Say 'Amen'
Notes
Transcript
English Standard Version Chapter 6
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
English Standard Version Chapter 6
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Let’s try that again. I say, “Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father through Jesus Christ our Lord,” and you say, “Amen.”
Grace, mercy, and peace… …Amen.
Our text is from the first verse of our Gospel Reading, Matthew 6:24
English Standard Version Chapter 6
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Today I’m going to make a big deal about something really small. It’s something that really doesn’t bother me to any significant degree, but I’m going to focus on it in order to make a point. Ok? It’s not important at all, especially in the grand scheme of things. But today I want to put it under a magnifying glass, if you will, in order to get you thinking. Ok?
When did Lutherans stop saying ‘Amen’?
No, I’m not trying to turn us into a congregation where people are shouting “Amen!” right and left any time I make a good point. (Although I should probably allow for the possibility that you are that kind of congregation and I just have not made any good points....)
No, I’m talking about basic responses like the blessing at the beginning of each sermon. But it’s not just that one response. I’m talking about just about anywhere in the liturgy. If it’s not actually written down for you in a book, then it seems like we've stopped saying it. In fact, sometimes even when it is in the book we don’t say it.
Please turn in your hymnal to p. 192. What does it say after “Sermon”? There’s a note in red which says, “After the Sermon the pastor may say:”; then the pastor says “The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” And then what are you supposed to say? “Amen.”
Turn to p. 199. At the top of the page is the distribution of Holy Communion. You see the words that the elders and I say as we’re giving you the bread and wine: “Take and eat, the body of Christ… Take and drink, the blood of Christ.” And what does it say that you say? “Amen.”
Then I say, “And now this body and blood strengthen and preserve you steadfast in the one true faith to life everlasting.” And you say, “Amen.”
Except we’ve stopped. When did Lutherans stop saying ‘Amen’? I don’t know. But I do hope that we can bring it back.
Why do we say ‘Amen’?
This sermon is built around three questions. The first was “When did Lutherans stop saying ‘Amen’?” The second is: Why do we say ‘Amen’?
I told you I was making a big deal about something small in order to make a point. The point is what ‘Amen’ means. Why we say it at all. As you were taught in the catechism, “Amen, Amen means: yes, yes, it shall be so.” It’s an affirmation, a statement of agreement, or acceptance.
Amen, Amen means: yes, yes, it shall be so. It’s an affirmation, a statement of agreement, or acceptance.
Why are you invited to respond “Amen” to the blessing before the sermon? “Yes,” you are saying, “I trust that the Father has and will grant me grace, mercy, and peace through Jesus Christ my Lord.”
Can I get an Amen?
“Yes, the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep my heart and mind in Christ Jesus.”
Why are you invited to respond “Amen” to the words of the distribution? “Yes,” you’re saying, “it is the body of Christ, the blood of Christ, and that body and blood were given and shed for me.”
Amen?
And “Yes, that very body and blood will strengthen and preserve me steadfast in the one true faith to life everlasting.”
Amen?
Amen.
I assume that it isn’t because you doubt those statements.
All of that was really the introduction to this sermon. You may very well be wondering what saying ‘Amen’ has to do with Thanksgiving. Now we arrive at the heart of the matter.
The last question is: To whom do you say, ‘Amen’?
To answer that question, I’m going to allow you to correct the wording of our text. Our text says, “You cannot serve God and money.” But I suspect a number of you want to correct that. Amen? How should it read? “You cannot serve God and mammon.” That would actually be a better translation. In fact, it’s not really a translation. It’s the Greek work with the letters switched out for their English equivalents. The Greek word there in is: μαμωνᾷ. It is more than just money, it’s all earthly possessions.
The last question is: To whom do you say, ‘Amen’?
Now we arrive at the heart of the matter. You may very well be wondering what saying ‘Amen’ has to do with Thanksgiving. Out text says, “You cannot serve God and money.” But I suspect a number of you want to correct that. How should it read? “You cannot serve God and mammon.” That would actually be a better translation. In fact, it’s not really a translation. It’s the Greek work with the letters switched out for their English equivalents. The Greek word there in is: μαμωνᾷ. It is more than just money, it’s all earthly possessions.
Οὐδεὶς δύναται δυσὶ κυρίοις δουλεύειν· ἢ γὰρ τὸν ἕνα μισήσει καὶ τὸν ἕτερον ἀγαπήσει, ἢ ἑνὸς ἀνθέξεται καὶ τοῦ ἑτέρου καταφρονήσει. οὐ δύνασθε θεῷ δουλεύειν καὶ μαμωνᾷ.
