Trinity 4 Sermon

Trinity 4 – Luke 6:36-42 – June 23^rd and 24^th, 2018

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

Who is God? What's He like? Seems like a fairly basic question – and kind of an important one. If someone were to ask you who your God was, what He was like, what sort of answer would you give? I think sometimes we're tempted to jump first and foremost to things like “powerful, almighty, omnipotent” or things like that. God is awesome and powerful... and while that's true, that doesn't tell us what He is like. Even saying that God is the Creator doesn't say much – I know plenty of people who are angry at the world, angry at the universe for how things have turned out. We might move on to saying that God is love – but that's still a bit abstract, at least in this present day and age where we really don't know what love is. Who is God, and what is He like?

Jesus tells us. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. That's who God is. You want to know who God is, what makes Him tick? He is merciful. He isn't defined primarily by His attributes, by being “Almighty”. God is merciful, and He uses His power, His might, His Wisdom all in order to show mercy to His creation that had and has rebelled against Him. And I think one of the things that is problematic about the Church today is that when we think to describe God, to proclaim God – we don't think first and foremost of “merciful.” And because of that, we miss the point. We might say things that are accurate, facts that are factual, but we miss the point. Listen to Jesus in our text, how He centers everything on God's mercy.

Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over will be put into your lap, for with the measure you use it will be measured back to you. What kind of God do you have? Because really, how you view, how you think of God is going to shape the way that you view everything in life, the way you think about all the people in your life. And here's the thing: if you think of God as a judgy sort, a nit-picky sort of God whose primary way of looking at you in a sort of harsh looking over, checking for all the flaws... well, that's probably how you're going to view all the people in your life. And that's how you'll worry that they will look at you, and your life will be run and organized on the basis of being all judgy, and you'll even think you're impressing God so He'd judge you less. Except it's all a lie, it's messed up, and it is miserable.

Or maybe you go beyond just judging and griping and nitpicking – maybe you are out to condemn. Oh, the blame game, so many people's favorite today – find the right people to blame, to be angry about. The thing is, the finger pointing keeps going, the condemnations get thrown around more harshly and harshly and the circle of “good” people gets smaller and smaller and you worry more and more when your “friends” are going to condemn you and write you off... and that too is all a lie, all messed up, and all miserable.

In opposition to what our flesh wants, what our world craves – God is merciful. His primary focus, His plan, His desire is to forgive. To give good things. To be merciful. God actually wants to forgive you. That's the whole point of Jesus; God becomes man and goes to the cross and dies Himself so as to save your bacon, so as to be merciful to you. And God's not sitting up in Heaven looking for nitpicking reasons to condemn you; He knew you couldn't save yourself so Jesus Christ did it for you... and your Father is glad of that. He is glad and eager and willing to forgive because He is merciful. And His mercy is full, rich, and grand. He's not miserly with His mercy, waging a finger and saying, “You better not need any more forgiveness bub” - no, His forgiveness is full, thick, shaken down, pressed down, overflowing. That is who your merciful God is; the One rich and abounding in actual love and true mercy – forgiveness and life won by Christ Jesus for you.

But if you don't see this mercy, if you want to run things by judgment or condemnation, if you want God to be the big boss man so you can boss other people around, well, you'll be of no use to anyone. Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? If you forget who God is, if you forget His mercy, you'll never lead anyone to God. You've never give anyone the love and mercy of Christ – instead you'll just drag them into some judgy, condemny, bitter grousy pit. You'll just end up playing all the same old sinful games the old Adam loves to play. And that will not only harm them, but it will harm you as well. You both will fall into a pit. When you grouse and complain about your neighbor, it doesn't fix anything – it just makes both your lives worse.

This is why in the church we are continually focused upon God's mercy. This is why that word “mercy” show up at least 10 times in today's service. This is why we are focused week in and week out on forgiveness. Because we need to have our eyes placed upon the forgiveness won for us by Christ, the mercy He shows – otherwise we'll stop. We'll abandon forgiveness. The Lord's Prayer is right – we forgive others only because He has forgiven us, and when we no longer want to forgive others we'll flee and run away from God's forgiveness for us! By your God is merciful, and He loves to forgive, and that's what He does to you. He forgives you and teaches you to forgive. “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” The purpose and point is that we who are forgiven much learn to forgive our neighbor much. That we learn to remember that God is merciful, and so we show that same mercy we have received to our neighbor.

Consider the final illustration from our lesson. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, “Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,” when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye. Why do we see our brother's speck – because by nature we are “hypocrites” - we are people who live “under-judgment” - that's what the word hypocrite means, that crit part means “judge” - like critic or critical. And our sinful flesh has a reflexive, self-defensive move... to make sure no one notices our flaws, we shout about everyone's elses. We get on their case instead of cleaning up our own mess. And when we act that way, we aren't really acting for our neighbor's good but rather to give ourselves a false sense of superiority. And Jesus calls us away from that. No, our first job is to tend to our own log – to see our own sins and faults as serious sins, serious faults. And we are to see that they are forgiven, that we receive forgiveness again and again for them, that we strive against them – and only when that is the case, only when we live in forgiveness will we start to see our neighbor rightly. We will see their flaws, their weaknesses, their faults – not to elevate ourselves above them, but to show them mercy. To give them the same care that God has given us. To speak the same comfort to them that God has give us. To be patient with them as God has surely been patient with us. We will use the strength that God has given us not to crush and destroy, but be to merciful.

And that's it. That's the lesson. Simple and sweet as that. God is merciful. And there's a part of us that thinks this is too easy... that surely we have to DO something more – we have to work it out and butter up God. There's a part of us that is annoyed with this, because it lets the other guy off the hook too easy – that they ought to suffer for what they've done, that they ought to jump through hoops to make things up to us. And all that is is our sinful flesh rearing its ugly head, fighting against God's mercy – God's mercy to us and God's mercy to our neighbor. But here's the thing – your flesh doesn't get to change God. He is merciful, whether or not you want Him to be, and if your sinful flesh throws a tantrum, that's not going to change God one bit. Instead, what He does out of His love and mercy for you is He crushes your sinful flesh, pulls that log away. In His mercy He takes away your heart of stone and gives you a true heart. He drowns your Old Adam in the waters of Baptism and calls forth a new man to live forth in mercy and love and righteousness. This is what God is doing to you and for you and in you and through you by the power of His Word. And sometimes we miss it, we forget this, we love our logs and try to blind ourselves. But God remains who He is – not merely the Almighty, but your merciful and loving Father, and He continues to show you mercy. Hence, we always say “Lord Have Mercy” even until that day when we rise to new and perfect life in full, in His presence forever. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit + Amen.