2. Sunday after Pentecost, 06/02/2013

Sermon on Luke 7:1:10, by Samuel Zumwalt

After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. ²Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. ³When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. ⁴And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy to have you do this for him, ⁵for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue." ⁶And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. ⁷Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. ⁸For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,' and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,' and he does it." ⁹When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." ¹⁰And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.

A GRACE-FULL SUMMER: UNWORTHY OF GRACE

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

Today we begin the non-festival half of the church year by returning to Luke's gospel, the primary gospel of the church year that began in Advent. Throughout these summer months and then well into the fall, we will read almost consecutively through Luke beginning with chapter 7. Having spent the first half of this church year on the Christmas and Easter cycles of our Lord's life and ministry, we now focus on what it means to follow the Risen Jesus in lives of humble service guided by the Holy Spirit.

It is often the case, especially in Luke's gospel, that the Lord Jesus draws a sharp contrast between those who see themselves as noteworthy people of God and those who don't. Today is a particularly helpful example of this very point. God's people often neither understand what grace is nor who Jesus is. Let's jump into the text.

YOU SCRATCH MY BACK?

A Roman centurion, a soldier in charge of 100 men and who is clearly not Jewish, sends some Jewish leaders to Jesus to ask the Lord to heal the centurion's servant. These elders from the local synagogue in Capernaum have no problem going to Jesus on behalf of the soldier because the guy is both powerful and generous. In fact, that's the very approach they take with Jesus: "He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue." Cutting to the chase, they say: "C'mon Jesus, this guy's been good to us Jews. You need to return the favor!"

Let me take a moment to differentiate between shamelessly pandering to those who have and being pastorally stupid. Yes, we Christians are aware that James warns against favoritism towards the wealthy at the expense of the poor (2:1ff), and Jesus' Luke certainly favors the poor and the outcasts more than the rich. But this does not mean that pastors and other congregation leaders ought to relate to those who are both well-off and generous without any regard for their wise stewardship of God's things.

One ought not to assume, as some foolishly do, that anyone who has accumulated wealth is somehow wickeder than the poor. Those who regularly serve the poorest of the poor normally don't romanticize their spiritual life as somehow healthier than the well-off pious Christian just because one is poor and the other rich. Of course, there are certainly pastors who are both naïve and arrogant. God has a way of humbling those that are teachable, but some, quite frankly, just aren't. (Was it Richard John Neuhaus who said the only people who still believe in socialism teach in American institutions of higher learning? If you don't know who Neuhaus was, then you ought to read him quite a lot.) But I digress.

The religious leaders assume that the Lord Jesus believes in quid pro quo - you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. That's why they lead with the briefest of biographical sketches about the centurion. Perhaps, when Jesus comes with them, they even think this approach worked: "He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue." As they're walking along with Jesus what are they whispering? "You want to get Jesus' attention? Money talks!"

Luke doesn't tell us why Jesus went. Was it compassion for the centurion's servant? Was it curiosity about a Gentile soldier who helped to build the synagogue? Was it the Holy Spirit driving the Lord Jesus to an amazing discovery that will become a teachable moment for Jesus' audience? Whatever the reason, it wasn't quid pro quo!

IT TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE

Jesus and the religious leaders are almost to the guy's house when the centurion sends an entourage of friends with this message. "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,' and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,' and he does it."

For those who have a bad case of reverse snobbery regarding the rich and powerful, this text is a nightmare scenario. This centurion not only recognizes the Lord Jesus' authority in a way that escapes just about everyone else. The Lord Jesus' response is over the top: "When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith."

Of course, it begs the question about what the religious leaders thought of Jesus. Is Jesus, for them, just a wonder worker? Or, is He that rare case of One who can both teach and do? Or, were they afraid to venture an opinion but were more than willing to take what they could get from Jesus because He might grease the skids for future generosity from the centurion? Too bad Luke doesn't say more about them.

The key point is that it takes one to know one. The centurion understands Jesus' authority in a way that escapes the religious leaders. Furthermore he understands that Jesus has authority over disease simply by speaking the Word. Does this guy known Isaiah 55? "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it" (55:10-11).

Jesus marvels at the centurion's faith, and then He exercises His authority. Luke says, "And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well." Don't you wish you could have heard what was said after that happened?

