No reason to brag

It is political season, when seemingly normal people say the most outrageous things with a straight face: “I've accomplished this... I promise that....”

Not only politicians, but the rest of us also fall prey to that insidious disease, braggart's mouth.

We really don't have good reasons to brag...but we do it anyway!

We could talk about all of the things that we have gotten done...but there are so many other things left undone.

We could point out that here we all are together today...but there are so many other times when this one or that is missing.

We can rejoice that we were able to do things like putting together a crew to work at the Habitat site earlier in the month... but we declined to back up our actions with much money toward the project.

Then, on the other hand, there are those other times when we would prefer just to give some money and not back it up with our actions.

No, we really shouldn't do too much bragging, because our boasting turns out to be just a portion of the truth, and the whole story is not so good.

We can ruefully discover this analysis in Jesus' parable.

The one son tells his father “Yeah, I'll get to it”, and doesn't,

while the other son tells Dad to get lost, but later turns around and goes to the job-site anyway.

“Which of the two did the will of the father?” Jesus asks.

And Jesus opponents respond, “the one who went, even if late.”

But notice that Jesus does not say ,”Yes you're right!”

Looking at the whole picture, which of the sons did the father's will?

Neither of them!

Both sons have insulted the father, one by initially saying NO, the other by saying YES but doing nothing.

To the public, one appearshonorable, but bothhave dishonored the family.

Would the father rather be publicly honored and privately shamed, or privately honored and publicly shamed?

It is not really a good choice, is it?

But Jesus' opponents miss this problem.

They chose the one who made the appearanceof obedience as the good son.

That is the easy way – to go for the choice that at least looksgood.

Let's move the story now into our typical church situation.

On the one hand we have an adult who was baptized as a child, stayed through Sunday Church School and catechetics, and then disappeared.

On the other hand we have another adult who never had much to do with the church as a youth, but after marriage is now attracted to the community of faith.

Which one has done the will of the Father?

We'd immediately go for the one who is participating now,wouldn't we?

-the one who looks good.

But we have not really wrestled with the depths of the situation until we have admitted that both have offended God.

Both the one who appears to be wayward, and the one who appears to be upstanding.

Both are in need of God's forgiveness; both need a fresh start that cannot be earned but only given by a gracious God.

Why does Jesus say that harlots and tax collectors go into the kingdom of God before the pharisees?

Not because Jesus had a thing for prostitutes, as some film makers have tried to portray.

Not because Jesus was getting a cut from the tax collectors.

Jesus encouraged them because these folks were outsiders, and they knew it.

They had nothing about which they could boast on their own.

They had only some fancy possessions that had been acquired at great cost – at too great a cost – possessions that in the long run count for nothing.

They have nothing about which they can brag, nothing of which they can be proud.

These outsiders caught on first to the nature of the kingdom, that it cannot be bought or earned, but only received and lived.

Blessed are those who hear that as Good News for themselves and for a world of people who are constantly trying to prove themselves.

The Pharisees were working very hard.

They knew and tried to obey all 613 laws of the Old Testament code.

They presented the appearance of doing exactly what God wanted.

They were very correct in behavior, but they could not see that their seeming obedience was the mask for other kinds of disobedience.

They could not see that they were no more worthy in God's eyes than were those others whom they so despised.

They had no reason to brag.

-- and neither do we.

Lots of us gathered here this morning are the doers of the congregation: the teachers, council members, care-givers, telephoners, quilters, communion servers, visitors, meal-preparers and servers, etc. etc.

And that is wonderful, and it is as it should be.

But is everything that we do each day done from the purest of motives?

No, we are a mixed up mess of intentions and results.

So what?

Do we just give up and not bother with doing anything, since we'll never get things perfectly right?

No.

We are instead like the student who looks up to the pattern of the letters posted in the front of the classroom, and takes his pencil and tries to make letters like those he sees.

The teacher helps him to recognize the imperfections, and he continues to try again and again.

This is why the way in which we begin worship each week is so powerfully strong.

We cease the bragging,

we lay aside the great pile of things that we think that we have accomplished during the week,

we name the failures to commend the Lord God to our neighbors,

our silence in the face of evil done by others.

We make the sign of the cross in remembrance of our baptism, and confess our sin against God and our neighbor, our flawed actions and lack of actions...

...and hear again that promise of Jesus to forgive and remake us, in spite of what we have been.

At those times when we are most proud of our accomplishments compared with those sinners around us, we think we want to have a God of justice, who will reward us as we so richly deserve...and pound on those who haven't worked like we have.

Do we really want a God of justice?

When we recognize that our accomplishments don't count for anything with God, and that all have fallen short of the glory of God,

then perhaps we'll be ready to hear about a God of mercy, who reaches out to us in forgiveness and re-direction.

As Luther remarked [Large Catechism IV.41]

In Baptism, therefore, every Christian has enough to study and practice all his life, ...because baptism signifies that all of our old and selfish ways are to be drowned by daily sorrow and repentance and that a new person should come forth daily. [SC IV.12]

We do not have to hide behind appearances; it is right to acknowledge that we mess up everything we touch,

and that we need to depend on a God of mercy.

Paul reminds us: [1 Corinthians 1:26] “Not many of you were wise by human standards...but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise,...so that no one might boast in the presence of God....Jesus became for us wisdom from God.. in order that 'Let the one who boasts, boast of the Lord.'”

When Luther found himself in a difficult situation, he would say, “Wait a minute! I am a baptized person.”

He put his mark on me, a mark that never fades.

I depend on Jesus' promise he made to me in Holy Baptism, not on how what I do looks like to others.

It is not about me, it is about Jesus, about what he has done and will do; that is our only boast. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.