Listen to the sermon with the player below, or, download the audio.
+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. (Amen.)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
Getting summoned for jury duty may be the closest that most of us get to being involved in the country’s justice system. Sure, we likely have seen reality‑TV shows such as The People’s Court, Judge Judy, and, in this State, I probably should add Texas Justice. And, then there is the news, which, in cases such as Friday’s “tortured and strange” ruling that removed murder charges against accused healthcare-C-E‑O-killer Luigi Mangione—news that sometimes seems less‑real than reality‑TV. Yet, there is another very-real justice system in which each one of us is involved in a case that ultimately results in either our blessedness of eternal life or our torment of eternal death. In today’s Old Testament Reading, the Lord through the prophet Micah announces the Lord’s indictment and contends with His people, including us, calling them and us to plead our case before the mountains and hills and enduring foundations of the earth, essentially as the jury, if not also as those subject to judgment from humankind’s sin. Considering primarily today’s Old Testament Reading, with the help of the Holy Spirit, this morning we direct our thoughts to the theme, “Your case before the mountains”.
Today is the first of the only two “green” Sundays that Pilgrim has this Epiphany Season, since the past two weeks we observed, respectively, the feasts of the Confession of St. Peter and the Conversion of St. Paul. Our appointed Gospel Readings these two “green” Sundays resume the more-or-less continuous-reading of St. Matthew’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account, and the appointed Old Testament Readings are selected to correspond in some way to the appointed Gospel Readings, while the appointed Epistle Readings are a more-or-less continuous‑reading of part of First Corinthians. So today we have, in the Old Testament Reading, a “Reproach”, such as the “Reproaches” we regularly hear on Good Friday (Lutheran Service Book: Altar Book, 518‑521), specifically God’s asking His people and us what He has done to them and us, how He has wearied them and us, and demanding their and our answer.
The questions are taken as ironically suggesting that God was to blame for Israel’s failures and is to blame for our failures, when in fact, as Micah says, God had acted in four specific ways to save the people of Israel: bringing them up from the land of Egypt and redeeming them from the house of slavery; sending before them leaders such as Moses, Aaron, and Miriam; turning their enemies’ desired curses upon Israel into blessings; and leading the people victorious into the Promised Land of Canaan. In response to such salvation, the Lord expected then and expects now, responses that His Holy Spirit tries to create: of sorrow over sin and of faith that trusts God to forgive sin for the sake of His Son, the long‑promised Messiah, the Christ, the Savior. That faith does good works, such as the people of Israel’s making sacrificial offerings, like some of those offerings mentioned in today’s Old Testament Reading, and like the people of Israel’s and our, as are also mentioned, doing justice, loving kindness (or “mercy”), and walking humbly with God. Similarly, today’s Psalm expects us to do such things as speak truth in our heart, not slander with our tongue, do no evil to our neighbor, nor take up a reproach against a friend (Psalm 15:1-5; antiphon: Psalm 16:1). None of that, neither the people of Israel did perfectly, nor we do perfectly. So, on account of our sinful nature and of all of our actual sin, we deserve both death here now and torment in hell for eternity. In vain did the people of Israel and do we, without contrition and faith, try to come before the Lord with burnt offerings, try to please Him with thousands of rams or ten-thousands of rivers of oil, or try to satisfy Him even by the forbidden sacrifice of a firstborn child (Deuteronomy 18:10), as the pagans sacrificed to their gods (2 Kings 21:6), perhaps in a perverted imitation of God’s prompting Abraham willingly to offer his only son Isaac, whom he loved (Genesis 22:2). For, truly there is nothing we can give in return for our souls (Matthew 16:26; Mark 8:37; with reference to Psalm 49:7-8).
Rather, our souls are redeemed by God. God loved the world by giving His only Son Jesus, Whom He loved, to death on the cross, that whoever believes in Him should not perish as deserved but instead have eternal life (John 3:16). God’s, through His Son Jesus’s death and resurrection, delivering us from our sinful nature and from all of our actual sins, whatever our actual sins might be, is far greater than God’s bringing the people of Israel up from the land of Egypt and redeeming them from the house of slavery; than His sending before them leaders such as Moses, Aaron, and Miriam; than His turning their enemies’ desired curses into blessings; and than His leading the people victorious into the Promised Land of Canaan. In the verses after today’s Old Testament Reading, the Lord through the prophet Micah declared His guilty verdict upon the people, but, in today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus, having sent the crowds, went up a different mountain, and, having sat down and opened His mouth, He was declaring a different verdict, namely, that we are blessed as we are in Him (Matthew 5:1‑12). As the Divinely‑inspired St. Paul wrote in today’s Epistle Reading, Christ became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:18-31). The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. The word of the cross is the power of God, even if that power of God is hidden in humble means.
Like God’s word revealed to His people of Israel through faithful prophets such as Micah, so also God’s word revealed to His people of His Church through faithful apostles such as Paul and their successors, including pastors today—God’s Word effects the contrition and faith that we need in order to receive God’s forgiveness through His Word, whether His Word is read or preached to groups such as this group, or whether His Word is applied to individuals with water in Holy Baptism, with touch in Holy Absolution, or with bread and wine that are Christ’s Body and Blood given and shed for us in the Holy Supper. Especially as we are baptized into Christ, what He is, we become. But, in all of these ways God forgives you, declaring and making you not guilty of His original charges against you in “Your case before the mountains”.
As God declares and makes you not guilty of His original charges against you in “Your case before the mountains”, God transforms you so that you at least want to and actually begin to do the things that you should do, even if you only want to and begin to do them im‑perfectly: doing justice, loving kindness (or “mercy”), and walking humbly with God; speaking truth in our heart, not slandering with our tongue, doing no evil to our neighbor, nor taking up a reproach against a friend; being poor in spirit, mourning, being meek, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, being merciful, being pure in heart, making peace, being persecuted for righteousness’ sake, and being reviled and slandered on Jesus’s account. In this life we still never will do anything perfectly, but in Christ we are both forgiven of our failures and credited with His perfection. So, the Kingdom of Heaven is ours, and we will be comforted, inherit the earth, be satisfied, receive mercy, see God, be called sons of God, and have a great reward in heaven.
Even when we ourselves might be on the jury, the country’s justice system remains imperfect, as it is with other cases that might be in the news or on reality‑TV. However, with “Your case before the mountains”, God’s justice is perfect. Although we deserve temporal death and eternal torment, God instead punishes His innocent Son and sets free us, who with contrition and faith, through His Word and Sacraments, receive His grace for Christ’s sake. So, we have His peace and joy already now, and, in the words of today’s Psalm, we shall sojourn in the Lord’s tent, and dwell on His holy hill, forever.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +