The sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, 2024.
Delivered by Rev. Tab Ottmers.
Immanuel LCMS Fairview Podcast
Sermon - Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost - August 25, 2024
The text for our sermon this morning is the gospel reading from Mark 7 and in particular Jesus saying this You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men God's grace mercy and peace beyond to you from God our Father from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Amen today. We are taught and consider indeed that it is impossible to live life without traditions We all have traditions. That's just life repeated actions that you do day after day Traditions are not necessarily bad But in keeping with scripture and being taught we even remember St. Paul's words that says I discipline my flesh So that I may not be disqualified in running my race We as Christians know we are saved by grace by grace alone through Christ alone But we also know we have that sinful flesh in us that wants to rebel that wants to live according to the traditions of man And that tradition you and I all have in common is a tradition of sin But thanks be to God Jesus being God of God light of light God's tradition is to always do what's best for you always forgive you To take care of you and provide for you So Today we consider that traditions are not necessarily bad We have traditions that are good like stopping at red lights Or going to the doctor going to the dentist Traditions that benefit us The tradition of God is to send Jesus to send his Holy Spirit to bring you closer to the Father To keep you in the faith through the gospel through the forgiving of your sins Today Jesus quotes the Old Testament he quotes Isaiah he says this people honor me with their lips But their hearts are far from me So that begs the question What is it like to be near God? These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me What is it to be near God? There's a saying and this goes along with the tradition of having to clean your room Sorry kids There is that saying in our world that cleanliness is next to godliness Is that what Jesus is talking about about being near God having our hearts being near God does is it cleanliness Well, I never really understood that saying because Cleanliness is next to godliness because if you read the bible, you know that God Is not always so clean and proper God gets very dirty He gets into the lives of people He who's in the heavens himself above all things takes flesh and comes down to a very Dirty sinful world heck if you remember his the pinnacle of his creation mankind was made from dirt I tend to prefer that that truck commercial if you remember, I think it was I can't remember which truck Manufacture it was but it said that when God created Adam God made a farmer Cleanliness is not next to godliness, but Maybe the life of a farmer Is more in tune to what godliness is Only someone who's not afraid of dirt and hard work would make a farmer God is very Dirty sometimes in fact, that's that that's the point of our reading today The scribes and Pharisees they're driving themselves crazy because they see Jesus and his disciples eating with unwashed hands A dirty god Now the the disciples hands they aren't dirty in a visible way like when mom tells you to wash up for dinner No, the dirtiness of Jesus and his disciples is much deeper according to the Jews This is why they're so angry Jesus and his disciples are the Jews claim offending god By not following the jewish ritual of washing before they eat But this ritual washing as Jesus points out wasn't in the bible. This is purely a jewish tradition The problem with this tradition is that the Pharisees and scribes thought that this ritual this washing with water Made you clean before god If you didn't follow this ritual you were sinning The problem is that god never taught that in the scriptures Unlike as jesus points out unlike honor your father and mother God never gave a commandment to wash in the way that the jews were speaking about But Who could blame them for making such a law? It's a very dirty world It's a dirty world full of dirty people Have you ever been on public transportation? Or walking along in the airport and said boy this this floor looks like a nice place to sleep as I wait for my layover The jews in our reading they're partly right. There is much dirt in our world humans. We are dirty There is something about us that is unclean our world needs to be washed Our hearts Need to be washed And these jews and scribes they notice the speck in the disciples eyes, but they didn't see the mud slide in their own heart But under all of this behind all of this this This hate for their neighbor Behind all of this lies unbelief in who jesus says he is They did not believe that jesus could possibly be true god Calling them to repent? How dare he? The Pharisees didn't believe that jesus is the way in which they are made clean That by faith through what god is doing in jesus They're made clean of all their sins The Pharisees and every single one of us by our fallen nature are opposed to this idea There is in our sinful flesh this idea that we would rather clean ourself before god We would have some we would rather have something to be proud of to point at and say look i'm not as bad as Those dirty disciples I mean if you think about it in our own lives, this is how we handle people Helping others A lot of times we desire others first to make themselves clean before we will consider helping them Before we consider befriending someone We think they must first abide by our rules Too often we expect others to write themselves in ways we see fit While we neglect the dirt in our own heart We get irritated When others aren't as perfect as us When others may be annoy us they make us angry We avoid them like they're dirty Perhaps the saying cleanliness is next to godliness comes from the fact that god indeed does demand perfection Not just being clean But god demands us to be clean inside and out To where sin is never Never even comes close To be near god and to not be destroyed we must not just be clean You must be perfect The jews thought their washing tradition and all their laws brought them closer to god It made them feel good. They felt at peace when they did something for god That they could be closer to him. They could climb that ladder. They can make life just perfect take care of all their problems And in fact, they wouldn't even need a savior because they're so great They believed that they could by their actions become clean This is why they took this hand washing so seriously. This is the tradition that Jesus is attacking But while Jesus was mocking the jews laws of cleanliness He was more pointedly attacking their tradition of men