Sunday, June 3, 2018

A Quick Study on Law and Gospel, Thesis 8, June 3, 2018

This quick study on Law and Gospel was given at the end of service at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on June 3, 2018. The text of the study is included and you may play the audio of the study here.


Thesis Eight begins: you are not rightly distinguishing Law and Gospel in the Word of God if you preach the Law to those who are already in terror on account of their sins or the Gospel to those who are living securely in their sins.  This is all about who you preach to and how.  Remember, preaching is more than just standing in a pulpit; it’s actually applying the Word of God to the lives of the hearers.
Imagine a mother and father grieving in the hospital because their precious baby girl died suddenly in their arms, not two hours after giving birth to her.  You don’t walk up to them and tell them, well, guess the kid’s in hell, you didn’t get her baptized.  Nor do you walk up and say, oh, I’m so sorry, well, when are you going to have another baby?  You see how insensitive those things would be?  It would be the same as a parishioner who comes into my office, or into your living room, and confesses to having an affair.  They hate themselves for it, they know it’s going to destroy their lives and so many others.  You don’t look at them and say, well, you knew it was wrong and you did it anyway.  Didn’t you think of little Timmy?  Didn’t you think of the effect it would have on the church?  You can’t be an usher now.  While these things all may be true, the right time to talk about them isn’t then, because all it does is to heap the Law upon their heads and make them swim in their despair even more than they already are.
In the same way, you can’t find out that your wife is having an affair with her swim coach, and look at her, and say, oh, honey, I forgive you.  Please, go and enjoy the water.  You can’t look at her and say, we’ve been married a long time, and I understand if you want to see Jorge more as a friend, so long as you come home to me.  You can’t look at a young couple who is living in sin and having adultery with one another, and think to yourself, well, I guess this is what marriage has come to today, they’re trying the cow’s milk before buying it; c’est la vie.  It’s ridiculous.  This is just to heap the Gospel on them, which then gives them the confidence to keep on doing what they’re doing; it takes away the fear of God and His most holy Law from them.  This is probably what we are most experienced at fudging on.  
We know we should be sensitive to those who are hurting, and so we know that we preach to them with kid gloves and bring them back in, so that, as they are repentant, they find easily the forgiveness of sins from God’s own mouth.  We are less good with those who are living in a way that violates God’s Law, makes a mockery of His Law, because we don’t want to offend them.
But, here’s the thing: God’s Word is offensive.  It’s a stumbling block to the Jews and it’s folly to the Greeks.  It’s offensive.  It tells us that we shall not commit abortion, murder, theft, homosexuality.  We shall not commit adultery, God hates divorce, parents should be able to manage their kids and get them in church.  And we don’t like hearing that, and we especially don’t like telling our loved ones that if they continue on in their sins they are making a mockery of God and He will not stand for it.
This is the thing: we should be so open and honest with our sins, that they can be so easily forgiven and then even restitution is easy because everyone is doing it.  If we can confess our anger or our greed or our lust, and we can be restored to the fellowship, and we get into such a pattern of that, then should a larger, more looming sin appear, we can deal with it easily.  This way, no one is left in their guilt and shame, no one is left wondering if God in Christ loves them, for we can preach the free forgiveness of sins to the repentant.  And to those who are too comfortable, we should then learn how to preach the fear of God that we might bring them back into the fellowship of the saints.

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