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 St. Luke 6:41-42 - Trinity 4 - 2010
St. Mark Lutheran Church - June 27, 2010
Listen Here.
In the name of Jesus. Amen. So let me get this straight. We are walking around with these big giant planks in our eyes. All the while, our brothers in Christ, have these itty-bitty specs in their eyes.
Big plank. Little speck. The example requires a visual. If your optometrist came out with this in front of their eyes, would you let them do surgery on you? Its simple eye surgery, you see. I'll just take my tweezers here and help you out. Hold on... Gimme a sec... Almost .. Talk about the blind leading the blind!
Now you'd think with this in front your eyes you couldn't see a thing... but we claim to have 20-20 vision! Talk about slap stick!
Now, even with the planks in our eyes, we look for our neighbor’s mistakes, their faults, their blemishes. We magnify them. We investigate for their sins, their gossip, their deep dark iniquity.
We don’t always rejoice in their failures, but sometimes we push ourselves up with them. They are so bad, so at fault, so icky. We’re not so bad, at least not as bad as them.
Chief of sinners though I be, we sing, but we know them to be cheifer. I’m bad, I know I’m bad, but they are bader. You see what that person did, if you only knew, you’d understand.
We have planks, but their planks are bigger, right? If we have specks, their specks are bigger! The size of theirs is always bigger than ours.
And if you think that all of this is done by someone else - that’s just you looking through your plank judging someone else and condemning them.
And mercy and forgiveness? It applies only to us when we mess up. When we mess up, it’s time for them to be merciful. We’ll look down on them as the bad guy for not being forgiven.
Who are they to judge us and tell us we are wrong anyway? Who are they to judge us? We’ll forgive them, if they are sorry. If.. They... Well, it’s not like it’s us who did something. We’d do the right thing. It’s them.
That’s the way of hypocrites, isn’t it? We condemn others for the very things that we do - as we do them. We are the ones that Jesus is preaching to, not them. We are the ones who judge, who aren’t merciful, who condemn, and who don’t forgive.
Live this way, and you will be judged by the same measure you judge and condemn others.
Mercy. Forgiveness. Refusing to condemn. That’s not our way. But, they are the Father’s way.
Be merciful, says Jesus, as your Father in Heaven is merciful. What we don’t do, the Father does. What we won't give, He gives up - His Son.
The Father judges and condemns Jesus for us in our place. All His punishment, all the suffering, all the hell that we deserve, falls upon Him.
He is judged, you are forgiven. He is condemned, you rare acquitted.
Each nail for your judgments. Each stripe for your condemnation. He gets no mercy, none. All of it, for you. So that you would receive endless mercy.
He dies, you live. He rises, you rise too. Forgiven. Absolved. Judgment free. No condemnation. None for you. Not in Christ.
He has taken upon Himself all that God could be angry about. You get mercy and forgiveness. Today, everyday, until He comes again.
And the true Gospel is that God is not like us - He keeps His promises. He is merciful. He is forgiving. He doesn't judge. He doesn't condemn.
So St. Paul says that there is no condemnation, none, zero, for those who are in Christ. In Christ means in your baptism, in His Word, in His Supper, in His gifts you receive the forgiveness of your sins.
And with your sins forgiven, then you are freed from the "his plank or his speck is bigger than mine" game. Freed to have mercy as He has had mercy on you. Free to forgive, as He has forgiven you.
For when you realize that your plank has been forgiven by the mercy of Almighty God, there is no more judging, condemning. No, there is only forgiving and having mercy.
For how could you with so many plank-sized sins judge someone else with their speck sized ones? Sounds like they get a dose of mercy!
Yes, today we are given to repent of our judgements - about each other, about our loved ones, and about our church. Yes, even our church gets a break too.
I've had a lot to think about these last few weeks. The Lord has given me a chance to listen. To listen about our church and where St. Mark is headed. I've heard alot of judgments.
"We're dying. We're losing our school. We maybe shouldn't have two pastors, etc."
Yet today, we send some young people to a conference to learn about Jesus. They worked all year to leave at 2am to sit on a bus for 30 hrs to go to ten services out of your hymnal. To learn about Christ being given for us and to us. To sing the hymns you sing and some that you don't know yet. They will teach us.
Some of the college students have already left to donate their time not just for our congregation but for the church as a whole. They'll be leaders here soon, or in another congregation, or perhaps even pastors.
These youth's confession of Jesus is the future of our church. A church not built on the personality of a pastor, but on the proclamation that the Father is merciful. He's merciful in Christ and He refuse to judge us in Christ. Not after Calvary.
And more young people are coming. There are more kids in our junior youth than in our senior youth. Katrina and Dana had them washing cars yesterday. Amazing kids.
Our church isn't dying. She's changing. She'll be different in a twenty years when these kids are sending their kids to conferences to learn about Jesus. You know, because when they were fifteen, they went to Utah and had so many good memories.
And as we go through this time as we watch our future become our present, the Lord would have us be merciful, to step away from quick judgments and condemnation, from negativity, and to hold fast to the mercy and forgiveness of God.
God the the Father has taken the plank out of our eyes and nailed His son to it. There is no more judging, condemning.
There is no more being unmercifully or withholding giving to others, to our family members. Even our little church gets some mercy.
There is only Jesus and His mercy and forgiveness - for these kids, for their parents, for you, for me, and for our neighbor too.
“Be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judge. Condemn not and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it shall be given to you - press down shaken down and running over.”
The way of planks and comparisons ends in death. Time to leave them behind.
Instead... Mercy. Forgiveness and giving. From God the Father to us through the Son. From us to our neighbor through the Spirit. That's the way of the Father who gives up all - even His Son. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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