Reality Check
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Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Hypocrisy
When Howard Carter and his associates found the tomb of King Tutankhamen, they opened up his casket and found another within it. They opened up the second, which was covered with gold leaf, and found a third. Inside the third casket was a fourth made of pure gold. The pharaoh’s body was in the fourth, wrapped in gold cloth with a gold face mask. But when the body was unwrapped, it was leathery and shriveled.
Whether we are trying to cloak a dead spiritual life, or something else, in caskets of gold to impress others, the beauty of the exterior does not change the absence of life on the interior.
Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed. Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith. May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
Before His death, Christ’s words were beyond their comprehension. After His resurrection, they were struggling to wrap their heads around the profound things that He had said, and how they would accomplish what He had promised. There was no doubt that the political and religious leadership of their country was corrupt. There was no doubt that the majority of Judea and Galilee were not converted. But there was also no doubt that Jesus was alive, that He had conquered both death and the devil, and that they were to continue to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The sum total of that knowledge could have driven them to despair as they compared their Master to themselves, His power and purity to their own weakness and confusion. In the face of their fear and sorrow, Jesus offers to them a reason to hope - they were already clean on account of His Word that He had spoken to them.
Over two thousand years from that night, and we find ourselves struggling to understand the what it means to trust God enough to confess that we are justified sinners, not as an excuse to loll around, smugly self-satisfied because the message of the grace of God seems to imply or even boldly state that we have no responsibilities to the King or His Kingdom, only the pleasing prospects of a bountiful life, a pleasing death, and a prosperous eternity, all because God loves us too much to hold us accountable for the riches of His grace that we have ignored or squandered in lazy and carnal disobedience.
The Missio Dei - the Sending by God the Father of God the Son to redeem God’s creation and restore God’s image-bearers, followed by the sending of God the Holy Spirit by the Father and the Son to continue the sanctification of His people that God initiated through the shed blood of the Son, moves into the Missio Christi - the sending by God the Son of His Church with the command to “Go and make disciples of every nation,” no matter what their previous lives had been like, no matter what their cultural, economic, social, political or even physical flaws might be.
It is easy for us to opt-out, to sit on the sidelines and wait for someone else to come along to do all that hard work, to make those disciples, to display the kingdom’s presence even in the midst of Satan's efforts to destroy our faith in Christ, hope in His return, and love for our neighbor. We can point to our sins and say, “See, I’m not ready yet. I still have issues. I can’t tell others that Jesus lives while my life is still marked by struggle.”
But Jesus stops our attempts to justify ourselves by telling us that His Word has taken away our reproach. It is His Gospel, rather than our piety, that is the foundation upon which His kingdom now stands and expands. The souls around the world that have been rescued from false doctrines are matched by those who have ben set free in this nation, not by the ballot or the bullet, but by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
St. Jerome has been quoted as saying, ““The Scriptures are shallow enough for a babe to come and drink without fear of drowning and deep enough for a theologians to swim in without ever touching the bottom." We in this nation are blessed to have access to God’s Word on such a scale that would have made Luther shout for joy. Our cell phones, tablets and laptops can produce Scripture passages and commentaries so fast that we no longer feel the need to put in the time and effort to memorize Scripture or our Confessions. We seem to have lost the ability to give to everyone a reason for the hope that lies within us, as St. Peter admonished us in 1 Peter 3:15-16
15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
For much of our Christian lives, we have thought of today’s Gospel text as applying to individuals, largely because we live in an individualistic society. That is not how Jesus disciples understood the world.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
C.S. Lewis thought that one of the marks of hell would be the sense of being utterly alone, even though Jesus said that many people would travel the path that leads to destruction. In the story of Lazarus and the rich man, Lazarus is describes as being “in Abraham’s bosom,” conveyed there by the angels, while the rich man simply “died and went to hell.” No one celebrated his arrival. No one greeted him at his entrance. No one commiserated with him in the loss of his earthly pleasures. He seemingly sat alone in the flames, tormented and grieved.
Heaven is pictured differently. Myriads of angels, a perfect Israel pictured as 12 tribes each equally containing 12,000 members, and an innumerable host of saints worshiping the Lord and singing the song of the Lamb at the Feast of Victory. We get there together, not alone. We praise Him together, not alone, and here on earth, we work together, not alone. Together, we are able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Together, we are able to encourage one another daily, and bear one another’s burdens, thus fulfilling the Law of Christ.
6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
For too long we have thought of ourselves as a self-contained entity, an organization unto itself, independent of, and having no connection to others who share our Confessional heritage. In the four years since I have been here, we have lost two of the four congregations that worshipped when I arrived, and we have not mourned. We have allowed the question of who would benefit the most to keep us from working together to strengthen the Body of Christ here in Gary.
God is not mocked; whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap. We cannot grow without speaking life to others. We cannot grow in grace while withholding grace from our neighbor. The Gospel cannot have free course in this community when we bury it in our hearts.
The world does not fear a disjointed church, instead it either mocks it or ignores it. A disjointed church does not wield the sword of the Spirit with authority. Jesus prayed, on the night that He spoke these words:
22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
He died the next day to tear down the walls of partition that separated Jew and Gentile, male and female. He rose again the third day, and when He ascended, “He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.”
We are so close, we have come so far. The devil has tried everything within his power to divide us, up to and including this pandemic. But the unity of the Spirit in the Bonds of peace has kept us all together in one faith, one Lord, one baptism.
God has received us, and promises to receive us, together. So while we await the great day of God almighty,
Let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, Guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.