This last weekend was crazy busy, but I survived the youth lock-in. I ended up covered in chocolate sauce by the kids, but got my revenge when I got to wake them up at 5:45 in the morning by yelling as loud as I could and pulling their blankets off. Then we went to the state dart ball tournament which was a blast. I got on base twice and even had a home run but we ended up losing to tie for fifth. Still a great day of fun. Then Sunday, everything went well with my first services all by myself at Mt. Calvary. I have done other services all by myself but this was the first time here.
I did hear from my field work supervisor that he hasn't retired yet and should still be there when I get back. I am glad about that because I look forward to another year of working beside him and continuing to build our relationship.
Here is my sermon from Sunday, enjoy:
Grace Mercy and Peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our sermon this morning focuses in on the Gospel reading from Matthew Chapter 4 the temptation of Jesus, but our focus text comes from the Epistle reading of Romans chapter 5 verses 18 and 19, “Therefore , as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to the justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”
When I played football in high school I played offensive lineman – big surprise right?! I loved being a lineman, especially being center because got to touch the ball every play. But one thing I had to learn very quickly is that as an offensive lineman, you will get blamed much more often than you will get praised. I can remember one game in the first half the line was playing terrible, myself included. The coach took a timeout to come chew us out, and as he was yelling at us I leaned back from the huddle and realized the entire crowd of fans was yelling negative insults at us linemen as well. Second half, we came out, turn things around and our offense was back to making big plays and scoring. We won the game, but afterward all I heard was, “Man that line almost cost us the game tonight” or “It is a good thing our running back is good enough to play without a line blocking for him”. All we got was the blame for the first half, not the credit for the second half.
I assume there are times we have all felt this way. Maybe at work you make a mistake and get blamed for messing up the whole project, so you work twice as hard to fix it but somebody else still gets the credit. Times when you feel like no matter how hard you try, you are only seen as the one at fault instead of getting the credit you feel you deserve.
In our Old Testament reading for today, we heard the account of the fall of Adam and Eve. This is a story we are taught from a very young age. In order to know why we believe in Jesus, why we need Jesus as our Lord, we have to know the story of the fall. The reason our entire world and all of creation is in the sinful state that it is in, goes back to the garden and those two bites of fruit that would change everything for the rest of time. As Lutheran’s we believe in original sin that goes back to Adam and Eve. Sermons will reference the garden or the fall in the garden trying to preach the whole council of God. This part of humanities story cannot be ignored because it was such a defining moment. It brought sin into our world, and with that sin came all the pain and suffering, tears and grieving, and death. Looking at the curses God gives to Eve and Adam, we see pain in childbearing, jealously, pride, hard work, sweat, and death. All of this, along with all other curses and symptoms of sin, entered our world because the first two humans disobeyed God and fell into sin, pulling all of humanity and creation down with them.
Now it is very easy for us to quickly put the blame on Adam and Eve. They are the ones who brought sin into the world. If they hadn’t fallen we would still be living in the paradise of the garden. We would still have God walking among us and there would be no pain, suffering, pride, jealousy, mourning, or death. The world would still be perfect if they could have just followed that one rule. I mean after all they only had one rule to follow and they couldn’t even do that. It is entirely their fault that we have to suffer because they made one wrong choice. Adam and Eve are to blame.
Or maybe you are willing to forgive Adam and Eve for their slip up, but you blame the devil. If he wouldn’t have tempted Adam and Eve, they would have never fallen. If he wouldn’t have fallen away from God himself first, he would have been evil and wouldn’t have caused all of mankind to fall too. The devil should have remained a good faithful angel and then we would have never had any of these problems. It is entirely the devil’s fault for rebelling against God, tempting Adam and Eve, and bringing sin into the world. The devil is to blame.
Or maybe you even go so far as to blame God. If He would have destroyed the devil as soon as he rebelled, he wouldn’t have been able to tempt Adam and Eve and sin would have never come into our world. If God is all knowing, He had to know the devil would tempt Adam and Eve and they would fall into sin, so why did He let this happen? Why did He let the devil live even after his rebellion, why did he let the devil in the garden to tempt Adam and Eve? Why did He even create the devil in the first place? If God really is all knowing, He had to know the devil would rebel before He even created him, so why did He create him? God knew the devil would become evil and rebel and tempt Adam and Eve and cause them to fall into sin and bring the entire creation into a fallen sinful condition, and He let it all happen. God is to blame for all of this.
