September 2, 2007
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The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church Pr. Per Inge
Vik I must admit that I was anxious about coming back to the city of Minneapolis and to Mindekirken after the dramatic and serious events that happened while I was away. First there was the freeway bridge over the Mississippi that collapsed. Next came the strike of lightning on our church steeple. We have every reason to be grateful that the number of dead people was not higher, the heavy traffic in the afternoon rush hour considered. Some people have a feeling that angels were at work, preventing a greater scale of the accident. But let us not forget those affected, and that there now are many families and individuals who need support and intercession. Furthermore, we need to be grateful that no humans were hurt by the strike of lightning on the church tower. Last Thursday a crane company came and took down the loose stones so that we can celebrate here in the sanctuary today. We believe in a God that can turn all evil things into good for those who love Him. The bridge collapse has brought forth creativity in finding alternative routes for us who used the bridge that is not there anymore. Both by bike and by car I have tried different routes from our home over to the church, and I have found several alternatives. Especially it was positive to find new biking routes, - safer routes than I knew from before. I also think that more persons can get around by bike instead of car, now. It is both healthy for the body, and for the environment, and it curbs the pressure on our roads. Yes, the bridge mentioned is not indispensable, there are other ways. Different is it though, when it comes to the way into God’s kingdom. There God has given us only one alternative. No one comes to the Father except through me, Jesus says (John14:6). God’s Son is our only bridge to heaven. This Sunday has some of the same theme as the text we had in church in Norway two weeks ago. It was the parable in Luke 18 (v.9-14) about the Pharisee and the tax collector in the Temple. There Jesus first tells about the pharisee that proudly thanks God that he is not like other people, but that he fasted and tithed, and he accentuated all his good deeds. The tax collector on the other hand, placed himself at a distance. He hardly dared raise his eyes, but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. The tax collector went home justified before God, Jesus declares before he concludes in the same sentence that we heard in the text for today, for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. The first thought I had, approaching this Sunday’s text, is that it has had a huge impact on how we behave at church. Perhaps it has tilted over to the other ditch. Just imagine, why does everybody want to sit on the hindmost pew at the service? Why is the first pew empty? Well, I feel the call to do as the host in Jesus’ parable, ask you who place yourself at a distance, to come closer! What is the big difference between us humans, from God’s point of view? The apostle Peter thought that in God’s eyes it was that some were Jews and other non-jews. The Jews were chosen by God, and the others were not. And because of this difference, a pious Jew could not enter under the roof of a non-jew, as he would have become unclean by doing so. But then a vision was revealed to the apostle Peter, that to God there is no difference between people. That some are unclean while others are clean. No, to God we are all equal. All humans have sinned. There is no difference. We on the other hand, tend to see a big difference between people in this. In our eyes the variations are clear. But what we then are measuring, is the quantity. That some have big sins. While with others the sins are less visible. And so we put our trust in the degree of difference, and are cautious measuring it. But we have to consider that the righteousness that God claims, is total. God, who also sees our hearts, to him degrees of difference do not count. But only kind of difference between righteousness and unrighteousness counts. And where there is no difference, God doesn’t make any difference either. All have sinned. And in his eyes, we have sinned totally. When it comes to this, our senses have bad antenna reception. But a picture from daily life can help us to some extent. Let us take an example from the kitchen. This summer a friend of mine had put herring nets into the sea, and he caught such an amount of herring that he had to share with others. I got half a bucket of herrings that I cleaned, and made herring cakes out of them. Some eggs were among the ingredients that I mixed into the dough. The result was ok. But imagine if one of the eggs that I dropped into the dough were rotten. Could I then have said to myself, ”well, well, one rotten egg cannot do too much. All the other ingredients were absolutely first class!” No, it doesn’t help to think like that. The whole thing would have been damaged by the one rotten egg! In God’s eyes it is the same with the sins and us humans. Even if there is much that is good in us. Absolutely there is! But if we had done just one single sin, it had made us spoiled towards God. The apostle James says (James 2:10) that a person that stumbles at just one point of the law, breaks the whole law. In the same way as one rotten egg makes the whole dough bad, so one single sin makes a person a sinner before God. This sounds unreasonable to the one that puts one’s trust in the degrees of difference. The one who thinks that ”I am a notch better than he or she”. Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt5,48) that God demands that we be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect. None of us can satisfy this demand . For this reason we have to humble ourselves. The text for today talks strongly about humility towards our Creator and Lord. Likewise it doesn’t hurt that we humble ourselves towards our neighbors, either. Not that we look down on ourselves, but that we have open eyes, are realistic. So it is meaningful and correct that we start the Norwegian service by bowing before God and confess our sins. That we from the very beginning can tell him how things are. We do not become righteous before God by sinning a little less, or by doing a little more good. But by Jesus taking our sins upon himself. God’s righteousness is given to us by Christ’s deed, and that we receive this by faith. So our faith in Christ is the only difference. Martin Luther fought a hard fight with this. In his younger years he struggled to fulfill God’s law and God’s will. And he ”hated this word ”God’s righteousness” in the letter to the Romans”, as he himself said. Until he discovered that God’s righteousness is the righteousness that He makes us righteous by. This is the core of Christianity: God declares the sinner righteous for the sake of Christ. To everyone who surrenders his self-righteousness and receives God’s righteousness, which is given to us as a free gift, it is proclaimed: come sit higher up! To everyone that humbles himself before God and sees their true position, the message is: Come closer! There are no alternative routes to God. Jesus, and what he has done for us, is the only thing that counts. Glory be to the Father and the Son and The holy Spirit, who was, now is and shall ever be one true God, from eternity and to eternity. Amen. |
The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church · 924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 · (612)874-0716 |