Grace Lutheran Church

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+ In Nomine Jesu +

The Rev. Evan Gaertner

12^th Sunday after Pentecost                                                  "Open the Scriptures and Find Your Savior"

August 27, 2006                                                                                                                         Isaiah 29:11-19

D-1) INITIAL DIAGNOSIS: Our External Problem--with one another

Have you ever found yourself getting into your car and suddenly you realize that you are driving to work? Not a bad thing if you meant to be on your way to work, but what if you planned on going somewhere else? I feel that at times I am on autopilot, just going through the motions.

Today we heard in the gospel lesson about the Pharisees and scribes that had gathered to Jesus. They noticed that the followers of Jesus ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. Now this does not necessarily mean that the hands were dirty, but more importantly that they had not been ritually washed in the traditional way. It was the way of the Pharisees and all of the Jews to ritually wash anything that they brought home from the marketplace.

Jesus attacked the people for going through the motions. Walking in the same direction as those that have gone before you does not necessarily mean that you are walking in the right direction. Jesus is frustrated that people were going through the motions but no longer honoring God with their hearts. The commandments of men, given enough time, can become so entrenched that they replace the Word of God as the foundation.

Some congregations in St. Louis were talking about merging together and bringing their resources together so that they could more effectively reach out to the people of their community with the good news of Jesus Christ. But the merger talks hit a snag when one of the congregations refused to sell their building. Was it because they had a better facility and so thought they would be the best place for outreach to the community? Was it because their location was the most centrally located? NO! It was because they were puffed up in pride because their church carpet still had blood stains from the Civil War and they were unwilling to give up that tradition.

The visible danger with holding onto tradition more rigidly than the word of God is that we begin to look with judgment upon others that do not hold to the same traditions as us. If someone forgets to stand up in the right spot in the worship service or wears the wrong clothes to worship or if some other misstep across tradition occurs we get all frustrated and flustered.

The danger of Israel in Isaiah's time is as real for us today. Isaiah faced an Israel that knew all the right things to say and do, but their heart was far from the Lord. Their worship had become an empty shell of what God had intended.

D-2) ADVANCED DIAGNOSIS: Our Internal Problem--with Christ

Going through the motions is dangerous because it can establish the motions as the important part of our worship with God. We can talk the talk and forget why and so stop walking the walk. The Pharisees were shocked at the followers of Jesus because they didn't go through with the tradition of ritually washing their hands before eating food bought from the marketplace. This shock prevented them from hearing the mercy and compassion that Jesus was bringing to the people.

When we get so hung up on what hymnal we must use, red or blue, or when we expect the youth to act in a certain way, or when we find ourselves blindly going through the liturgy without a faithful heart, we are silencing the work that Jesus desires to do in our lives.

D-3) FINAL DIAGNOSIS: Our Internal Problem--with God

When we become deaf to the good news of Jesus because we are so busy in maintaining our traditions we shut ourselves off from God's deliverance. God desires to save his people that are lost in this world of sin, but some insist on continuing in the wrong direction. As a congregation we need to always be vigilant in examining ourselves and insuring that what we do in worship and life is God-pleasing and in accordance with the purposes of God.

Isaiah found in Israel that they had become so deaf to the Word of God they no longer could hear the promises. They became so blind to the works of God that they no longer looked for God at work.

P-1) INITIAL PROGNOSIS: God's eternal solution--for us

But even though we deserve to be lost in our business and motions of tradition, Jesus nevertheless comes for us. It was mercy that brought Jesus to speak so boldly to the Pharisees. They needed to hear those words of judgment and find their hearts humbled. We too need to hear the words of judgment so that we are brought to repentance. It will never be through the observance of traditions that we are delivered out of our sin. It is only by the work of God that we are transformed and restored into the kingdom of God. It is on the day of the Lord that the deaf hear, the blind see, and the lame walk. It by the Lord that the poor receive the kingdom.

Jesus came in the flesh into the middle of a world of traditions and shattered them. He healed the sick, reached out to the forgotten, and taught the Word of God to the uneducated. He did not let any excuse stop him from delivering the good news of forgiveness to a world in need. When Jesus gave himself willingly on the cross he did so for a world that walked past him insulting and mocking him. He carried his cross past those that stood on their traditions. He shattered their expectations. Tradition says that when a man goes into the grave dead he stays dead. The women went to wash his body with spices on the third day according to the traditions. But Jesus shattered our acceptance of death and rose again.

P-2) ADVANCED PROGNOSIS: God's internal solution--in us

By faith in Jesus Christ our cold hearts are made alive again. As we open the Word of God we find our savior at work for us. The Bible is not just a book that by tradition should be on your shelf at home. The Bible delivers to us the good news of our savior Jesus Christ. I encourage you to digest the word of God and I am confident that you will find that the words of the Lord are sweet. The reality of God redeeming our fallen world found in the truth of the Holy Scriptures.

P-3) FINAL PROGNOSIS: God's external solution--through one another

When we rely upon the good news of forgiveness of sin instead of tradition to shape the ministry at Grace we find ourselves reaching out to a world in need. We seek and find the lost. The life-bringing good news of Jesus Christ is taught and we help one another see the light of Christ in the midst of darkness.

Jesus opens up the deaf ear to hear the cries for mercy. Jesus loosens the frozen hands to reach out to help those that have fallen. Jesus makes the blind to see him at work in this world.

Soli Deo Gloria

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