The Lutheran Hour
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"Unjust Rewards"
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Text: Luke 18:13-14
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! With His triumphant resurrection from the dead, God has provided forgiveness and salvation for all who are brought to faith in the Redeemer. By God’s grace, may every heart be moved to pray, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.” By the Holy Spirit’s power, may we be comforted by the news that God’s mercy, through Jesus’ work, is ours. Dear Lord, grant Your mercy to us all. Amen.
Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a man. He was not a nice man; he was not a good man. In truth, he was a very nasty, vile, and cruel man. This not-so-nice man thought nothing of taking advantage of a competitor, a co-worker, a friend, and even his own family members, if the opportunity presented itself. He was the kind of man who considered it good sport if his demeaning words could bring his wife to tears. Indeed, he was so nasty his own children would have thought their father remade if his words delivered anything to them other than an attitude of derision, disdain, disregard, and disrespect.
You might be surprised to hear that one day, quite out of the blue, this nasty man decided to join one of the local, more prestigious churches in town. No, he hadn’t miraculously been convicted by his many transgressions nor had the Lord sent him a frightening vision of the eternal fires of hell. No, our nasty man had concluded that it would be an astute business move for him if he managed to meet some of the more wealthy pillars of the parish. “You just never know”, he said to himself, “when one of these upstanding and respected old souls just might send me some trade.”
The next week, it was with a rather smug and self-satisfied spirit that our nasty man approached the pastor and the leaders of the congregation. Being the deceitful kind of fellow that he was, he had no reservation or hesitation in telling them a pack of lies. He had no problem with mock sincerity, sharing how he had, from his earliest years, been a member of a church… that nothing was more precious or special to him. When he told them he had renounced the sins of his youth, he had no difficulty coming up with a comprehensive listing of transgressions. All he had to do was give them an inventory of the things he was presently doing. As far as the representatives of the church were concerned, they believed that the Lord had decided to send their congregation some sort of super Christian. Indeed, the pastor and parish were taken in and they welcomed the man with gladness and with great rejoicing.
Later that day, and with considerable pride, the man boasted to his wife how he had managed to hornswaggle and bamboozle the congregation’s elite. He was taken quite aback when his normally shy-and-shrinking-violet wife became outraged at what he had done and the manifold lies which he had told. She became a ferocious lioness as she berated him for what he had done and promised to take their children to church and provide evidence to any and all that he was not the man he had pretended to be. It was that threat, more than anything else, which saw the nasty man make a private appointment with the pastor and the congregation’s leaders. Forced into something which almost resembled honesty, the man confessed his lies. Shocked at what the man was telling them, and even more stunned and shaken that they had been so completely hoodwinked, the pastor and his leaders quickly conferred. When they returned, they told the man his name had been stricken from the congregation’s roles.
Rather than being upset by what he had just heard, as the nasty man walked to his car, he chuckled to himself. To his way of thinking, he had had the last laugh. That’s because it occurred to him that when he had lied to the church and told them he was a very, very good man, the congregation had welcomed him with eagerness and enthusiasm; but when he had confessed to being a gold-plated sinner, the church had kicked him out. The not-so-very-nice man stood in admiration and appreciation of a group of people whom he was sure were bigger hypocrites than himself.
Now, if the experts who follow religious trends in North America are correct in their fact-finding, there are a great many de-churched and no-longer-churched Lutheran Hour listeners who feel that story is far more fact than fiction. You have taken what you believe is a good look at the Christian church and you have found it wanting. Some of you can remember back to when your parents forced you to go to worship and made you, a young, restless child sit stone-like and still for a tedious, tiresome, dull, and dreadfully wearisome sermon. You went because your parents made you, and your parents went because, well, going to church was something a person did back then. You’re pretty sure your folks didn’t like church any more than you did, because you can’t recall anyone speaking positively about the sermon or the service as your family drove home after worship. On the contrary, most of the time, the conversation was highly critical about the sermon’s length and high level of dullness. And as far as the music was concerned…. “Well”, everybody wanted to know, “just when is pastor going to pick a song which sounds good and at least a few of us have heard before?” Does that describe how it was? I know far more than a few people who think of church that way. I have met a fair number of such folks who have made a resolution which said, “I’m not going to go to a church just because somebody expects me to.” With the exception of occasional weddings, baptisms, funerals, and Christmas, you’ve pretty much kept that resolution unbroken.
Sadly, that’s only one reason why people don’t go to church. There are others, many, many others. Is it possible that you are one of those folks who have occasionally thought about attending church, but thought a second time and decided against it? Why did you back out? Is it possible you read the newspapers and heard about the sexual sins of a pastor or a priest? Maybe on a summer’s night when the windows of your house were open, you heard the brutal and bloody fight taking place between the so-called Christian husband and wife who lived next door.
Or maybe you are one of those folks who managed to screw up your courage and actually got dressed up for church. If you are a man, your tie was uncomfortable; if you are a woman, those high heels can kill you. Even so, you know people get dressed up for church and you wanted to fit in. So, early on a Sunday you rolled out of your nice, warm, comfortable bed, you left undone all the chores you were going to do and you actually drove to church. You had to take a deep breath before you walked in those big, imposing doors, but you did it. Then, when you got inside, rather than having your sacrifice appreciated, people looked at you like you had the plague. You went through a service you didn’t understand. When they stood up, you stood up; when they sat down, you sat down. Only, you don’t know why. Some people sang some songs, but most didn’t, so you didn’t either. Nobody welcomed you; nobody went out of his way to find out anything about you. When you left, you thought, “This has been a grand experiment and now I know why I don’t go to church.”
So what is your reason? Some men think that church is women’s work. Some women think that church is for the purpose of discussing the outfits of their fellow worshippers and the deportment of their children. So what’s your reason? Is it because you believe these church folks think they’re too good for the likes of you? Do you think the church is preaching a bunch of stuff that comes out of a Book which is thousands of years old, a Book which doesn’t have much relevance for people who live in a different age with a different set of problems? What is your reason? Do you have better things to do? Are you put off by church squabbling? Maybe you think God is going to invite into heaven any person who tries hard. What’s your reason? Is it because…. Well, maybe I’ve gone far enough with this. If I haven’t mentioned your reason, please don’t be upset… there’s simply too many to mention them all.
Dear listener, do you realize that Jesus once told a story about a person who felt like you do? It’s true. Later generations have called it the story of the Pharisee and the Publican. No, not the republican, but publican. That second guy, the publican, he would have understood your objections to church. Let me tell you a little bit about him. The Jews had been conquered by Rome. Now Rome decided it would be best if they could hire some locals to raise the taxes which paid for their armies and their roads and their bureaucracy. Now you might think that it would be hard to find men willing to work for their country’s conquerors. Amazingly, it’s not hard at all. Now, you see, in every country there is a group of people who are looking to make a fast buck. Rome made it easy for tax collectors to do just that. You see Rome only asked their tax collectors, their publicans, to turn in a certain amount; Rome really didn’t care how much cash the tax collector raised nor were they all that concerned about morality and ethics. All Rome really wanted was their cash.
You won’t be shocked if I tell you these publicans, these tax collectors were not universally appreciated or applauded. Indeed, in court their testimony didn’t count and they were not allowed to hold an elected office. Most people thought of the publicans as you might think of a child molester, although in this case, the publican was molesting his own people. If anybody had a reason to stay away from the church, it had to be that tax collector. People would avoid him; they would walk around him; they would stare at him; they would talk in whispers about him. Stay away? Horses couldn’t drag me to the temple, especially if I knew one of those holier-than-thou-and-everybody-else Pharisees was going to be there.
Of course, some of those “Lord-it’s-hard-to-be-humble-when-you’re-perfect-in-every-way” guys were always around. You couldn’t miss them. These mega-righteous individuals always loved walking the red carpet and making a grand entrance. They made a production of their contributions which were always more than they had to offer; they made a production of their fasts, which were far more frequent than the law demanded; they even made a production of their prayers. In Jesus’ story, it says the Pharisee ‘prayed to himself.” In front of everybody and with a loud voice, He thanked God he wasn’t a big-time sinner like that publican and many others who surrounded him.
I don’t know if you got that. If not, let me repeat it: the good Pharisee gave thanks he wasn’t like the publican – the publican who had actually gone to church. Now I don’t know what it took for that man to go to the temple that day, but I’m sure it took a lot of courage… or a lot of faith. or maybe he just knew some things which all too often are forgotten nowadays. You see, the publican didn’t go to worship to see, or be seen, by others. He didn’t go to impress folks. He didn’t go to socialize. He didn’t go because it was a custom. It appears his sole motivation was to come to church so he could talk to the Lord. Jesus says the man stood in an inconspicuous place and he prayed. His prayer was a short one, a simple one. He said, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.” He didn’t try to impress anybody or bluff his way through with a listing of how good he was. He knew he wasn’t good and he was convicted by the knowledge that God knew it too.
