Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost I Am the LORD
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. In today’s Old Testament God gives us a little list of things we must not do—things we are each forbidden to do—to our neighbor. You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor. After speaking His list of things-you-are-forbidden-to-do-to-your-neighbor, God adds the Words, “I am the LORD.” Then God speaks a second list of things-you-are-forbidden-to-do-to-your-neighbor, as if the first list were not more than enough to send us all to hell. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. As He did before, God ends this second list in the same way He ended the first list. God says to us again, “I am the LORD.” Sometime today, read this entire chapter, Leviticus 19. When you do, you will see that God’s pattern of repeating the Words, “I am the LORD,” does not merely occur here in these few verses for today’s Old Testament. Leviticus 19 is a sermon on the Ten Commandments, which God spoke to Moses so that Moses could turn and speak it to you and to me. (As you heard in the opening words of today’s Old Testament, “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to all the congregation of the people…’”) Every so often during His sermon, God pauses and repeatedly adds the Words, “I am the LORD.” In this one chapter—Leviticus 19—the LORD your God repeats Himself no less than fifteen times. “I am the LORD,” He says “I am the LORD. I am the LORD.” Surely you can agree that, if our God should repeat Himself to us fifteen times in such a short space as one chapter, He must not want us to miss the point! He is the LORD. “I am the LORD” as Hammer and Nails This is a very good lesson for us Christians to hear. First, God teaches us in spades how we shall and shall not treat our fellow Christians. Yes, we have neighborly obligations to everyone has placed into our lives, Christian or not. Nevertheless, God narrows the topic for us in today’s Old Testament. Today He calls the neighbor “your brother” (v. 17) and “the son of your own people” (v. 18). These phrases emphasize that God wants us to regard our fellow Christians to be our neighbors first and foremost. · The person next to you in the pew is the one to whom you must show no partiality and toward whom you must not act unjustly. God forbid that you ever take one of these neighbors to court! The LORD has spoken, and He will not turn a blind eye toward those who ignore Him. · These are the ones concerning whom you must never speak an unkind word, and over whom you must seek no advantage. How would you dare you remain angry or keep a grudge toward your fellow Christians here—especially those with whom you live? God forbids it, and He is the LORD. · What gives you the right to raise your hand or to swing your foot in retaliation when one of these neighbors sins against you? God has given you responsibility for the love and care of that neighbor. He is the LORD and He leaves you no options. In the same way that you must pay your taxes or be punished, so also God in today’s Old Testament requires you to “love your neighbor as yourself” or be punished. He is the LORD. Today’s Old Testament is from Leviticus 19. The entire chapter is a sermon on the Ten Commandments, which God preaches in such a way as to give you no excuse. If you simply listen to the bare commandment from Exodus 20—“Honor your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12) or “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13) or “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15)—if you listen to the bare commandment, you might be able to fool yourself into thinking that you can do a fairly good job of keeping them. For example, you have never killed in cold blood. You have never perjured yourself in court. When you hear the bare wording of the Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter 20, some Christians might feel inclined to say, at least in a general way, “All these I have kept from my youth” (Luke 18:21). Leviticus 19 and today’s Old Testament make the commandments unavoidable. Here God brings the Ten Commandments home to roost upon your guilt and mine alike. Today’s Old Testament is just a taste of how God uses His Commandments to turn up the heat on all of us. When you go home today and read the rest of Leviticus 19, God will show you many more examples of how unavoidable His Ten Commandments really are. The repeated Words, “I am the LORD,” make it easier for us to smell the roast. The repeated Words, “I am the LORD,” are like a hammer and nail, emphasizing again and again that, when we sin against our neighbor, we likewise sin against the God who commanded us to care for our neighbor. “I am the LORD” as Safety Net and Assurance There is yet another reason why Leviticus 19 is such a good and blessed chapter for us Christians to hear. This chapter does more than apply the Ten Commandments in a clear and unavoidable way. In this Old Testament, God also allows us to think that some Words in His Bible are different than other Words in the same Bible—even those Words appear in the same chapter. Stated another way, in today’s Old Testament God demonstrates that He wants us to pay closer attention to some of His Words, even more than we do His other Words. Some of God’s Words might be more important; more all dynamic in what they do for us; perhaps even (dare I say it?) more powerful in what they accomplish for us when we hear them. What I mean is this: God does not repeatedly say such things as “do no injustice” and “you shall not bear a grudge.” These Words carry the stink of death, and it is enough for God to say them only once. By comparison, God repeats fifteen times the Words, “I am the LORD.” This repetition requires us to think that these Words, “I am the Lord,” might be more significant than all the other Words in this chapter! The Words, “I am the LORD,” do more than accuse you. These Words also give you God’s gifts of certainty, forgiveness, and life! · He is the LORD. He commands you to do no injustice because you have no need to do injustice; no need seek vengeance; no need to hold a grudge; and no need to pay others wrong-for-wrong. Your life is totally protected by God’s loving care. Your good gifts—be they many or few—your good gifts come from God alone. God is so gracious toward you and so mindful of you that there is nothing you need to squeeze out of your neighbor or peel from his back. God may provide for you through your neighbor, but that does not mean you may make gains for yourself by destroying your neighbor. Relax! There is plenty for everyone—including you! · Your God and LORD took up upon Himself your human flesh and He suffered all injustices for you on His cross. Jesus has made your life so eternally secure that you do not need to worry about getting anything from your neighbor, even if all things should be taken from you. Your God is the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and earth. He is the LORD. “He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:3-4). · He is the LORD. This means that you do not have to take matters into your own hands. Everything about your life? Jesus took it all into His own hands—your neighbor’s sin as well as yours—and everything in His hands got pierced through when His hands were nailed to the cross. · He is the LORD. Jesus has stretched Himself out, not only over your life—as though He were an umbrella or a shelter—but also under your life, as though He were a safety net and an unshakable foundation. Jesus will never fail to catch you when you fall. Jesus wraps you in the arms of His forgiveness and grace, puts you back up on your feet, and sends you off to love your neighbor again. · Or think of an adult who is teaching a small child to ride a bike. The child feels frightened and unsure of himself, so the adult keeps saying over and over again, “I am here. I’ve got you. I am here. I’ve got you.” That is what God is likewise doing for you here in today’s Old Testament. The Law He speaks to us here is harsh and unavoidable. In order to keep you from feeling afraid or overwhelmed; in order to assure you that He will tenderly guide and protect you; in order to give you confidence and trust, God treats you as though He were teaching you to ride a bike. He says to you again and again in today’s Old Testament—for your comfort, your assurance, and your peace—“I am the Lord.” These Words mean that you have nothing to fear. The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen. _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