That still doesn’t tell you what ‘Amen’ has to do with Thanksgiving, does it? Let’s go the final step. That word ‘mammon’ is related to the word Ἀμὴν. It’s not just earthly possessions, it’s the earthly stuff in which we place our trust. You cannot serve God and put your trust in possessions. That really is an important point today, isn’t it?
{point needs to be expanded upon}
It is good that we stop to express our thankfulness for all that we have. That is not necessarily the same as thanking God for all his blessings. A family gathering around the table, set with the good china, covered in turkey and stuffing and green bean casserole and pumpkin pie is not a sacrament. There will be countless atheists today gathered with family and friends today and expressing their thankfulness. Picture that family, going around the table and asking each person there what he or she is thankful for. If your trust, your confidence for this life is in your possessions, then gathering and expressing your thanks would come very naturally, wouldn’t it? If we, as a nation, worship our “stuff,” then thanksgiving fits very nicely into that.
You cannot serve God and put your trust in possessions.
It is good that we stop to express our thankfulness for all that we have. That is not the same as thanking God for all his blessings. A family gathering around the table, set with the good china, covered in turkey and stuffing and green bean casserole and pumpkin pie is not a sacrament. Picture that family, going around the table and asking each person there what he or she is thankful for. Doesn’t still apply to them: “…their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things”? If so, then as that verse says, “Their end is destruction....” Or , “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
Doesn’t apply to us even more today than it does other days: “…their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things”? If so, then as that verse says, “Their end is destruction....”
Or let me put it this way: what do we do on Thanksgiving Day with passages like , “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
Even our thankfulness is a shallow thing. A family gathering around the table, set with the good china, covered in turkey and stuffing and green bean casserole and pumpkin pie is not a sacrament.
It is good that we stop to show how thankful we are. But does our thankfulness lead us to serve God or does it reinforce our trust in mammon? Follow along with what Jesus is saying: “You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious....”
The true test of whether you are serving God or mammon is not whether you’re thankful when you have plenty, but whether or not you are anxious when you don’t have enough. Who are you trusting in— or, in other words, to whom do you say, “Amen”— God or mammon?
Perhaps instead of going around the room listing what we’re thankful for it would be more fitting— and more telling— to go around the room listing what you are anxious about.
Ἀμὴν
What makes you anxious? And, just as importantly, what cures your anxiety? (Now, let me say, specifically, that I’m NOT talking about clinical anxiety, I’m not talking about that mental illness. You don’t have any more control over that than you have over the symptoms of a cold.) In terms of normal, everyday, anxiety, what makes you anxious? And what calms your anxiety?
When the head gasket on your car goes bad and you need to come up with thousands of dollars more than you have at hand in order to replace the engine, where do you turn first? To double check the available credit on your credit cards? Or do you cry out to God in prayer, “Lord, teach me, through this, to trust that you are my Heavenly Father, the giver of all good gifts? To which one do you say “Amen”? Too often it’s not God that you and I look to in order to ease that anxiety. It’s mammon, the assurances that our earthly possessions can somehow see us through, to which you say, “Amen.”
To paraphrase our Lord: Why are you anxious, O you of little faith?
Even our thankfulness is a shallow thing. A family gathering around the table, set with the good china, covered in turkey and stuffing and green bean casserole and pumpkin pie is not a sacrament.
To paraphrase our Lord: Why are you anxious, O you of little faith? Consider the birds of the air, consider the lilies of the field, consider the grass.
{anxiety}
What is comforting about the birds of the lilies or the lilies or the grass? On it’s face it might even sound accusatory— “Why aren’t you more like the birds? They don’t sow or reap or gather, yet God feeds them! The Gentiles seek after clothing and food and drink. Why are you so anxious about them?”
Now, what, exactly, is comforting about the birds or the lilies or the grass? On it’s face it might even sound accusatory— “Why aren’t you more like the birds? They don’t sow or reap or gather, yet God feeds them! The Gentiles seek after clothing and food and drink. Why are you so anxious about them?”
English Standard Version Chapter 6
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
English Standard Version Chapter 6
28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
English Standard Version Chapter 6
30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
What is comforting about the birds of the lilies or the lilies or the grass? On it’s face it might even sound accusatory— “Why aren’t you more like the birds? They don’t sow or reap or gather, yet God feeds them! The Gentiles seek after clothing and food and drink. Why are you so anxious about them?”
What is so comforting about these words is the One who is speaking them. He, Himself, is the answer to the very questions that He’s putting to you here.
Take comfort in the birds. Are you not of more value than the birds of the air? Jesus asks later in Matthew’s Gospel, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?” Certainly you’re of more value than that. You are worth far more than the birds of the air and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. But there’s more to why this is so comforting. What is your true value?
