Author: Higher Things

by The Rev. George Borghardt III

In the name of Jesus. Amen. Two men in the temple. The first with tons of religion. The other with nothing but sins. Who goes home justified?

Imagine the first. He is basically good – in fact before every bad thing he could come up with was a “am not.” “I’m not swindler. I’m not unjust. I’ve never committed adultery.”

I’m an upstanding member of my church. I give my ten percent – off the gross. Other people only give a tithe from the take home. But, I give ten percent of everything.

I am a good man or a good woman. I have sins, but unlike some people, I’m working through them. Thank God, I’m not like… that guy.

Now, imagine>that guy. Sitting next to you in church. I mean – a filthy rotten sinner. Maybe they are simply different than you – in the way they dress, or they not from your culture, or maybe they are a different color than you.

Perhaps she’s a woman who is pregnant and shouldn’t be or a man who has a history… and not a good one. >They’ve made mistakes, they’ve not lived as they should. They wronged me, they messed up, they just don’t carry their weight in this church. Why are they even here? We all know what they did. They just don’t fit in. They just aren’t right.

They do>that for a living. It’s unbecoming. It’s disgusting or kinda sleezy or whatever we just don’t think someone should be doing.

Like in the ancient world – you don’t get much worse than a tax collector. They were extortioners and thieves. They would over charge taxes and keep the extra bit. No one likes that guy.

It’s true even today – who wants an IRS agent around?

All of this is missing Christ. Not one mention of Him from the Pharisee – just us us us. Me, me, me. Me against you. You against me. People who think they haven’t sinned vs. people who know they have.

Christ died for both the pharisees and the tax collector. In doing so, He reconciles all of us with the Father not by us making ourselves something else, but by His death for us.

Jesus died for all – for you, for me. Not just for the good people here, but for the bad people. He died for the bad people who despise the good people. He died for the good people who despise the bad.

In fact – his horrific bloody death shows that good and bad are all sinners in need of saving. No one is good, not even one. The wrath of Almighty God doesn’t hit you, but hits Him. But it’s so great, so mighty against your sin, that it kills Him. Kills God Himself.

We are so twisted, so out of wack, so messed up, we turn this parable into a chance to look down on people. What do I mean? Try this…

You’re here and other people judge you. They wreck and squish your joy with their funny looks. They complain, cause drama, moan and groan. They are the problem in our church – with all the nasty looks they give you. They are grumpy. They don’t know what it’s like to sin. They just popped out holy, it seems. Thank God for this text, finally Pastor is preaching against them.

How many people will leave church this week through out our church body thanking God that they aren’t Pharisees?

Yet, by our despising of the people around us, we have become just that…

Repent. Both Pharisee and Publican. Repent. Stop despising one another and justifying yourself before Almighty God. Stop justifying yourself before God as if you aren’t evil.

All about you is exalting you. All about me exalts me. We will be humbled. We will be laid low. How on earth will God not simply demolish us?

Oh God be merciful to me, a sinner.” Beat your breast. You have no hope inside yourself. Nothing within you can save you.

At that point, when you realize the wretchedness that is you. Then whether we are in church or alone in your room, you are on your knees will beat your breast and plead for mercy.

The one who exalts himself is humbled. The one who humbled Himself is exalted. Christ. He is the one who truly humbled Himself. Nothing He did was for Himself.

That counts for you. That counts for me. His humility. His saving. His life. His death. He is your Justification. Freely given – paid by His death. Freely received, that’s faith.

God is merciful. He won’t treat you as you merit. He sets your sins aside, sets them on Christ. Christ keep the Law in your place, humbled Himself before God for you, suffers the punishment due you for all your exalting yourself before Him.

St. Paul says it today:   Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, He was buried, and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.

Christ is crucified. The just for the unjust. He is the one who justifies you – who declares you righteous.

Christ is crucified and was buried. We are crucified with Him in baptism. We were buried with Him. Our sins remain in the tomb. The pharisee who despises those around him dies at the font. Dies as little baby Mariah died today.

Christ rose from the dead. The One who humbled Himself has been exalted above all things – to the very right hand of the Father.

Christ rose from the dead. Little Mariah rose too. You rose too. He is exalted, you too. Right hand of God. All because of Christ.

You have risen. You need not to despise others or justify yourself any longer. His death saves you. His resurrection is your justification.

So, how can someone like you be saved? Christ died for me. Christ rose and I rose with Him.

Are you are a pharisee or the sinner? Both. I behave like the pharisee all the time. Christ died for even me and I rose with Him. The only hope I have is in Him alone.

What’s the final Word on your life? Christ died. Christ rose. Not me, not what’s up with you. Instead, Christ died and Christ rose for me.

