Envy and Blame

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pilate “knew that it was out of envy that [the Jews] had delivered [Jesus] up.” It was evident to anyone with half a brain that the chief priests and the teachers of the Law were out to get Jesus because they feared for their position and reputation. Caiaphas himself said prophetically that “it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” (John 11:50) They feared that if Jesus were elevated in the estimation of the people, the whole nation would follow after Him, and the priests and scribes would be dishonored.

Envy leads people to do some awful things. It leads to wars and genocides. It leads to murders and beatings. It leads to discrimination and division. It leads to people whom you might consider otherwise neighborly and peaceable doing and saying things that are downright despicable and destructive.

Of course, envy is nothing new.

Fearful Foreshadowing

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I. Fearful Foreshadowing

Already it is clear: There will be trouble.

Moses is speaking to the Israelites one last time. They are about to enter the Promised Land, while it is time for him to climb Mount Nebo and die. These are his last words to the people that he has led as a called servant of the Lord; he preaches the Word of the Lord, sings his final song.

It has been a long haul, this journey: No sooner were the Israelites safe from Egypt that they built agolden calf and elected to call it their god. The Lord mercifully spared them that day, but other apostasy would follow. The disobedience of the people has made it a very long haul, for they were rewarded with forty extra years in the desert because of their doubt.

Now they are to enter, and Moses speaks one last time.

The Gates of Righteousness

[note: This sermon was preached first at New Hope Lutheran Church in Charles City, IA on 31 March 2012, when I filled in for their pastor. It was then preached at St. Peter on 1 April.]

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.” So we pray in the Psalm for today. We ask the Lord to open the way before us, that we may enter into the place of righteousness, that we may enter into the place to which He has called us. And He has done just that.

After all, the Lord is in the business of opening gates, of letting His people into places of blessing. He admitted them into the Garden of Eden, the paradise whence sprang all of the wonders of creation. There He fed and nourished them, and walked and talked with them. There it was good, very good.

God opened the womb of Eve with the gift of a son, Cain. By this opening, He brought forth the whole population of mankind, for all who have lived have come from the womb of our first mother. Even our Savior was born of a woman, born of the lineage of man according to the flesh.

“Open to Me the Gates of Righteousness”

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Coco Chanel once said, “Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.” Good advice, but yet it seems like so often we do just that.

You and I spend our time beating on the wall because we each want to find our own door. If I just beat hard enough and long enough and in the right spot in the right way, so we think, I will find a me-shaped door that will magically open to let me into the kingdom of God. And until then, we just beat blindly against the stone of our own sin and guilt.

The problem is not that we do not know the extent of the wall. Even in our blind, ignorant, sinful condition, the problem is obvious. Like David, we each say, “I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” The Law of God is written on our hearts, and so we know what we should be doing, and yet we do the opposite. You know that you are not perfect, but you try to act like you are, as if you could just run away from your sin, or cover it up somehow. But none of us can get away from our sin and guilt. It remains before you, as clear as the face in the mirror.