But there’s more. What is your true value? It’s tough to put a value on a person’s life. The one place we see a specific value attached to it is in the Old Testament. Under the law of Moses, if you killed someone else’s slave, the price you had to pay them for the loss was far more than two pennies. It was 30 pieces of silver.
It’s tough to put a value on a person’s life. The one place we see a specific value attached to it is in the Old Testament. Under the law of Moses, if you killed someone else’s slave, the price you had to pay them for the loss was far more than two pennies. It was 30 pieces of silver.
It’s tough to put a value on a person’s life. The one place we see a specific value attached to it is in the Old Testament. Under the law of Moses, if you killed someone else’s slave, the price you had to pay them for the loss was far more than two pennies. It was 30 pieces of silver.
That’s right. Jesus is not, ultimately, comparing your worth to the worth of birds. The greatest measure of the value He puts upon you and your life is His own.
Are you not of more value than they? Yes! You are worth the life of the only-begotten Son of God.
Amen?
Take comfort in the lilies. Will God not clothe you much more beautifully than the grass of the field? He has clothed you with the spotless garment of the righteousness of Christ. He is the spotless, white robe in which the multitude standing before God’s throne is clothed. When John sees the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband, that’s you!
Talk about worrying about what to wear! Does anyone put more thought, more effort, I would even say more anxiety into what he or she will wear than a bride preparing for her wedding day? It’s not just the dress, it’s the hair, the makeup, everything! Everything that can physically be done to be as beautiful as possible on that day will be done, starting months ahead of time.
And when the New Testament wants to describe not just how Christ sees His church, but what He has actually done for her, it’s no accident that one of the images the apostles use is a bride. The Church is the bride of Christ, which He, our bridegroom, presents to Himself “in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, …holy and without blemish” (). She is— you are!— dressed so perfectly because He has “sanctif[ied you], having cleansed [you] by the washing of water with the word...” ().
Amen?
That is how God clothes you— far more gloriously than the lilies of the field. In fact, unlike that grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, on the Last Day, the trumpet will sound (), and even your perishable body will put on the imperishable and [your] mortal body will put on immortality and “then shall come to pass [for you] the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’” ().
And unlike that grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, on the Last Day, the trumpet will sound (), and even your perishable body will put on the imperishable and this mortal body will put on immortality and “then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’” ().
Amen?
Therefore do not be anxious. He has given you an inheritance in the Kingdom of God, He has prepared a place for you there, and, in baptism, He has clothed you with His own righteousness.
Therefore do not be anxious. He has given you an inheritance in the Kingdom of God, He has prepared a place for you there, and, in baptism, He has clothed you with His own righteousness.
If that weren’t enough, He has blessed you with a table full of food and with everything that will be listed around countless tables today and so much more. But whether He gives you plenty or hardship, ease or suffering, it will be the gracious gift of your Heavenly Father. He who did not spare His own Son, but gave him up for you, how will he not also graciously give you all things (Rom. 8:33)?
English Standard Version Chapter 3
19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
English Standard Version Chapter 2
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
English Standard Version Chapter 6
17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
It’s not a big deal. But if it’s possible to revive that a little bit today, I want to try to do it.
It is certainly good that people across our nation are gathering in thanksgiving. But it is good, right, and salutary that you should gather here at your Lord’s Table and receive the feast that He has prepared, in which He gives you a foretaste of the eternal feast. So that, as you— God’s people, whom He has sanctified and made holy by this meal— gather at your own tables and call on God to bless the food you are about to receive, that is a truly holy place and a holy meal from God, Himself— a most holy gift given through the hands of mothers, wives— to which you and I can do nothing better than to say, “Amen,” until the day that He stops giving you your daily bread— stops giving you what you need to sustain your life on this earth— and, instead, He gathers you into your eternal home to drink from the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, and to eat from the tree of life.
And anywhere that the people around the table are God’s people, whom He has sanctified and made holy, as you call on God to bless the food you are about to receive, that is a truly holy place and a holy meal— to which you and I can do nothing better than to say, “Amen,” until the day that He stops giving you your daily bread— stops giving you what you need to sustain your life on this earth— and, instead, He gathers you into your eternal home to drink from the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, and to eat from the tree of life.
So that, as you— God’s people, whom He has sanctified and made holy by this meal— gather at your own tables and call on God to bless the food you are about to receive, that is a truly holy place and a holy meal to which you and I can do nothing better than to say, “Amen,” until the day that He stops giving you your daily bread— stops giving you what you need to sustain your life on this earth— and, instead, He gathers you into your eternal home to drink from the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, and to eat from the tree of life.
Until that day, do not be anxious. Never cease saying that “Amen” to all that your Heavenly Father gives, starting with His Son.
