Sermon for June 28

 

4^th Sunday after Trinity

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Jesus said,       37“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.” This is our text.

 

Reciting from Luther’s Small Catechism, the 5^th Chief Part: How Christians should be taught to confess

What is Confession?

Confession has two parts. First, that we confess our sins, and second, that we receive absolution, that is, forgiveness, from the pastor as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that by it our sins are forgiven before God in heaven.

In the catechism, Martin Luther preaches what he learned from Jesus Christ about repentance and forgiveness. There’s two parts. Repent of your sins, daily. Believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that your sins are forgiveness and God considers you holy and righteous.

That’s what Jesus is getting at in the Gospel reading for today. It’s a small part of a sermon Jesus preached in Luke chapter 6, where he calls on those who would be his disciples to keep both parts, both repentance of our sins and faith in God’s promise of forgiveness for Jesus’ sake.

First, Jesus gives a strong warning to you when you look at others and notice their sins and failures, specks in their eyes, but you fail to notice this log in your own eye.

Jesus says, first take the log out of your own eye. Repent, stop your sins, then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Without repentance, you can’t see clearly. It’s like a log in your eye. Our sinful nature and thoughts blind us. We are blinded by our opinions of others, are false notions about them, and really, let’s call it what it is, really hatred of others blinds us, such that we are of no use to our neighbor. “Can a blind man help a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?”

Jesus says, first repent of your own sins, your own most grievous sins. Then, second, receive absolution, that is, forgiveness, from the pastor as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that by it our sins are forgiven before God in heaven.

Some are blinded by their own sins. Some are blinded by neglecting to believe what they hear from God, that sins are forgiven. If you don’t forgive others,  but condemn them, give up on them, continually hold their sins against them – it’s because you don’t believe in the forgiveness God has given to you.

God charges you to listen intently to what the Pastor says to you, in the stead and by the command of Jesus Christ. Your sins are forgiven. Your sins against God, your sins against your fellow human beings, your lack of forgiveness, your hatred, all sins were forgiven when Jesus, the Lord of life, gave up His life for you.

So it’s not as though, our forgiveness of those who trespass against us causes God to forgive us our trespasses. He is not waiting up there in heaven to see if we are good and forgiving and then He says, “Ok, I’ll forgive them.” But when you receive the absolution -- have the log removed -- you can see clearly and use that absolution, forgiveness in your relationships all through life.

Pastors publicly and regularly pronounce Christ’s forgiveness as God ordained them too. But also each Christian does so. Use the words you’ve heard over and over again. Speak them to those sinners who are around you. Say it out loud and deliberately, “I forgive you, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Put this to use in your homes and among your friends.

Wives, I know most of your husbands. I know they are sinners. I can only imagine how challenging it is to live with them day in, day out. So when they sin, by what they do, and what they don’t do. Forgive them their failings.

Husbands, you can be long suffering and patient with your wives, knowing that He who has taken your sins away, is doing the same thing for her.

Parents, absolve your children of their sins. Teach them the Christian faith by saying, I forgive you. Jesus forgives you.

Children, your parents our a blessing from the Lord. Because they sin, they are also a burden to bear. For some that burden grows more frustrating as our parents age. Repent of your sins, so that you may see clearly to love and cherish, serve and obey your parents. Take comfort in what Jesus promises, “forgive, and you will be forgiven”. He says, when you forgive others, it makes it so you will see even more clearly the forgiveness He gives you. He says, “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

These words of Jesus in Luke chapter 6 are sometimes misused, taken too far. He says, “Judge not, and you will not be judged.” A person remember these words, then he see people doing something really wrong, harmful themselves or others. And he says something like, “it’s not for me to judge” and he leaves others alone without helping them, without carefully removing the speck from their eyes as it were.

If you see something wrong, use your God-given, sanctified knowledge and understanding to discern bad behavior, wrong ways of speaking. You can’t judge the heart of another. Only God can do that. But you have had the log removed from your eye by the absolution of Christ. You can see clearly to diagnose and treat the speck in the eye of someone suffering from sin and it’s blindness. You must from time to time, judge the behavior of sinners.

In 1 Corinthians 6, the Bible says, “we will judge angels”. On the last day, judgement day, we who have our sins removed completely then, will see clearly to even judge the angels. The devil is a fallen angel. He disguises himself as an angel of light. Judge him for what he is and what he does.

In this meantime, look carefully, discern, call a sin, sin and then with clear judgement work out differences, offenses, disagreements.

Here’s an example, if someone is breaking the eighth commandment, and speaking gossip or lies about others, you judge that sin for what it is and, and speak up for the others, speak well of them, stop the gossip.

That will lead to good.

When we use the truth of God – repentance and forgiveness – it leads to faith, ours and others, and it leads ultimately to the praise of our God who has brought us forgiveness in Jesus our Savior.

So we will now sing our praise to God, using the words of the Te Deum Laudamus, an old Latin title, that means We Praise you O God.

The Te Deum, page 223