Pentecost 3, 07/03/2011

Sermon on Matthew 11:16-30, by Samuel D. Zumwalt

¹⁶"But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, ¹⁷"'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.' ¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' ¹⁹The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds." ²⁰ Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. ²¹ "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. ²² But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. ²³And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. ²⁴ But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you." ²⁵ At that time Jesus declared, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; ²⁶yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. ²⁷ All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. ²⁸ Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

GOD'S KINGDOM COMES QUIETLY

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

There are three connecting sections in today's Gospel lesson. The first has to do with the rejection of John the Baptist and Jesus by the present generation. The second has to do with the coming judgment on those cities that have rejected God's Son Jesus. The third section contains a gentle invitation to those who have not rejected God's Son and will receive the Lord Jesus and learn from Him as His disciples.

In the first section, the generation with which the Lord Jesus was dealing was amazingly similar to our own day. John the Baptist came living a completely ascetic lifestyle, living simply and abstaining from strong drink, and some people called him demonic. The Lord Jesus ate and drank with sinners and tax collectors, and some called Him a glutton and a drunkard. Pastors new to a congregation understand this story very well. Invariably some tell the new pastor how awful and terrible the old pastor was and how glad they are that you are here. Before too long the new pastor begins to encounter criticism; the new pastor is told how the old pastor did things differently and better.

Seven years ago this weekend, I preached my first sermon as the new senior pastor of St. Matthew's. My wife and I accepted the call despite having read a list compiled from a congregational survey containing about 100 different opinions of what the new pastor of St. Matthew's should and shouldn't do. Our favorite on that list in the information packet provided by the bishop was: "A pastor that does not go to Hooters." When we read it, my wife said: "You know there's a story behind that one." And we heard the story the first month we were here.

To have a kingdom there has to be a king, and the pastor isn't it. The council or elders or deacons or the most powerful parishioners can't be king either. And when pastors, councils, elders, deacons, and the most powerful parishioners forget that, then they are most like that generation that found something wrong with John the Baptist and then found something wrong with the Lord Jesus. When a congregation has had conflict or when there has been an unhealthy focus on human power, someone has to say, as John and Jesus said: "God alone is king."

Now some may not like words like "lord" or "king" and wish to substitute "ruler" or "monarch." A rose by any other name smells the same. Whoever is reigning is boss - however he or she may be called. At issue in the critique of John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus is really not their lifestyle. At issue is who the boss is. Those criticizing John and then Jesus do not want God to rule over them. Mel Brooks said it right in History of the World, Part One: "It's good to be the king!"

John the Baptist came preparing the way for the coming kingdom of God. The Lord Jesus brought the kingdom of God in His words and deeds. Where the kingdom comes, there the king is. Where the king rules, there the king is. Those who reject God's King do so at their own peril. Of course, because the consequences are not immediately apparent, rejecting God's King seems to be no big deal - which leads to the second part of the reading.

The Lord Jesus reaches far into the psyche of God's people by bringing up the ancient cities that had fallen under God's condemnation in the Old Testament. Without putting the judgment label on natural or man-made disasters in our own memories, we might think of more current destructive moments as comparable events for us. Because Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom were such stock bad guys in the biblical narrative, Jesus' mention of cities that have not received Him gladly was shocking to His audience. Those that will not receive God's King will fall under the threat of damnation by their own choosing. Where the King is, there is God's Kingdom. Those that do not want God's King will ultimately experience the consequences of rejecting salvation.

Because most Lutheran Christians in our day have been lulled to sleep by therapeutic sermons that do not give an account for the death of God's Son, sin is reduced to failing to be nice to everyone or perhaps to greed. Because there is no significant reason for God's Son to die on the cross, there is no accounting for death or judgment. Indeed there is no real reason for anyone to be baptized, other than as a kind of tribal ritual. And, in fact, the revised common lectionary would have had us omit the middle section of today's Gospel lesson...revising Jesus into a kind of misunderstood good guy we really would like if we only got to know Him better. Grace becomes nothing more than a kind of Rogerian (as in Carl) unconditional positive regard.

