10 September 2017 St. Athanasius Lutheran
Church
Pentecost 14
Vienna, VA
“The Storm Shelter of
Forgiveness”
Text:
Ezekiel 33:7-9; Matthew 18:1-20
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God
our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Well, unless you’ve been
living under a rock or in a monastery without electricity, you’ve heard the
warnings. Two weeks ago Harvey was coming. This week it was Irma. These
storms have captured the attention and concern of the nation, have filled the
newscasts, and are the topic of many conversations. For those in Florida,
evacuations were ordered and all kinds of special precautions were taken ahead
of these storms. All to one end: to protect and preserve life.
But not just these past
couple of weeks. Warnings are issued all the time. If you live in the midwest, you get tornado warnings.
Here, in the summer time, we get severe thunderstorm warnings. We’ve had
blizzard warnings in the winter. The weather service and the authorities don’t
do these things just to scare us they do it so we will live. So
that we don’t lose our life when the loss could have been prevented.All
so that we will live and not die.
That’s what God wants,
too. Give them warning from me, God told the prophet Ezekiel. Give
them warning from me of their sin, of their iniquity. Not because God
and the prophets - or the Church today - just want people to obey and do what
they say and be good, but so we will live. So that we will
live and not die.
This week, satellites
have shown us amazing pictures of Irma and how big and threatening that storm
is. Without those pictures it would be hard for us to imagine the magnitude of
the storm and the havoc it could cause. Yet even with those pictures, some
people choose to ignore the warnings. Some because they think they have no
choice. Some because they don’t believe the warnings.
Some because they think they can beat it - they think they’re strong enough and
smart enough to ride out the storm. And sometimes those people do make it
through; but sometimes they don’t. Sometimes, sadly, they lose their lives.
Give them warning from me,
God says. From where we are, perhaps we don’t see the destructive power of sin.
But God does. From His throne on high He sees the magnitude of the problem and
the threat to our life. The day before a storm hits may be sunny and nice. And maybe your life too. But then one day the sin comes
lashing out from you against your neighbor or your neighbor against you. But
even if it doesn’t, the sin in you and in your heart is doing its destructive
work. Eating away at your faith toward God and eroding your love toward others.
So give them warning from me, God says. So they know. That even
if you can’t see it, the sin is already there; the danger is real. Give
them warning from me, God says. So they will live and not die.
Yet just as with the
weather, many don’t listen. Some don’t believe the warnings. Some think there’s more important things to worry about in life than
this. Some think they have no choice but to sin. Others may think the threat
exaggerated, or that they’re strong enough to overcome it. But unlike with the
weather, sin has a 100% success rate, a 100% casualty rate. 100% of the people
in this world die because of sin. Some sooner, some later.
Some younger, some older. Some
suddenly, some slowly. So give them warning from me, God
says. Of what I see. Of the danger they’re in. So that they live.
Warn them, Jesus would
later tell His disciples, that, in fact, the danger is so real that it’s
better, it’s preferable, to lose your hand, your foot, or your eye now
than to lose your life for eternity. It’s better, it’s
preferable, to have a great millstone fastened around
[your] neck and to be drowned
in the depth of the sea, than to cause one of God’s little
ones to sin. Clearly, if those things are better, preferable, then sin -
no matter how it seems to us, no matter how many other things seem more
important in our lives right now - is no small, harmless thing.
So give them
warning from me, God says. So they can receive my forgiveness, be
rescued from the danger, and have life.
You see, that’s what God
wants. And perhaps we could even say that all God wants. He wants
to keep you safe and protect you. He wants to forgive you and rescue you. He
wants to give you life and have you live with Him
forever. Everything that God does is for this. The
commandments? For this. The
apostles and prophets? For this. Church? For this. Discipline? For this. That your sin
be washed in His forgiveness and your death overcome
by His life. That you live.
That’s the kind of God
you have. He sends angels to guard and protect you. He leaves the ninety-nine
on the mountains and go in search of the one
who has gone astray. He even put the millstone of your
sin around the neck of His Son, who then gave His hands and feet and eyes and
His very life on the cross - in your place - so that you can live. For it is not the will of God that any should perish. That’s
the kind of God you have.
If you or someone that
you know doesn’t know that, or doesn’t think that’s true, or doubts that or
forgets that, or at times thinks of God in some other way - even long-time and
life-long Christians - that’s evidence of the power and danger of sin in your
heart and life. That gets you to think of God not as a life-giving Father, but
whose rules and commandments are taking your life away from you. That gets you
to think of God as unreasonable and demanding. Or, that gets you to think that
you have to do x, y, and z to earn God’s love and and
make you worthy of His forgiveness. That makes you think you have defend your
life against God rather than find your life in Him.
No. More than anything
else in the world, God wants to forgive you and give you His life. Everything
He does is for that. That forgiveness be a way of life
for you. Forgiveness received and forgiveness given. Forgiveness washed upon
you, spoken to you, and eaten by you. That you live and not
die. That you live not in fear of death, but that, as one of our hymns
puts it: Teach me to live that I may dread the grave as little as my bed
(LSB #883 v.3). To live
confident and secure no matter what comes in this world and life. To live confident
and secure that as a child of God, you are great in the kingdom of heaven. You
already are. You are great in your Father’s eyes. Or as it
says elsewhere in the Scriptures, the apple of His eye (cf. Deut 32:10; Psalm
17:8).
Do you think of yourself
that way? Do you think of others that way? If you did, how would that change
how you think of yourself and how you think of others? Would it change how you
live? Would it change how you treat others? I would say: how could it not?
So for this reason, God
made Ezekiel a watchman for the house of Israel. A watchman was
someone who would stand on top of the wall of a city and cry out when an enemy
was approaching, warning and sounding the alarm. But not only that - a watchman
would also announce the return of the army from battle, to call the city to
rejoice in a victory won. And so would Ezekiel do both, and be a watchman for
forgiveness. To warn Israel of their sin, but also teach them of and point them
to their forgiving God - their God who wins the victory for them and more than
anything in the world wants to give that victory - His forgiveness and life -
to them. Tell them that, Ezekiel! Warn them and joy them!
And in the same way has
God has made pastors watchmen for their congregations. Watchmen
for forgiveness. To warn against sin and point to our forgiving God -
our God who more than anything in the world wants to forgive you and give you life. Who wants to wash you and feed you and speak to
you and care for you. To announce His
cross of life for the world.
And so has God made you
watchmen, too - in your places. In your home, among
friends, wherever you are. Watchmen of forgiveness,
for our God who wants more than anything in the world to forgive all people and
give them His life. That might mean warning them of the enemy, the
life-stealing sin in our lives; but always to give them life-giving
forgiveness. To point to them to Jesus and give them Jesus.
To give them their Saviour. To give them His love. To give them the
joy of living as His children, the apple of His eye.
This is forgiveness as a
way of life. Not something that is in our lives sometimes and not
sometimes, but defines who we are, how we think, and how we live. That neither our problems nor our successes define us
or change us; that neither hurricanes and stormy weather nor fair weather
dictate how we live - but that we live always confident and secure in Christ.
In His love and forgiveness and life. That whatever
comes and goes - including hurricanes - we know He does not. He is the constant
in our lives and in an ever-changing world.
And so we live in Him and
His love. And then when help is needed, we help. When warning is needed, we
warn. When love is needed, we love. When prayer is needed, we pray. And when forgiveness
is needed, we forgive. That’s who you are. Confident.
Secure. In Christ.
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+)
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.