“Lord be merciful to me a sinner.” Earlier in this message we invested considerable time talking about the reasons people give for not going to church. I’d like to suggest that if you took all of those arguments, those reasons, those excuses and put them on one side of a balance scale, and then you put the publican’s plea for forgiveness on the other side, there wouldn’t be any contest as to which would be weightier. “God be merciful to me a sinner.” That publican knew that he could not, not by his own reason or strength, ever earn forgiveness. That publican knew, as we should know, that if we are going to be forgiven of our sins, our transgressions, our disobedience and disloyalty to God, it will only happen by His grace and mercy.
To ask God for forgiveness, that’s one of the reasons, the real reasons people go to church. We know we are sinners. True, like your neighbors, we fight; like the headlines tell us, we often aren’t worthy to be called God’s people. Which is why we need to come to Him and beg, yes, beg His forgiveness. Lord, be merciful to me a sinner. That’s what Christians are saying at worship. But there’s more to worship than an admission of guilt. There is also an announcement of forgiveness. You see, God is merciful to sinners. Not because we’re so nice or good; not because we try to fool Him as did the Pharisee; not because we bribe Him with our offerings. God is merciful to us because of His Son. We go to church to hear how Jesus Christ was born into this world as a Human Being. Jesus was born True Man so He could live under the law; so He could be tempted by the devil and the world; so He could die the death our sins deserved. But Jesus was also True God. It was necessary for Him to be True God, for only God could fulfill those laws and live a life in perfect harmony to God’s will. He had to be true God so He could resist Satan’s temptations; He had to be true God so He could break the hold of the grave and conquer death for us.
All these things Jesus did. He lived a perfect life for us; He resisted temptation for us; He died our death for us. Then, on the 3rd day after His corpse had been placed into a borrowed tomb, He rose from the dead. That moment, the most important in all of human history, is God’s answer to the publican’s prayer. When the Holy Spirit calls any sinner to faith in the Savior, his heartfelt prayer for mercy is answered in the affirmative. Because of Jesus, God no longer sees the sinner in front of Him; He sees the forgiveness won by His Son. When we ask for the forgiveness which is already won, which is already ours, God assures us: the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all our sin. To hear those words is the other reason to go to church.
And of course, at this point, many of you are saying, “But I don’t have to go to church to do that. I don’t need organized religion to tell me I’m forgiven. If I’m a believer, I can be forgiven at my cottage or on the golf course; or in my fishing boat or behind the lawn mower. ‘Pastor, you know and I know it’s not necessary to go into a church building. Isn’t that right?'” Yes, you’re right. It’s not absolutely mandatory for you to go to church to be forgiven and saved. In fact the Bible tells of a man who, as far as I know, never made it to church. That special man was the thief on the cross who hung next to the Savior. To that man who couldn’t go to church, Jesus promised heaven by the end of that day.
No, you don’t have to go to church to be forgiven. Those who a part of God’s family of faith, live in an ongoing state of forgiveness. On the other hand, let me ask, “When you’re on the golf course, do you really pray, ‘Lord, be merciful to me a sinner?’, and do you hear of God’s comforting mercy? When you’re in your boat, or communing with nature, do you hear God’s personal assurance of peace? In those places do you offer some of your wealth to missions, so others may hear of God’s mercy in Jesus? Do you commune with your brothers and sisters; do you build them up when they’re down; do you support them in their grief and celebrate with them in their joys? And if you’re wondering, ‘Just who did that publican help by being in the temple that day? As far as I can see he didn’t interact with anybody.'” To your question I can only say, “You’re absolutely right. The publican may not have helped anybody that day… but his story has been told to hundreds of millions, including you.” His presence there that day has changed the lives of many who followed his example and prayed, “Lord be merciful to me a sinner.” He has been an example for twenty centuries of souls who needed to be reminded they need a Savior. Maybe, just maybe, you’re one of them.
Now we both know that what I’ve said today is not going to change the fact that we Christians can be disagreeable and argumentative; we can be hypocritical and we can get feisty about matters of little consequence. But we are also sinners asking for and receiving the Lord’s mercy in Jesus. And speaking as one sinner to another, we would like you to join us. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for October 24, 2010
Title: LUTHERAN HOUR TRIVIAAnnouncer: And we’re back in the studio once again with Pastor Ken Klaus. I’m Mark Eischer. Pastor, you recently came back from a trip to Germany. You had the opportunity to see the famous Passion Play in Oberammergau?
