Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent
The Guilt Business?
If you should ever decide that you need to get a tattoo, seriously
consider having the opening words of today's Epistle written on your forearm
or on the back of your hand, so that you can see it every moment of every
day for the rest of your days: "There is. no condemnation for those who are
in Christ Jesus."
You probably do not want anyone to write on the walls and doors and
tabletops of that nice house you have. You should consider changing your
mind about that. You or your children would do well to write these words
throughout your house with permanent markers, so that it will be impossible
for anyone in your house to move from one room to another without seeing
these words: "There is. no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
You might not be able to remember what you had for lunch yesterday. (I
certainly cannot remember what I ate.) If you were to choose one single
thing to remember, forgetting all other memories entirely, you should choose
to keep the memory of these words that St. Paul speaks to you today. It is
more important for you to remember and never to forget these words than it
is for you to remember and never to forget your parents. It is more
important for your parents to remember and never to forget these words than
it is for them to remember and never to forget you: "There is. no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
These words from God will keep your sons and daughters alive when they feel
overwhelmed to the point of wishing they were no longer alive. These words
will keep your husband's head or your wife's head above water, so that he or
she shall not drown in the sea of everything. These words will nourish you
when you are starving. These words will orient you when you are lost. These
words will anchor you when you feel yourself adrift. These words will shine
for you-even as a small flame-when all else is darkness. These words SHALL
NOT BE EXTINGUISHED, no matter how powerfully the wind shall blow. Dear
Christians, say these words with me: "There is. no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus."
I recently became reacquainted with an old high school classmate
and fellow Boy Scout from twenty years ago. When I told him I am the pastor
of Grace Lutheran Church in Versailles, MO, my old friend responded, "So you
are in the Guilt Business."
The Guilt Business? Am I? Sometimes I wonder how much you really
need me to point out your guilt for you.
· Because God has placed me in this congregation to be your pastor, I
am divinely obligated to preach His condemning Law to you, to denounce your
sins, and to call you to the on-going repentance God gave to you in your
Baptism. We know that I must declare the Law and we know that "the Law
brings wrath" (Romans 4:15) and always accuses (Apology 4.38).
· Still, when I declare God's condemning Law to you, I constantly
have the feeling that I am NOT telling you anything you do not already know.
You are not dead, are you? Where have you been all week, if not swimming
around in the pool of everything that condemns you? Do you really need me to
show you how you fail, or didn't you already know it before you passed
through those doors this morning? I'll bet that is why you are here.
If my fellow pastors and I were truly in the Guilt Business, then God our
heavenly Father would have given us only one divine tool to use in caring
for you. If we pastors were in the Guilt Business, we would need only the
Law of the Ten Commandments for our work. We could forget entirely the
Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, the Lord's Prayer, Baptism, Absolution,
Preaching and Holy Communion. But God is surpassingly rich in His grace. He
sent me to you to announce to you and to convince and to persuade and to
promise and to guarantee and to assure and to induce you to believe that He
is surpassingly rich in His grace. God gives me only one tool for the lesser
purpose of proclaiming your guilt. But He provides me with tool after tool
after tool for the greater and more glorious purpose of assuring you that
"There is. no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
· What are the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, if not sermons such as
the sermon the angels proclaimed to the shepherds? The angels preached that
a Savior has been born to you. In a similar way, the creeds preach to you
and to all people that "for us men and for our salvation [God the Son] came
down from heaven. was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. and the
third day rose again." Stated another way, the creeds preach, "There is. no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
· What is the Lord's Prayer, other than our daily speaking of God's
Words into our own ears as well as God's ears? The things we ask in the Lord's
Prayer are those things that God has already given to us and loves
continually to give to us through His powerful Word. God's name is holy by
itself, but we pray that He would make it holy among us. God's kingdom comes
by itself, but we pray it would come and remain among us. God has forgiven
all our sins unconditionally by the power of His cross, but we pray "forgive
us our trespasses" so that we may believe in this forgiveness for ourselves
and also show this forgiveness to others. Stated another way, we ask God in
the Lord's Prayer continually to drum into our hearts and minds that "There
is. no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
· What of Baptism, my most favorite gift from God? Baptism is God's
miracle of placing you into Christ Jesus-inside Christ Jesus, within Christ
Jesus, on the interior of Christ Jesus-so that these words may truly become
yours forever: "There is. no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus."
· Absolution-that is, God's Word of forgiveness-is the main feature
of every worship service and every sermon. No man should ever be allowed
into a pulpit until he knows that preaching is nothing other than the
proclamation of God's forgiveness to you. No preacher should ever be allowed
to leave the pulpit until he has proclaimed it to you. Absolution and
preaching and all the best parts of worship boil down to these words of
Christ's forgiveness, which wipe away all your sins: "There is. no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
· "This is My body. this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured
out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matthew 26:26, 28). Translate
these words a little differently and what do you get? You get today's
Epistle: "There is. no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
Jesus comes to you in bread and in wine-I am talking about the presence of
the living Christ (Apology X.4)-and in His coming to you His bodily presence
fully cleanses you so that "There is. [[indeed] no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus."
So, Pastor Rottmann, you are in the Guilt Business! Think again, old friend!
If I were in the Guilt Business, my God would have placed many more tools in
my hands for the purpose of eliciting guilt from the people whom He has
given to me. Really, I have much better things to do with my time-and my
people are already pretty good at guilt and condemnation all by themselves.
It is far better to say that I am in the God-Has-Taken-Away-Your-Guilt
Business, because "There is. no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus." This is the reason I live: that I may deliver to you God's "no
condemnation" through the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, the Lord's Prayer,
Baptism, Absolution, Preaching and Holy Communion. These are the tools-the
many tools-God has given me for my task, and they stand always ready for
you.
These are the same tools your God has likewise given to you, so that you may
use them on those people whom God has entrusted to you. Love your wife and
honor your husband by constantly assuring that person, "There is. no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Keep your loved one's head
above the water, clinging to them and breathing into them the words, "There
is. no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Feed and clothe your
children with these words. Drag them through their teenage years with these
words. Prepare them for their adult responsibilities by promising them that
no matter what happens, "There is. no condemnation for those who are in
Christ Jesus." Maintain your relationships with your brothers and sisters,
your mother and father, by constantly repeating to those dear loved ones of
yours, "There is. no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
And live on these words for yourself, dear saints. Jesus has set
you free. Why would you wish to continue condemning yourself and how would
you dare to do it? Let God be called true and every other person a liar
(Romans 3:4) who speaks contrary to these words. These words are all that
matter for you, in this life and in the next: "There is. no condemnation for
those who are in Christ Jesus."
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