did the fruit get stuck in his ears? What was he doing with fruit anywhere near his ears anyway?” I imagine you have never stuck fruit in your ears, but I assure you the fruit is in there, and the fruit is stuck. And hearing is kind of hard with fruit stuck in your ears.
The Bible tells us there is fruit stuck in our ears. Humankind has had fruit in there for a long time. The serpent said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1). “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate” (Genesis 3:6). She stopped up her ears with it so that she could not quite hear the Word of the Lord anymore. God had said, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). But, she heard from the serpent, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (3:4-5). The serpent made it seem as if God were arrogant and needed to keep you in subjection and servitude. So, she gave some also to her husband, and he stuffed fruit in his ears, too. The serpent’s suggestion slipped in like an earworm out of an apple and settled in to command their consciousnesses like a captive audience. That is why down to this very day their offspring, their descendants, still ask one another, “Did God really say?”
There is evidence of fruit stuck in humankind’s ears in today’s First Reading from Isaiah. You can witness the Israelites with fruit stuck in their ears. There are full vines and branches sprouting right out the sides of their heads. Why else would the prophet need to repeat himself for sixty-six chapters? And fifteen other fellows, from Jeremiah to Malachi, recited the same message for hundreds of years! But, since folks are slow to hear, the Holy Spirit made sure they wrote it down! So . . . “Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb”.
Many folks still have not noticed that the conversation is over. Isaiah’s Scripture has remained unchanged for centuries. Yet plenty of voices continue to wonder, “Did God really say?” Did God really say, “called me from the womb”? Did God really say elsewhere that he “knitted me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13)? Did God really say that we’re “created . . . in his own image” (Genesis 1:27)? Probably he meant “called me a parasite, tumor, clump of cells, blob of tissue.” Probably he meant “my body, my choice, a private medical decision,” didn’t he? Probably he meant “as soon as the baby forms memories, whenever the baby reaches viability,” don’t you think? Probably he meant “as long as they planned for the child, as long as they can afford the child,” wouldn’t you agree? Probably he meant “except when pregnancy imposes upon anyone else’s priorities” or “unless deformities and disabilities show up,” am I right? Because, we sure do like this fruit they call self-expression. This fruit known as sexual revolution sure tastes sweet. We just cannot get enough of this fruit named comfort and control.
And did God really say, “a light for the nations”? “He says [the text says!] ‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth”. Perhaps he means “a light for most of the nations” or “a light for some of the nations” or “a light for the nations properly defined.” Perhaps he means “for the pretty ones, the popular, prosperous ones, the powerful, productive ones.” Perhaps he means “for the politically comfortable, the culturally acceptable, the emotionally uncontroversial, the judicially precedented, the publicly approved.” Perhaps he means “a light for those who can communicate, who do not cost us too much, who manage their own hygiene and nutrition.” Perhaps he means “the nations aside from any merely fertilized eggs, uterine contents, or products of conception.” Perhaps he means “not including those considered terminal or categorized as persistent vegetative states.” Because we have already got the fruits of convenience and vanity shoved several generations right through our ear holes deep into our minds. We have already filled every available space in our consciousness with the fruits of indulgence and luxury. We have already jammed our heads all these millennia up with the fruits of accumulating and uniformity.
The fruit has seems to have made its way into our veins. In fact, you could say the fruit is slowly choking our very hearts. Did God really say, “I will be glorified”? Did God really say, “that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth”? Did God really say elsewhere, “No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death” (Ecclesiastes 8:8)? Did God really say, “I kill and I make alive” (Deuteronomy 32:39)? You see, what we hear is “we can use death as a solution to difficulty and distress.” What makes more sense to our fruit-stuffed heads and hearts is “do not legislate your morality” . . . oh, and “you keep your religion to yourself.” What we prefer is “as long as you are not hurting anyone, do whatever comes naturally and makes you happy.” What we want to hear is “subject, of course, to opinions about dignity and quality.” What we are quite sure he should have said is “love yourself, take care of yourself, accept yourself as you are.”
And did God really say, “All have sinned and fall short” (Romans 3:23)? Did God really say, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5)? Did God really say, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves” (1 John 1:8)? But the problem is education. The problem is ignorance and inequality. The problem is privilege, patriarchy, toxic masculinity! The real problem is outdated doctrines, primitive superstitions! The real problem is policies, agencies, media! Did God really say, “All our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6)? Did God really say, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5)? Did God really say, “slave to sin” (John 8:34), “dead in the trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1), and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23)?