Klaus: Hi, Mark. We did. We had tickets for the last performance that’s going to be given there for the next ten years. It was quite the experience. Next year, we go to Israel, God willing. So, with some time off I’ve had, the question is, “What’s the question?”
Announcer: One I think you might like.
Klaus: Let’s hear it.
Announcer: A listener writes: “Dear Pastor Klaus, I have been listening to The Lutheran Hour for a few months now and I’ve got to know, why do you call this The Lutheran Hour when it’s only a 30-minute program?
Klaus: A bit of historical trivia, although this is probably not the deepest theological question we’ve had. The Lutheran Hour was originally planned to be an hour, but the cost for that much airtime on a national network was way more than we could afford. So, we revised the plan. “The Lutheran Hour” would now be a half-hour.
Announcer: So, it never was an actual hour.
Klaus: Yeah, it almost never got off the ground. “The Lutheran Hour” debuted on a Thursday evening way back in 1930. On the night of the first broadcast, network executives had second thoughts about running a 20-minute sermon right in the middle of prime time. They panicked. An hour before the broadcast was scheduled; they called and said the sermon needed to be cut in half, to about 10 minutes. Dr. Walter Maier, our first speaker, said, “I can’t do that. I can’t comply with this unwarranted restriction. I must refuse to broadcast!” They went back and forth for a while, the clock was ticking. It looked like the network was going to broadcast 30 minutes of dead silence! Finally, the network relented and Dr. Maier ended up trimming only three paragraphs from his sermon. Dr. Paul Maier describes all of this in the biography he wrote about his father, titled “A Man Spoke, a World Listened.”
Announcer: OK. Next question: Why do you call yourselves “The Lutheran Hour?” Doesn’t that kind of narrow the appeal a little bit… so you’re only preaching to Lutherans?
Klaus: You know, a few weeks ago we marked the 80th anniversary of The Lutheran Hour. I know nowadays it’s more politically correct to kind of do a generic name. You know, black label, white can. The truth is, we call it The Lutheran Hour because the messages you hear come from a Lutheran Theological point of view.
Announcer: And what might that mean?
Klaus: Oh, sort of summarize all of Lutheran Doctrine in three minutes?
Announcer: Well, give us the highlights.
Klaus: Well, this is a stone skipping across the pond. The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod and Lutheran Church-Canada, while they don’t financially support this broadcast, hold the doctrines to which this broadcast subscribes. We are supported by listeners such as the ones listening right now. We believe the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God. We believe the Lord Jesus Christ was true Man and true God. We believe He came into this world, fulfilled the prophecies of the Messiah, and as the Son of God, did the work which was necessary for us to be saved. We believe that He physically rose from the dead on the third day. We believe it’s impossible for anybody who is spiritually dead to do anything to save themselves. That’s why we are dependent on the Savior for everything… and dependent upon the Holy Spirit to call us to the Gospel, keep us in the faith. On this broadcast we believe in telling people how to be saved. In every broadcast for 80 years we’ve told people how to be saved. Repent of your sins, be brought to the Savior; be baptized, be saved.
Announcer: And, finally, on that idea of the name Lutheran, what did Martin Luther, himself, think about having a church named after him?
Klaus: Well, he never wanted it called that. He pushed for the name Evangelical, those who hold to and tell the good news. Truth is, the Augsburg Confession, which really defines what we believe, was not written by Luther. It was written by one of his fellow reformers. It was signed by princes and electors and leaders of various city states. Even though Luther’s influence and teaching is most certainly represented there, it would be a mistake to think that one day he was walking down the street and a light bulb went off over his head and he said, “I think I’m going to found a new church and I’ll name it as a monument to me.” It simply just didn’t happen that way.
Announcer: This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selection for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“I Love Your Kingdom, Lord” arr. Henry Gerike. Used by permission.
“Open Now Thy Gates of Beauty” arr. Timothy Moke. From Magnificent Christian Hymns, vol. 3 by Timothy Moke & Georg Masanz (© 2006 T. Moke Recordings)
“Prelude in D, BWV532” by J.S. Bach. From Richard Heschke at the Hradetzky in Red Bank by Richard Heschke (© 1993 Arkay Records)