which believes that we can make ourselves righteous before god through the law So jesus isn't attacking the idea of traditions per se He's attacking the wrong use of traditions Because you could say jesus himself followed many traditions. He went to his family. Remember they traveled to Jerusalem for the feasts Jesus went to the synagogue. Jesus had traditions But today he's saying Don't think that these traditions earn you honor before god Because you and I we are dirty with sin and that's a tradition We all have Every one of your sins is a continuing of this tradition that rebels against god and deserves his wrath And this is why being near to god these scribes and Pharisees were very near to jesus, but it wasn't a good thing Being near god is not a good thing if your heart Is full of sin and unbelief If your heart is gripping if you are holding on to your sins your pride and your anger Being near god is not a good thing. He will destroy you god hates sin But this is why god takes flesh upon himself To be near us Why he humbles himself to be true man so that he may come near to us even be one of us be our brother So he can take our sins so he can come and be near you not to destroy you But to take your sins upon himself This is why god provides the washing through jesus. We by our fallen sinful nature Our default is to see the law as a way to earn god's approval If I just do this if I just do that God will bless me. God will take away all the problems in our life Yes, we need our dirt to be taken away, but remember God is the only one who can do it God is the only one who's not afraid to get dirty In christ jesus, god is reconciling man to himself Not counting your dirty sins against you Not through anything you do but through the working and the washing of god are you made perfect Now if you think about this, you know going back to how we always wait for someone else to get better before we help them Consider this that while we were yet enemies of god, well we were yet sinners Christ died for us That before we love someone we wait for them to become approval But god being rich in his mercy takes us as dirty as we are and makes us lovable By sending jesus to die on the cross for your sins This washing the forgiveness and mercy of god is then given to us in many ways Well in several traditional ways in baptism When you are washed literally washed in the blood of christ What a beautiful tradition that god connects the forgiveness of sins When we hear the word of god the holy spirit works and strengthens us Cleanses us from our sin and of course in the lord's supper That the lord gives us traditions that we call sacraments That take away our sins But it requires faith The jews and the Pharisees they couldn't wash themselves enough, but god when he washes You are clean This is why st. Paul says in titus three That he saved us Not because of works done by us in righteousness even But according to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the holy spirit He saved us through the washing of rebirth many people tried to say baptism is just a tradition Look jesus talks against traditions in mark seven We say no That's not just a tradition It's the gospel baptism is all gospel all jesus Even though you see yourself being brought to the font even though you see the hands of the pastor Doing the washing it's like when moses parted the red sea They saw moses lifting his hands But it was god who was doing the work giving the israelites a path salvation Rescue from death We walk by faith and not by sight The law and the commandments of god They're not meant to make us righteous before god But the law is there for the benefit of your neighbor The jews in our reading today, they wanted to use god's law for themselves Right, that's why jesus brings up the core bond law This law that they invented that they could if they had needy parents Parents who who needed to be taken care of you could say All of my possessions i'm dedicating to god And then you didn't have to use it to take care of your parents The jews made this law so they could act as though they were righteous Look i'm giving everything to god all my possessions But they're really just keeping it for themselves This is not how god works Christ jesus does not keep his forgiveness for himself, but he gives it to you free gee there is nothing that jesus calls out to god and says What i would give to sinners is core bond And then jesus dies on the cross and keeps his reward for himself No, jesus gives himself he gives everything on the cross for you And would we not then in turn do this for others Freely as you have been given freely You can give Corbon was intended to keep you rich Christ gave up all he had to make you rich in his grace and mercy through faith alone This faith is our guarantee of cleanliness Because faith is always in an object in christ jesus So this faith this guarantee of our cleanliness this perfection before god on accounts of christ jesus should desire us all the more To use what god has given us for others Not to worry about how dirty others are To call out corbon in regard to what god gives us And while we know and believe that the law doesn't bring us closer to god It does bring us closer to our neighbor And what about traditions? What traditions are good then? The traditions that lead us to believe by faith Traditions that show us christ and salvation alone Traditions that teach us to sacrifice our wants for our neighbor Maybe you've used that word when people ask you what kind of church you go to Some people say I go to a traditional church traditional church Others say I go to a contemporary church Every church has tradition Every human has tradition every church has a liturgy The question we should ask is what do your traditions point you toward? Do your traditions point you toward christ in his word or to yourself? Do you learn discipline? Or are you pleasing your flesh? Do your traditions remind you of god's faithfulness? Do your traditions teach you to crucify your flesh or entertain your flesh? It is christ who cleanses you by his blood. That's his tradition. He I think is more of a farmer He fertilizes you He waters you And have you ever tried to get a farmer to take a vacation? They're so stubborn They love their crops more than anything in this world Christ Jesus loves you He claims you as his plant. No, I think there's a passage you are the vine father is a farmer a vine dresser He claims you as his vine He never leaves his crops unattended He nurtures you with his promises As dirty as you might get He will never leave you without hope That is his tradition To always be with you and never leave you And may the peace of god which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in christ Jesus our lord [BLANK_AUDIO]