Even with fruit in our ears, we can hear the hearts breaking. Our eyes still can clearly behold the grief and guilt. Abortion access has not solved any problems. Instead, abortion access has multiplied suffering. Assisted suicide has not made pain go away. Rather assisted suicide has rearranged pain like the Titanic’s deck chairs. Embryo engineering has sentenced innumerable multitudes to death by dismemberment and left hundreds of thousands incarcerated in frozen prisons. The violence has increased infertility, miscarriages, breast cancer. The trauma has raised rates of depression, chemical dependency, domestic violence, relationship breakdown, suicide. Left dead are more than 1-and-a-half billion human beings worldwide, sixty million of them our own countrymen. Untold others walk among us wounded and haunted. None of these acts has spared one single soul from the misery and mortality that besets us all. Is it not time to take the fruit out, let the fruit just fall out, and listen?
Lord God Almighty has the perfect implement for doing just that—getting the forbidden fruit out. Our heavenly Father has sharpened and polished just the surgical implement for such a procedure. You reference to this implement in today’s First Reading from Isaiah. The Lord’s Servant is an arrow of sorts—a sword, if you will. Like the tip of the spear, Jesus Christ authoritatively verifies the image and honor of God once and for all. Like the head of a pin, Jesus Christ validates, vindicates, and reverberates how humankind reflects and embodies God’s likeness. Jesus is God’s implement to take the bad fruit out of our ears and, as it were, pump up the volume of God’s love. Jesus pumps up the volume of what His fingers formed and His heart’s will brought forth.
God really did say “in and from the mother’s womb.” God Himself inhabited the belly of the Virgin Mary. He put on embryo and peasant, manger and stable, hamlet and hometown and manual laborer. He means every genetic member of our race is special, the whole Homo sapiens species. He means the least of these, the weakened and little ones, the broken and lowly, matter, as well. And, He means age, appearance, ability, and history can neither improve nor impair this worth and purpose.
And God really did say “in your place.” God really did say “for your sakes.” God really did say “reconciling the world, the ends of the earth, entire universe, all creation, and whole of humankind.” He was made like his brothers in every respect to “make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17). He emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, and, being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, “even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:7-8). As identified by John the Baptizer in today’s Third Reading (John 1:29-42a), Jesus is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus means replaced, exchanged, fulfilled, forgiven, beginning to end. Jesus means atoned for, suffered for, punished for, settled, biggest to littlest. He really means bled for, died for, paid for, perfect, best to worst. He really means crucified, justified, resurrected, redeemed, embryo to elderly. He really means declared righteous, priceless, innocent, holy. He really means Lord of death and life, every circumstance entirely under control. Unlike ineffective self-made solutions and shortsighted sham salvations such as abortion, assisted suicide, and exploiting embryos, Jesus is an effective solution and Savior of not only your soul but also of your situation. Jesus’s work of redemption makes every entity with human flesh precious.
And God really did say by grace, not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9). God really did say “by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). He means promise, and He means hope. Christ took on our sins and our diseases in His own time and was raised from the dead. He took away our iniquities, and He takes away our sicknesses, according to his good and gracious will that exalted humanity to the throne. Jesus means chosen and claimed, no matter how low or how loathed. Jesus means beloved and belonging even in suffering, sorrow, and the very valley of the shadow of death itself. Jesus means abundant, everlasting life though all experiences appear quite to the contrary. Jesus means mysterious but miraculous, invisible but undeniable purpose for the deepest pains and predicaments. Jesus means security and unconditional love; wait upon Him and trust in Him. His words and ways prevail, however our efforts and faculties fail.
This Gospel puts the good fruit where good fruit belongs. Fruit does not belong stuck in our ears or even bottled in our hearts. Fruit belongs in our mouths. Truth tastes sweetest when ingested and then exhaled. So take and drink deeply. Fill your identity and activity with how God loves and saves His sinful human creatures. Feel it rinse your ears with Baptism’s assurances, enter your ears with Absolution’s comfort, and irrigate your very being with Holy Communion’s affirmations. Swallow and savor this comfort, hope, joy, like fine wine—all the better having aged its way through history’s gauntlet. Its strength may seem bitter and burning at first, but it finishes pleasant and nourishes plenty.
The Lord of the harvest includes you in the fruit-removal crew. Hearing more clearly, we speak more clearly. Jesus Christ has made us “Lutherans For Life”. Give voice to His truth and love that He creates, redeems, and sanctifies every human being to be His everlasting treasure. Proclaim and perform this grace, respecting and protecting especially the least of these, our frightened and threatened neighbors. Borrow Lutherans For Life’s words, and lend the organization your lips. We have its library of resources and its nationwide network at our disposal and by our side. What privilege we have and what delight—to partake with God in the fruit that moves humankind’s children from deaf to life! And, as the Divinely‑inspired St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians and to us in today’s Second Reading (1 Corinthians 1:1-9), God will sustain us to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +