Rev. Dustin ParkerLiving Forgiven in Christ
(this sermon delivered to our regular monthly pastor gathering)
Living Forgiven in Christ
Luke 24:44-53
May the grace, God’s loving gift of mercy and peace, given to you in Christ, and sustaining you as the Spirit dwells within you, become more and more the focus of your life and ministry.
In our gospel reading today, we hear of two debtors, one who owes two years salary, one who owed just a couple of months pay. I have to ask you – what kind of sin do you think could be represented by the two years pay?
Adultery?
Sex outside of marriage resulting in pregancy?
How about Rape?
This last week, I’ve had to deal with people who have been accused of all three of these sins, and in two cases, been told I really shouldn’t have anything to do with the people involved.
What kind of sins would be represented by the 50 denarii debt?
Political Advertisers?
The people spewing must read briefings for the Synodical Convention?
The elder telling his wife she doesn’t look fat in that dress? The older lady who tells the pastor that his sermon was great – even though she fell asleep?
The pastor in our midst who was too busy to pray this morning, because he was helping someone?
The funny thing is – we love to isolate sins, to value this one or that. Simon did – he easily answered that the lady would love Jesus more, while he loved Jesus little.
We know this – most of us who’ve been around in ministry realize it is better to just come clean with our sin – to not hide it, but as the psalm says,
“3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah 5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah 6 Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.
Psalms 32:3-6 (ESV)
One of my deacons is helping out another congregation of 20 people, which is vacant right now. As we work together on the sermon for this week, the question was asked – how do we help people realize the depth of their depravity, the power of sin that they have been freed from in Christ. He knows well the need of these people to know God’s grace, yet there is a…gap in their realization of what they have been given.
We used on of my illustrations, and Mark realized that if he lives to be 75, he will have committed in excess of 7 million sins. He is no small debtor, neither am I. Neither is any other pastor in the Missouri Synod.
So how do we get people to live, knowing they are forgiven, that enormous weight has been swept away, as far as the east is from the west?
We point them, from the word to Christ. We hear absolution for ourselves having confessed our sin to one another. We realize the promises of our baptism, and that the bread and wine we will share together as we fellowship at His table, is His Body and Blood, given for us. When we realize that we are the lady, broken by sin, pouring out our grief and shame on Him, then from the richness of that moment, we know God’s peace.
It is far better to be like the whore, or the adulterer, or even the young man accused of rape, who realizes that in their brokenness they are touched by Christ’s mercy and love.
Let us then, broken by our own sin, realize that we just don’t touch the feet of Christ, we are united in our baptism completely – we are clothed with Him, and we are cleansed. Knowing that we are healed, in love let us live as we gather at His table. And as our congregations this week gather with us, may they too know that they peacfully Live Forgiven… in Christ.
Amen?
Living Forgiven in Christ
Luke 24:44-53
May the grace, God’s loving gift of mercy and peace, given to you in Christ, and sustaining you as the Spirit dwells within you, become more and more the focus of your life and ministry.
In our gospel reading today, we hear of two debtors, one who owes two years salary, one who owed just a couple of months pay. I have to ask you – what kind of sin do you think could be represented by the two years pay?
Adultery?
Sex outside of marriage resulting in pregancy?
How about Rape?
This last week, I’ve had to deal with people who have been accused of all three of these sins, and in two cases, been told I really shouldn’t have anything to do with the people involved.
What kind of sins would be represented by the 50 denarii debt?
Political Advertisers?
The people spewing must read briefings for the Synodical Convention?
The elder telling his wife she doesn’t look fat in that dress? The older lady who tells the pastor that his sermon was great – even though she fell asleep?
The pastor in our midst who was too busy to pray this morning, because he was helping someone?
The funny thing is – we love to isolate sins, to value this one or that. Simon did – he easily answered that the lady would love Jesus more, while he loved Jesus little.
We know this – most of us who’ve been around in ministry realize it is better to just come clean with our sin – to not hide it, but as the psalm says,
“3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah 5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah 6 Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.
Psalms 32:3-6 (ESV)
One of my deacons is helping out another congregation of 20 people, which is vacant right now. As we work together on the sermon for this week, the question was asked – how do we help people realize the depth of their depravity, the power of sin that they have been freed from in Christ. He knows well the need of these people to know God’s grace, yet there is a…gap in their realization of what they have been given.
We used on of my illustrations, and Mark realized that if he lives to be 75, he will have committed in excess of 7 million sins. He is no small debtor, neither am I. Neither is any other pastor in the Missouri Synod.
So how do we get people to live, knowing they are forgiven, that enormous weight has been swept away, as far as the east is from the west?
We point them, from the word to Christ. We hear absolution for ourselves having confessed our sin to one another. We realize the promises of our baptism, and that the bread and wine we will share together as we fellowship at His table, is His Body and Blood, given for us. When we realize that we are the lady, broken by sin, pouring out our grief and shame on Him, then from the richness of that moment, we know God’s peace.
It is far better to be like the whore, or the adulterer, or even the young man accused of rape, who realizes that in their brokenness they are touched by Christ’s mercy and love.
Let us then, broken by our own sin, realize that we just don’t touch the feet of Christ, we are united in our baptism completely – we are clothed with Him, and we are cleansed. Knowing that we are healed, in love let us live as we gather at His table. And as our congregations this week gather with us, may they too know that they peacfully Live Forgiven… in Christ.
Amen?
