Pentecost 15 Sermon: Preach You the Word

Preached on Hebrews 13:1-17
The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost — Proper 17C
28 August AD 2016

Title: Preach You the Word (MP3 Audio)

Summary: “Remember your (church) leaders” — that seems easy. Merely thinking about current and former pastors is no problem. We may remember a series of spiritual leaders or we might have had only one pastor so far in our lives. Some we might recall with fondness, others, less so.

Yet biblical remembering is more than just replaying memories. To remember is to occupy your entire being, body, mind, and soul in engaging the object of your memory. Therefore, when the epistle writer continues by saying, “Obey your leaders and submit to them,” he doesn’t mean blind, unquestioning obedience to their every utterance but rather carefully considering their proclamation of God’s commands and promises, then thinking acting upon these words.

A faithful congregation echoes God in speaking to its pastors: “Preach the Word.” And a faithful congregation likewise joyfully submits to what is proclaimed.

So when our leaders lay down the Law — the damning, destroying message of God’s wrath and judgment — we’d better pay attention. And when they speak the sweet consolation of the Gospel — Christ’s suffering and death for sinners bringing full forgiveness — well, if we don’t focus on this, then we’ve forgotten what it means to belong to Him.

Relationship between pastors and parishes are never perfect — all too often, they’re a fair distance from even being really good. However, just as Christ’s ministers bear with much among the flocks where He places them, so Christian congregations are encouraged to put up with and overlook those things that are mere matters of opinion and preference. This brings joy to pastors as they wash, teach, and feed the flocks entrusted to their care.

Text: Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.

So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.

For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. Hebrews 13:1-17

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of Preach You the Word.

NB: A few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio with Windows Media Player. If this occurs, you can either change to QuickTime or another default browser player, copy and paste the link directly into a selected player, or download it to your computer, where it seems to work regardless of which player. Several folks have suggested VLC Player from VideoLAN.

Other Readings: Psalm 131; Proverbs 25:2-10; Luke 14:1-14

Sermon: Judging God

Preached on Job 38:1-11
Proper 7B/Pentecost 4
21 June AD 2015

Title: Judging God (MP3 Audio)

Summary: Today I had the pleasure of preaching at Shepherd of the Hills, Fayette, Missouri for the 20th Anniversary of the ordination of Andrew Etzler. Andy asked me to preach on one of the day’s appointed readings rather than a passage outside the Lectionary. We ended up standing beside Job, hearing the Lord challenging our sinful, short-sighted desire to comprehend an incomprehensible God and to second-guess, to judge, our Maker.

God told Job to gird himself like someone preparing for battle — but this fight was short and one-sided. Job was completely out of the Lord’s league in terms of knowledge and power. So also are we. Even if He did go into more details in explaining Himself and His actions, it’s doubtful that we would be any more enlightened.

However, we already know all of God that’s important for us. We know Him through His Word — through the Law’s accusations and the Gospel’s restoration. We know His condemnation of our sins and of His full, free forgiveness through Jesus. We know that even if we cannot know His mind, He knows ours. Truly, He knew us before we were born — even before He began to frame Creation.

When God says, “Dress for action,” He also provides our raiment. In Baptism, He clothes us in righteousness, dressing us in proper attire for any and all circumstances. No matter our vocations nor our various uniforms of the day, we are clad in the blood-washed clothing of the saints and are equipped to live as His children and heirs of eternal life.

Text: Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

“Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements — surely you know!

“Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

“Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’? Job 38:1-11

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of Judging God

NB: A few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio with Windows Media Player. If this occurs, you can either change to QuickTime or another default browser player, copy and paste the link directly into a selected player, or download it to your computer, where it seems to work regardless of which player. Several folks have suggested VLC Player from VideoLAN.

Other Readings: Psalm 124; 2 Corinthians 6:1-13; Mark 4:35-41