Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Notes
Transcript
The reproof of light
The reproof of light
Did you know that the entirety of the Nuremburg Trials are online for free- you can listen 775 hours of trial tape in it’s original language.
In his closing defense, Herman Goring the close personal friend of Hitler said this: “The Prosecution,...has treated the defendants and their testimony as completely worthless”
At his trial Goring was ministered to by an LCMS Chaplin- Henry Gerecke. Gerecke never communed Goring as Goring never repented… of anything. at all. ever.
Proverbs 9:8 reminds us:
Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.
St. Paul calls us all to this sobering realization:
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
At first glance, these two passages seem only loosely related until we look a little more closely.
The word for expose here is elengcho, it’s translated reprove, expose, convict, correct.
It’s also the word used in verse 8 of our proverb today when it was translated into Greek.
What we’re really talking about
What we’re really talking about
What we are really after in today’s conversation is not shame or guilt or discipline.
Today- we are after liberty. When we conceal our sins, our works hidden in the darkness, they are given control over us.
As I was writing this sermon Andrew Cuomo was resiging from office. Cuomo, it turns out, has 11 counts of misconduct revealed in an investigation. His response? “the facts are much different than what has been portrayed”
The tyranny of darkness:
The tyranny of darkness:
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
We all think we have the ability to live in control of our sins. But it is exactly the opposite.
I remember when I was flaring once with my auto immune disorder, I tried everything and I preferred to think that it was helping. Gluten free? “Yeah I think i’m getting better” Natalie would be like - youre not better.
No coffee? I think it’s working. Natalie - Matt now you’re cranky AND still sick.
We tell ourselves these justifying stories. It wasn’t until my doc looked at my labs and revealed just how sick I was that I got better. It wasn’t until I yielded my authority over myself that I was actually set free.
This is the act of confession:
The freedom of confession:
The freedom of confession:
This the Christian option. Confess. Bear it all. Admit that we’ve tried everything and nothing works and actually makes things worse.
Herein lies an interesting thing though. In all earthly cases our everything, including our sins, everything is waiting to be discovered.
In our proverb wisdom is portrayed as a woman who is inviting people to recover the mysteries of the world. She says:
“Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”
Wisdom beckons for us to leave our sins in the darkness of a side street and enter into the warmth of Christ. Wisdom calls to us, knowing already- what our sins are.
Before God, our sins are already known. So they are revealed as powerless and even transformed by God’s work of salvation. God refuses to lose you but instead use you as an instrument of glory. Thats how much He loves you and I. He knows our sins and loves us still!
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
I love that now old BBC documentary Planet Earth. They have a whole episode on caves. It’s wild because they descend into these just DARK pitch black, empty caverns. Then- they switch on a light and discover THOUSANDS of living creatures. In that same show, there is this GIANT pile of bat guano that provides a meal for all those creatures.
Paul says take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness. It’s crazy that our God is so KIND and generous that he takes our very worst things and can redemptively use them as a demonstration of life.
Think about it - the cross is a terrible story. A good man pinned to an instrument of death by His own people, at His own will, with the concurrence of His Father, who is God?
This was so terrible the sun was washed in darkness for hours.
Yet still, the resurrection of Christ - the light against the back wall of the tomb, demonstrates God’s power and ability to make the worst of us a tale of His ability to rule over the darkness.
Pastor Gerecke retired in Chester Illinois, just across the river from a little town in Missouri called Ste. Genevieve. There’s a rickety ferry that will take you across the Mississippi between the two towns. You pull up to the disheveled beach and honk your horn, flash your lights and this plank of iron and smoke will skim you over the mud for $20.
There’s a story that lives in the life of the church that Gerecke told at some point to people at Holy Cross Lutheran in Ste Genevieve, confirmed in other places as well. It goes like this:
In his ministering as a Chaplin during Nuremberg a few of the defendants came to repentance. They confessed their sins, and recieved Holy Communion. Upon sentencing, Gerecke walked with them to the gallows. Gerecke led them in a german prayer taught to him by his mother and then the men were hung to die.
The story of Christ is the story of God demonstrating His kindness to the very worst of us, even unto death. Friends, you are not your sins. The light of Christ has dawned upon us all and made us into His Holy people.
It is the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of Wisdom. At the end of the day, Jesus is all that any of us have as a defense.
Jesus says:
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
You are what you eat. You are Christ’s own. Amen.