The unnerving question is whether we recognize Jesus' authority over us. This is, of course, the problem for what I call forensic pathologists of the Bible (name your favorite) who are so certain of their mastery of the text that they never get around to recognizing that Jesus' Luke is much more trustworthy than theories about Luke's Jesus.

UNWORTHY OF THE MEANS OF GRACE

I was raised in a Low Church Lutheran congregation with the typical pietistic fear of communing too often. ("It won't be as special if you have communion too often!") We didn't have the Sacrament of the Altar on the Pentecost Sunday 1968 when I was confirmed, and so I waited one more week until it was a Communion Sunday (the same two Sundays every month regardless of feast days). I was terrified of choking on the elements and not receiving Jesus properly. I wondered the entire service up to the moment of distribution whether I were appropriately sorry for my sins, etc.

Mama drove the 25-minute trip to church, frequently risking our lives and limbs by preparing us to receive Jesus as she read Luther's questions and answers. Meanwhile she was also watching the road and steering an old car that frequently experienced the hood popping up and the back right passenger door opening simultaneously whenever she accelerated past 55 miles per hour. The prospect of death did focus the mind marvelously in that way, I believe, Dr. Samuel Johnson once observed. At any rate, I'm sure the Lord knew we had had the hell scared out of us before we received His true body and blood.

When I entered seminary in August 1976, I was introduced to weekly Eucharist in my fieldwork parish and also midweek Eucharist in seminary chapel. I was quite afraid at first that I was communing too often and might well be putting my soul at risk. But, as many before me discovered, the more you receive Jesus the more you want to commune.

For my first worship class, we purchased copies of the late Arthur Carl Piepkorn's "The Conduct of the Service," an in-depth explanation of how to celebrate the Eucharist. Piepkorn described every gesture, every moment, and every detail of the liturgy in a way that was both engaging and inviting. He included how to commune and the traditional prayers before and after communing. Most pertinent to today's text was this prayer:

"Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof; but speak the word only, and my soul shall be healed." (Anciently, this prayer, "Domine non sum dignus," was said three times, the celebrant striking his breast each time with the extremities of the last three fingers of his right hand)" (A.C. Piepkorn, The Conduct of the Service, 1965).

I've been told by older pastors that watching Arthur Carl Piepkorn on his way to the Altar as a worshiper was itself a preparation for receiving Christ's real presence. Piepkorn would shuffle forward with eyes closed, hands clasped in proper liturgical prayer position, and deeply absorbed in prayer before he received the Lord's body and blood. His whole demeanor proclaimed the holy mystery of God's incarnate Love, crucified and raised, for us and our salvation. An Army chaplain during World War II, Piepkorn knew all about the exercise of authority, and I suspect the centurion's prayer had a special significance for the good professor before he received Jesus in the elements.

Among the pithy quotations in Doberstein's "Ministers' Prayer Book" is St. John Chrysostom's dire warning: "It is a miracle for a priest to be saved." Shortly after having been unsettled by that remark for the first time, I realized that we pastors can become so overly focused on ourselves and the tasks at hand that we fail to attend to the holy things and the holy people with which the Lord has entrusted us. Soon we can become like the religious elders asking the Lord Jesus' help so that we can keep the doors open and "the trains running on time." And we miss His real presence and His real authority over everyone and everything and forget that we are unworthy for Him even to come under our roof. Perhaps we need to be reminded often by someone as unlikely as that centurion.

An old colleague taught me to see the word GRACE as an acronym: God's Riches At Christ's Expense. That's the miracle of grace we experience at the altar each week. For us and our salvation, Christ died while we were yet sinners. He rose again from the dead and now is embodied by His Word of promise in the host and cup. We are unworthy to receive Him under our roof. That is the profound truth about us sinners, for we are sin-sick and we will remain that way until our earthly remains are covered with a white pall.

If grace is nothing more than personal affirmation for today or nothing more than some sense of psychological liberation, then we are, as Paul wrote, of all people most to be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:19). And if that's all a preacher has to say, then he (or she) should quit now. And in every congregation there is a centurion who has already figured that out. It is a miracle for a pastor to be saved. The Lord Jesus still offers the miracle of grace, His own crucified and resurrected body, given in bread and wine to eat and drink!

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

Samuel Zumwalt
St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
Wilmington, North Carolina USA
E-Mail: szumwalt@bellsouth.net

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