Building On The Right Foundation.

What happens if you don't build properly? Here's a cartoon by Ed Stein I found in the December 12, 2008 issue of Rocky Mountain News that illustrates my point. Stein is illustrating the failures of the American auto industry and their desire to receive bailout money from Washington. In their case it seems they needed to rebuild and restructure their business practices in the light of the ever-changing world economy. Failing to do that, they faced collapse. Views on this issue abound.

Here's what Jesus says,

"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." - Mat 7:24-27 ESV

This is what the church has always taught. We must both hear and do the Word of our Lord Christ. Any individual, any church, any church body that fails to do that sets himself/herself up for failure. And the ultimate failure will come when the foundation is tested at the end of this age. In the verses just prior to those quoted, Jesus says,

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' - Mat 7:21-23 ESV

Who is a worker of lawlessness? And what is Jesus getting at? Just this. Everyone knows, in some sense, right from wrong. We come packaged that way. It is in our hearts. We know we are to love and worship God alone. We know we are to love and care for those around us.

But what is also in our hearts is the overwhelming desire to do it my way! and ignore our obligations to love and serve the Lord with all our heart, mind and will. Our natural focus is upon ME! That's called sin. When we hear God's Law revealed in Holy Scripture that sense of sin is deepened and sharpened even more. The primary purpose of God's Law is to reveal our hopeless condition. We are sinners and under judgment. There is no way out. It is at that point that Jesus comes to us to tell us that He has carried the full weight of our sin in His body on the cross.

"Give up on yourself!" He says. "I've already laid a new foundation for your life. Put your faith and your entire trust on Me! And then you will never need to be afraid and guilty again. From this point on, your life is built upon the Rock!"

This is why we are so very, very concerned about the correct teaching of God's Word. Anything taught, said or done that draws us away from that foundation must be rejected and denounced. This is why we will tell you not to commune at the Lord's Supper when we serve it in our public worship services. We insist that you hear us out first. We need to explain in detail why this central, vital, and overwhelmingly important teaching about Jesus Christ is critical. When you hear us out and agree, then we all know we are building together on the one and only foundation. Then we hold hands and kneel before our Lord and Master together. And we rejoice together as we hear Him say,

"Take and eat. Take and drink. This is My body and My Blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins. Go in peace and serve Me!" 

Signs Of The Visible Church

In a posting last week I pointed to the signs of Christ's power and presence as the LORD of the OT. Read the signs, study them and you will see, says John, that Immanuel (God with us) is indeed with us. So I pointed out that Jesus is present among His people whenever and wherever they gather to share His Word and minister Baptism and His Supper in His name. That is where you will find Him.

Turn it around then. Where is Christ's church, His body? Wherever Christ is present among His people, creating and nourishing faith in Him. And how does He do this? By means of His Word, either His Word spoken or His Word shared in the water of Baptism and the bread and wine of His Supper. He is present to do even greater things through these modern day signs than turn water into wine, heal a nobleman's servant or raise Lazarus from the dead. He brings healing to our souls, forgiveness for all our sins and a life that will never cease. Listen to Paul.

Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.- Rom. 6:3-7 NLT

No one other than the LORD Christ can do such great acts of power. In Baptism He and He alone is able to create this new life. In our baptism He declares that we were crucified, that we died and were buried with Him. He declares that God's judgment upon sin was satisfied on His cross. He declares that we share His new life. And since what He proclaims, what He speaks, always comes to pass, it happens. We are alive. Our old self no longer controls us. Christ lives in us. This is the ongoing miracle of Pentecost. Paul again:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. - Gal 2:20 ESV

 No power on earth can work such a miracle. No power of man can perform such a deed. And you and I who are in Christ, we who have Christ living in us, we who have received the outpouring of His Spirit—we know what this means. These then are the signs of Christ's church. Where the Gospel is proclaimed and the Sacraments are administered and shared there is Christ at work. And where Christ is at work, there is His church.

There are, of course, other signs by which you may detect the presence of Christ's body, the church on this earth. These would include prayer, the teaching of the Ten Commandments, the willingness of Christians to suffer, their clinging to eternal life even when threatened by death, their care for others regardless of who they are and so forth. But none of those signs carry the weight and importance of the proclaiming of the Gospel and the ministering of the Sacraments to God's children. Through these primary signs Christ and the Holy Spirit create, sustain and nourish faith in Him. This is why we Lutherans, for example, are so very concerned that everything taught in God's Word—and nothing other than God's word—continue to be taught.

But more on that next time.

The Church Is Invisible

Fifty days after the Passover Festival, Jewish believers in N.T. times celebrated their third great annual festival, the Feast of Weeks (Hag Shabu'ot), literally, the Feast of Seven-periods following the Passover. This feast began on the day after those seven full weeks, the fiftieth day, also called the Fifty Day (Hamishim Yom) Feast. The Greek word for this feast is Pentecost (fifty). It marked the early wheat harvest at about the sixth of Sivan, their month near the end of our own month of May. Later Jews celebrate God's giving of the Torah on this festival.

We Christians celebrated Pentecost this past Sunday as the day when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the assembled believers in Jerusalem. The Apostle Paul calls Christ the "first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor. 15:20), linking Him to the Passover and this Festival of Weeks. The first sheaf harvested in the spring belonged to the LORD as a token that all the harvest was His gift to His people. In turn, the resurrected Christ is the first sheaf, the guarantee that all God's people redeemed by Christ will also share in His resurrection. In that sense, the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost is a symbol of the coming resurrection.

Pentecost more specifically marks the birth of the Christian Church by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We believers argue back and forth about whose church is the true church. Lutherans like me point out that only God knows that. This is why we've often called the church invisible. By that we've never meant to say you can't find Christians anywhere, because they're not visible to the human eye. That would be silly. What we do mean, however, is that only God truly knows who has faith in Christ and in His sacrifice upon the cross. In that sense the church, the body of Christ, is known only to God and is invisible to us. We cannot see the church here on planet earth. It is hidden. It's what Paul refers to when he says,

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. - Col 3:1-4 ESV

On the other hand, believers are found wherever the Gospel, the good news of Christ, is proclaimed and taught. We have Christ's Word on that. The Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts by means of God's Word. That's one reason why we call the Scriptures and the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper the means of grace. So we can trust God to be creating His church wherever Christians gather to hear the Gospel and to celebrate the sacraments. Paul again,

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?" So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. - Rom 10:12-17 ESV

This is also why we may never dare to insist that only Lutherans or only Catholics or only Baptists are the church. But you can probably guess that I'm getting myself—and you—into deep trouble now, because many among each of these named groups like to claim that theirs alone is the true church. Let's look at this more carefully next time.