Then, instead of looking down on others, you can serve them. You can put them first – the tax collector, the sinner, that guy, the person with>that job, the person you don’t like, the one who sinned against you, the one who hurt you at church. Them before you, as Christ put you before Himself.

Christ, not you. Always Him. He reconciles. He makes one. He does that today at His Supper. He puts His body into you, you, you, and me. Into each of us He puts His Body and Blood and so bodies and bloods us together at His Sacrament. There the many are made one with the one bread.

His forgiveness. His life. His salvation. His reconciliation. His justification. His resurrection. Yours too in Him.

Two men in the temple. The first with tons of religion. The other with nothing but sins. Who goes home justified?

You do. I do too. Christ died for us. Christ rose for us. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

by The Rev. George F. Borghardt III

St. Matthew 28:19-20

In the name of Jesus. Amen. Mountains. Mountains. Mountains. On all sides of us. It gives both the feeling of safety and the feeling of awe. It’s like the mountains have us surrounded, like they have us where they want us…

They don’t. Jesus does. We are gathered by Him. Passive. Jesus provides the time and place. He’s tending us – providing for the delivery of His Calvary-won gifts. That’s the Gospel.

Good thing He provides the place. A year ago, when we were working out the sites for Higher Things. Had we been in MN this week rather than last week, we’d have heard the bridge fall. Wow. God forbid if we’d been crossing that bridge!

We didn’t know. He knew. Now, we simply watch on the few televisions in this place praying for our loved ones and our new friends in Minneapolis.

And we thank God too, don’t we? That He does the appointing. He always does – He gave the disciples the place where they would see Him. There on the mountain, the eleven worship Him and the eleven doubted.

Not some “worshiped” and some “doubted.” The Scriptures say that the disciples did both – they worshiped Him and they doubted.

You do both too. Gathered this week surrounded by these mountains to hear the Word of God. Everything is just right. Singing hymns, confessing your sins, hearing the Gospel, you feel safe. Couldn’t possibly get any closer to God, could you?

Then things don’t go the way you thought – she breaks up with you, your grades aren’t what they should be, you get sick.

Or worse, what if you’d been there. Been on that bridge. What happens when the bridges in your life can’t be trusted. What happens then? Would that mean that He loved you less?

Dear children of God, the word for “doubt” used in this evening’s reading means “wavering, double minded.” That’s you.

And to such double minded people – to you – Jesus gives His salvation! Salvation won on the Cross. His faithfulness for your waiving. His single mindedness for your double mindedness. His death in the place of your death.

He rose. You rose with Him in Holy Baptism. That’s why He sent the Eleven – make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Teach them to hold dear everything that I have commanded. I am with y’all always even until the consummation of all things.

What confidence! What certainly! In your Baptism, you are disciples. In your Baptism, you are saved. As certain as the name put on you – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are a child of God.

For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.

So the Father says you are saved. The Son says you are in. The Spirit fills your ears with the Word and faith says, “Amen, I’m God’s own child.”

One God, three persons, all three confessing that in Baptism and in the hearing of His Word you are His disciples.

And that’s true no matter what’s going on in your life – when we are safely tucked away in the mountains or if we are right there when the bridge falls.

My problem is that I don’t believe that. I think that He only loves me when He makes things turn out the way I want them to. I think that He is being good to me only when I escape harm.

Do you think that way too? Repent of all that double-minded doubt.

The Gospel – the FOR YOU – is so much bigger than our doubts. Yes, God is for you when you are far away from calamity.

But, Christ is so for you, so on your side, so has your back, that He is MOST for you at the moment when you have nothing to cling to – when you think that things can’t get any worse and then they find away to do just that.

When things hurt so much you can’t breathe, when you can’t take another step, when you are just worn out by what has gone wrong in your world. When the bridge falls under your feet, when you breathe your last breath – At that moment, with nothing left, you have Christ.

Or better, He has you. For what happens to you, happens to one who is baptized, one who bears the name of God, who is a child of God.

Don’t believe that? That’s ok. God’s testimony is greater than yours. His certainty more sure than your certainty.

For this is the testimony of God: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

You see, the glory of the Holy Trinity is not that God is big and powerful. It’s not that He can surround us and tuck us away in the mountains. That’s cool, but it doesn’t save you when things come tumbling down around you.

Glory of the Holy Trinity is that the Father gives His Son and the Spirit marks you – even marks me – with His Name and you are a child of God. Me too.

A child of God if things go well and especially a child of God when they don’t.

This is the glory of God…. Christ crucified for you.

All glory to our Lord and God For love so deep, so high, so broad; The Trinity whom we adore Forever and forevermore.

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

 

The Rev. George F. Borghardt III is the assistant/youth pastor of St. Mark Lutheran Church, Conroe, Texas.  Pastor Borghardt is the recently retired (?) Internet Services Executive for Higher Things, and has now assumed the office of Conferences Executive.