Martin Luther would, of course, puke at the kind of namby-pamby Jesus that gets preached. Without necessitating the death of Christ for sinners living under God's death sentence, therapeutic sermons end up proclaiming, in H. Richard Niebuhr's oft-quoted phrase: "A God without wrath [who] brought men without sin into a world without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross."

Because there are so many preachers who reject God's King Jesus in favor of a middle-class socialist liberator who shares their own cultural values and beliefs, God's judgment gets reduced to a kind of community disapproval for those that just don't get their notions of what justice has to look like (of course, it looks like the preachers' own convictions)! Oh, yes, as Mel Brooks put it, "It's good to be the king!"

In the classic Lutheran understanding of things, God's Law afflicts the comfortable, and God's Gospel comforts the afflicted. God's judgment is meant to drive us to the cross of God's Son Jesus. If there is no judgment, there is no grace. It ends up looking like those ridiculous caricatures of churches where there is no need for Baptism because there is no unholy trio (sin, death, and the devil) and no need for a Savior. Indeed is there any reason at all to gather other than to reaffirm that everyone is her own god?

The Lord Jesus' prayer in the third section of the Gospel reminds us that His little children are those that are not bullied by the so-called wise men and women who would repackage a God after their own hearts. In Luther's assessment, a little child who knows the difference between No and Yes is a true theologian. Good on you who know you are lost and condemned sinners in need of God's Son's innocent suffering and death for you. Good on you who aren't afraid to be called fools for Christ in the face of the social disapproval of one's politically correct peers. Blessed are you who are thirsty for that Living God who satisfies your longings as nothing else can do.

This weekend Christians around the globe will be falling on their knees in confession and repentance, praying for God's rule and reign to come to them and to their lands. For U.S. citizens, the 235^th celebration of Independence Day becomes a good time for a solemn assembly of Christians. Because too many Christians have bought into false gospels that do not necessitate the death of God's Son, we do well to return to the waters of Holy Baptism renouncing the forces of evil, the devil, and all his empty promises. We do well to pray for those that have not been baptized and for those that have fallen in love with the world. We do well to pray for those whose god is a mere narcissistic reflection.

To have a kingdom, there must be a king. Where God's Kingdom comes, there God is King. He comes quietly in His beloved Son who says, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Recently I spent a week at confirmation camp with thirteen middle school students. Each day we learned about prayer: the Lord's Prayer, the baptismal creed, the psalms, and the daily prayer offices. When we studied the psalms, I had them read Psalm 13. I asked if any of them had been, like the psalmist, angry with God. All thirteen hands were raised. Some were children of nasty divorces, where selfish parents had wrecked their homes. One had lost a parent to cancer several years before. Several were from homes made unsafe by alcoholism. These children were thirsty for the Living God and drank deeply that week. One little girl told her grandmother later: "I never felt closer to God than I did at camp."

Luther would have called them all theologians. They knew No from Yes. They knew what sin, death, and the devil are about. They had first-hand knowledge. They cherished the neck crosses they were given as reminders of the cross on their foreheads. They learned to return to their Baptism daily, even saying in their shower or bath, the threefold renunciation of the unholy trio and the threefold confession of the Triune God. They learned what it meant to come to God's King who comes to them in Word and Sacrament. They learned that we do not change God, but God changes us through His Word! And all of that was underscored as they watched poignant scenes from the story of William Wilberforce in the movie "Amazing Grace."

I have hope for these young theologians. I have hope that God's Word will daily shape their lives into the likeness of His Servant Son. I have hope that this will happen as they pray daily for the King to rule their thoughts, words, and deeds. I have hope that they will be as dogged and as yielding to God's good and gracious will as William Wilberforce. For when we pray, "Thy Kingdom Come," the King comes quietly to us. In the words of that old American hymn: "Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me...come home, come home, ye who are weary, come home!"

May God's Holy Spirit so break your heart and mine this day that we will not settle for anything less than the Crucified God who loves us too much to leave us as we are...in the throes of sin, death, and the devil. Come home!

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Rev. Dr. Samuel D. Zumwalt
Wilmington, North Carolina USA

E-Mail: szumwalt@bellsouth.net

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