First Reading: Genesis 18:17-33
17The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” 20Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, 21I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.” 22So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. 23Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” 26And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” 27Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. 28Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” 29Again he spoke to him and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” 30Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” 31He said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” 32Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” 33And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.
Psalm 138
1I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I will sing your praise. 2I will bow down toward your holy temple and praise your Name, because of your love and faithfulness; 3For you have glorified your name and your word above all things. 4When I called, you answered me; you increased my strength within me. 5All the kings of the earth will praise you, O Lord, when they have heard the words of your mouth. 6They will sing of the ways of the Lord, that great is the glory of the Lord. 7Though the Lord be high, he cares for the lowly; he perceives the haughty from afar. 8Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you keep me safe; you stretch forth your hand against the fury of my enemies; your right hand shall save me. 9The Lord will make good his purpose for me; O Lord, your love endures forever; do not abandon the works of your hands.
Second Reading: Colossians 2:6-19
6Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 8See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. 16Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
Gospel: Luke 11:1-13
1Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2And he said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3Give us each day our daily bread, 4and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.” 5And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? 8I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. 9And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Claiming Our New Life in Christ
I read a story recently about a man who decided that he wanted to live a good life, so he set his mind on developing healthy habits. He read every book he could find that laid out a plan for a long and productive life. He never smoked, drank, and was careful about what and how much he ate. His diet consisted mainly of fresh fruit and vegetables, and he stayed away from anything with preservatives in it. He exercised every day and got eight hours of sleep each night. He lived in the country and avoided going into the city with its smog and high incidence of crime and disease. He visited his doctor regularly and he was determined to live to be 100 years old.
The story concluded with his obituary; he was only 53. The obituary said that he is survived by eighteen specialists, four health institutions, six gymnasiums, and numerous manufacturers of health foods and vitamins. Sadly, there are things in this life that we simply cannot control. It would be nice to have a simple plan that would ensure a long and happy earthly life. But the truth is, we can follow all the rules and still come up short. No one has all the answers. Yet we keep looking for them.
Just check out the shelves of the local bookstore and you’ll find best-selling books by modern day gurus telling us how to please God, and how to live long, and prosperous lives. We tend to think that this desire to live forever is a modern phenomenon, but things haven’t changed over the centuries. Books, TV shows, and movies are filled with quests for immortality, or with immortal beings. Again, this is nothing new. The search for the “Fountain of Youth” has been a myth that dates back centuries, recall if you will that Ponce de León, in the 16th century came here to the New World in search for eternal life.
Even in St. Paul’s day, there were people who made their mark in the community by selling people on the idea that if you did certain things, you could earn God’s favor and live prosperous lives. In our Epistle text for today, Paul addresses this situation head on. He calls these spiritual profiteers false teachers, and tells the Colossians that what they were hearing was hollow and deceptive philosophy. These ideas were based on human tradition and followed the principles of this world. He then goes on to encourage them to compare what they were hearing to the truth that they received when they became one in Christ.
The church in Colossus was being told that if they followed a strict set of rules and regulations, namely the Jewish Laws and rules, they could be assured of being accepted by God as pure and holy. The Colossian Christians were being told that their future salvation depended solely on what they did and how they lived their lives. These false teachers went so far as to say that the only way one could be saved was by a strict adherence to the law. Today we call this works righteousness or works salvation. Now we must be careful, it’s easy for us to look at the situation from our vantage point and wonder how the Colossian Christians could forget the fact that in Christ their sins had been forgiven and that they were a new creation. But think about it for a minute.
There have always been rules set down to serve as boundaries for all of our human interaction. Rules govern how we behave at work, at school, in our homes, and even at church. The rules allow us to live together in an orderly society. If you want to take it a step farther, just look at the Old Testament and you’ll find a myriad of laws (rules) that regulated every aspect of life for the Israelites. These laws regulated relationships between husbands and wives, merchants and consumers, masters and slaves, and everything else. It only took two months from the start of the Exodus for God to begin laying down the foundational rules for how the Israelites were to live to distinguish themselves as God’s Chosen People. These foundational rules we know as the Ten Commandments.
God gave these commands and statutes to the people not only for them to know what God expected of them, but for how they were to worship Him and live in an orderly society. It wasn’t about earning God’s favor; they had already done that. It was about love of God and love of neighbor and how to go about that. According to Luther, the law has two functions, to restrain sinful behavior, and to drive us to the gospel. I heard a cute story about one pastor who told his congregation that there were 700 different sins listed in the Bible. That afternoon he received three dozen requests for the list. Everybody wanted to know what they were missing out on!
St. Paul tries to turn this whole thing around and calls the people to forget the notion of living by a set of rules to earn God’s favor, and to simply begin living in relationship to Christ. Paul tells them that rules have no ability to change the heart, but a life lived for Christ will soon turn around and reflect His glory. Paul uses several images to make his point. He begins with being “rooted in Christ.” In other words, we are to be like a tree that puts down deep roots in order to find water, nutrition, and stability.
Jeremiah 17:7-8 comes to mind where the prophet says, “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.” When our life is deeply rooted in Christ, we will have all the resources we need to find joy in life and remain confident even when difficulties come our way. Paul’s next illustration is one of a solid foundation.
Paul continues with the image of building on the foundation we have received in Christ. With this construction image, Paul lifts up the idea that with Christ as the cornerstone, the life we’re building rests on the surest of foundation. In Jesus, everything is held together in a way that nothing else can. Even today, a lot of people still throw around the saying “What would Jesus do?” This might seem like a trite statement, but when we look to Jesus and build our lives on His words and actions, we begin to find joy in everything we do. Next Paul continues by saying we must be students of God’s word.
I think the reason that so many people in Paul’s day, and in our own, get confused about the Christian life is that they’ve stopped studying God’s Word. If you don’t know what the Bible says about God, and of what He expects of His people, then you can be easily misled. We need to be in worship, prayer, and Bible study, discussing and praying over the scriptures. When we’re rooted in Christ, then study will be second nature.
Think about an important person in your life, a mentor. Didn’t you made it a point to learn all you could about them? Didn’t you want to spend time with them, listening to what they had to say? It’s natural to want to be with someone you respect and to know all about them. The same is true with Jesus. Paul reminds us that if we want to find out what pleases God, then we need to be sitting at His feet learning.
St. Paul has often been accused of being blunt when he addresses his audience. It’s something you’ll hear me say on occasion. He, at times, makes statements that seem a bit presumptuous. But there’s a reason. Paul believes that when you live your life in Christ, your life will reflect that. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 St. Paul wrote, “if anyone is in Christ, there is new creation….” When we truly live out our Baptism, Paul firmly believes that a transformation is in progress, and we no longer need to look to the old ways to know what we’re called to do. We call this sanctification, and living a life of sanctification is pleasing to God.
When we live out our Baptism daily, living a life that is pleasing to God, we are a new creature. The old Adam is continually drowned. Our goal is to love God and love others, so there’s no need for a huge list of old laws to tell us how to please God. Our sins have been forgiven. Our hearts have been filled with Christ. We have been given a new life and the promise of a home in eternity. So our desire is to live a life that pleases God simply out of our gratitude and a desire to please Him. We can live a good life simply because we want to follow Jesus.
The story has been shared for many years about a woman who was married to a tyrant of a husband. She could never please him no matter how hard she tried. He didn’t like the way she kept the house. He didn’t like the way she did the laundry. He didn’t like the way she ironed his clothes. He didn’t like the way she dressed. He didn’t like the way she conducted herself in public. He constantly criticized her for everything.
Early in their marriage, he handed her a list of 25 rules for her to follow. She hated it and she despised him for it. You can imagine how frustrating it was for her to have to constantly check her list to see if she was following all the rules just to stay out of trouble. Sadly, she usually failed miserably — and each time, she got a tongue lashing from him — he made her feel miserable and small. One day, the abusive husband died. Soon, she fell in love with and married a wonderful, loving man. They loved each other very much and she practically broke her neck to please him.
She wanted to do everything for him. She even brought him breakfast in bed. One day as she was busy cleaning up, she ran across that old list and the feelings of anger and inferiority returned. As she looked at the list, something happened within her and she began to laugh! She realized that she was now doing all of these things for her new husband and many more. And she did these tasks with great joy because she loved this man. Love makes all the difference in the way we live and serve. This is what Paul is trying to tell the Colossians. They are free from the law now. When we truly love God and love our neighbors, we have no need for a list of rules. In Christ and because of Christ we have been released from our sins, and we can now live life to the fullest. In Christ, we live our lives to the glory of God.
In closing I want to share one more story about a man named Jeff. He was an Atlantic fisherman living on the coast of Rhode Island. He was a tough guy. He had to be to be to survive the severe weather and the cruelty of the sea. The job demanded long hours and cramped quarters. He was often away from home for weeks at a time. He never married and wasn’t much for relationships. One Sunday, something prompted him to attend the local church.
All heads turned when he walked in the door. He was quite a sight with his rugged skin and long hair. He had on a plaid shirt, a pair of jeans, and workman’s boots. He looked totally out of his element. As the service began, he fumbled with the hymn book and tried to read along with the scripture. When the preacher began to speak, he appeared to be distracted and didn’t look at him once. If you looked at the fisherman you might have thought he wasn’t paying attention. The sermon that day was on God’s unmerited grace and that by simply confessing one’s sin, and believing that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, we are set free from the bondages of sin. No one would have guessed that when the service was over, that this big man, with tears in his eyes, would tell the pastor, as he was leaving, that he gave his life to Christ. The next week the fisherman was back again.
This time he was clean shaven and dressed in his Sunday best. When the preacher commented about his appearance the man simply said, “Jesus changed me on the inside, and I want people to know it. So, I changed the outside.” Are we allowing Jesus to change us on the inside? We cannot earn God’s favor or forgiveness by living by a set of rules. God’s grace is a free gift received in faith. We are free from the law, so we need to forget about trying to follow rules and regulations to earn God’s mercy. As Baptized Children of God, we can simply let His love flow through us so that the world can see it and give glory to God.
Amen.