INJ

St Matthew 22:15-22
'God and Neighbor'
Divine Service
The Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity Sunday | October 12, 2008
Sermon Outline

Dear Saints,

1. Faith and Love

   1. The difference? Faith receives. Love gives.

      1. As Christians: Faith toward God and Love toward our Neighbor.

      2. By Faith we are righteous and holy, justified.

      3. These two don't compete against each other, but...

   2. The Pharisees would pit faith against love, God against the neighbor, the church against the state.

      1. This is what is behind their challenge to Jesus: taxes to Caesar.

         1. Give to Caesar what is his, and to God what is His.

         2. For Jesus (and us), it is not: Church or state, but church and state.

      2. This is the teaching of...

2. Vocation

   1. The Calling in which God has placed us to serve our neighbor.

   2. Each of us has a different set of vocations, a different place in life.

      1. Before God all are equal. All Christians stand as forgiven. There is no distinction between man or woman, slave or free, Jew or Greek.

      2. But the Lord has made distinctions among men.

         1. Not everyone can be a police man: no one to protect (or arrest)

         2. Airline pilot: no passengers.

         3. Judge: no one to stand there and accuse or defend.

      3. All of these distinctions are in the prayer from the Lord's prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

         1. What does it take to get a bit of bread?

            1. Flour. Farmer.

               1. Seed store, tractor factory, fuel from the gas station, all have workers and support behind them.

            2. Wheat: miller.

               1. Bags: from paper. Loggers trees pulp. Apparently some kind of bag factory.

               2. Bags of flour into truck which have to be built somewhere and driven by someone.

               3. Roads: Highway department. Police officers.

            3. Baker.

               1. Building to bake in: carpenter.

               2. Electricity for the oven: electric company, behind this coal miners or nuclear physicists.

            4. Grocery store: clerk.

               1. Pay for the bread: money: Treasury department, bank.

               2. Eat the bread: teeth: dentist.

               3. And all of this is nothing if it gets bombed to smithereens: Army to protect.

            5. Government to oversee this.

            6. When we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” we are praying that the Lord would uphold all these godly vocations and callings in life.

         2. These distinctions are all part of the Lord's fitting things together.

      4. Some distinctions are built in:

         1. LWML Sunday:

            1. It is only women who can be daughters.

            2. If the Lord wills: wives and mothers.

               1. This vocation: mother, is perhaps the most difficult vocation that the Lord gives.

                  1. In pain you shall bear children” was told to Eve in the garden, and this is speaking of more than labor pains, put of all the sorrows that come along with children.

                  2. But perhaps no other vocation is more rewarding as well, to care for children as they grow and learn.

         2. Men also have unique vocations: son, husband, father. It is the men who are sent to war to die in protecting the lives of women and children, and men who are sent to the pulpit.

      5. There's some more distinctions:

         1. Not everyone can be a solider, there would be none left to defend.

         2. Not all can be preachers, there would be no one to listen.

      6. Vocation: the Lord has put us in a place to serve our neighbors.

3. Vocation, then, answers the question “Who is my neighbor?” and “How do I love my neighbor?”

   1. Consider your station in life:

      1. Are you a spouse? Love and honor your husband or wife, be faithful to them.

      2. Are you a parent? Care for your children, bring them to church, feed them, protect them, teach them.

      3. Are you a child? Honor your father and your mother.

      4. Are you a teacher? Teach

      5. Are you a soldier? Blow things up. You see how it goes.

      6. All of this brings us, at last, to the vocation that Jesus speaks of in the text...

4. The Vocation of Citizen.

   1. When Jesus says, “Give unto Caesar's the things that are his...” He is putting us all unto subjection to the earthly rulers.

   2. Paul repeats this teaching:

      1. Romans 13:1-7 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. (2) Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. (3) For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, (4) for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. (5) Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. (6) For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. (7) Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

   3. This is the vocation that is on our mind as the elections approach. What is the proper way for a Christian to act, to live in society?

      1. This question might be a little more complex for us in America, because we are both citizens and rulers. We have both vocations at once.

         1. By our vote we elect and direct

         2. But we are also subject to the government

      2. So what are we to do? Answer: love your neighbor.

         1. Long sermon for a simple answer.

         2. When we vote we are not serving ourselves, but our neighbor.

         3. Especially the neighbors that cannot speak for themselves, the invalid, the children, babies in the womb, we serve all of these when we vote.

5. Faith and Love

   1. And, while we set out to serve our neighbors, we fail, our neighbors fail, our governments fail. But praise God we are set to love them, not trust them.

   2. We trust in God alone.

      1. So no matter what happens in the kingdom of this world,

         1. no matter who is elected

         2. no matter which way the dollar goes

         3. no matter what

         4. we are the Lord's. His children, and the glories of His kingdom, which is yet to come, are ours. Amen.
            

And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO

This is an archive from Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller

Please visit Hope's website at hopeaurora.org