However, as we are in the season of Lent, which is a penitential season, maybe this would be a good time to stop trying to blame others and examine the sin of our own life. When we look at our own life, do we really have any right at all to even begin to try to play the blame game? Yes, Adam and Eve sinned first. Yes, through original sin their sinfulness is inherited by all humans. Yes, the devil tempted them and led them into sin. Yes, God knew this all would happen and allowed it to happen. However, God created the devil, Adam and Eve all as good creatures. After He had finished creation, it was all good. The devil rebelled, we are not told how or why but he started as a good angel like all the other angels. Yes the devil tempted Adam and Eve, but God gave them the gift of free will which allowed them to choose whether they would remain faithful to God, or disobey and fall into sin. He made the one command He gave them very clear and told them the consequences of what would happen if they did break the command. The devil tempted them, but they made the choice on their own to listen to him. They chose to break the command knowing full well they were not supposed to. So Adam and Eve sinned first, but can you say with full confidence that if you had been put in their position you would not have fallen? The point is God did allow it to happen, the devil did tempt them, and they did break the command and fall into sin. Stop blaming them! Stop letting your pride puff you up into thinking you would have done the right thing had you been there. In this penitential season of lent, stop trying to figure out why you are a sinner, and admit that you are indeed a sinner. Admit that you are a sinful being, yes because of original sin, but even more so because of the fact that you sin each and every day. In Romans where St. Paul says all sin came into the world through one man, he continues with and so death spread to all men because ALL sinned. We are all sinners and we are all to blame that sin exists in the world. That is what this season of the church year is for; it is set aside for the special purpose of truly reflecting and examining your own life and realizing how much a terrible, rotten, and filthy sinner you truly are. Stop pointing your finger at others and look at yourself, look at your own life, and confess your sins that you know you are guilty of.
We are to blame. We are the ones who deserve no credit but purely the fault. It is your sins, and your sins, and your sins, and your sins, and my sins that put our Lord on the cross. He died to pay for the sins of Adam and Eve, all the Israelites, the Pharisees and scribes, the disciples, but even more importantly He died to pay for the sins of you and of me. We are the ones to blame for Him being born in the flesh, we are the ones to blame for Him living a life in the midst of this sinful condition, we are the ones to blame for Him laying down His own life by being nailed to the cross and hanging there in pain until He breathed His last. After all, we see in our Gospel reading for today that Christ was tempted and He DIDN’T fall. He didn’t make the wrong choice, give into the devil, or disobey the Father. He didn’t sin. The only human being to ever not sin, is the one who dies for the price of all sins. We are the ones to blame, the ones at fault, and deserve absolutely none of the credit or praise.
Jesus Christ our Lord, who allowed Himself to be tempted by the devil to prove He would live the perfect life we never could, Jesus Christ our Lord, who gave His up His perfect life as the sacrifice for all the sins He never committed, the sacrifice for all the sins we committed, He is the one and only one who deserves the credit and the praise. He alone deserves the credit and praise for our life we have in Him, because it is by His actions alone we can ever claim to be righteous or holy. St. Paul continues in the Epistle lesson by saying, “Therefore , as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to the justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” See Christ could not have been the atoning sacrifice to pay the price for all sins, if He had not been obedient. If He had not resisted the devil’s temptations and fallen into sin, He would not have been the unblemished lamb that would be the perfect sacrifice. Christ lived a perfect life resisting the devil, remaining obedient to the Father, knowing this was the only way He could truly pay the price for all sins. This one man’s obedience is how the many will be made righteous. Through the perfect obedient life of Christ, through His atoning death, and His victorious resurrection, now you have been made righteous. Your forgiveness for all those sins you have committed, your forgiveness of your original sin you inherited, your holiness and righteousness your salvation, and your eternal life all are because of Christ the Lord who remained obedient and paid the price for you. He alone is the one who deserves the credit. He alone is the one who is worthy of the praise. All credit and praise be to the one who never sinned, but took away all sin of the world with His perfect and precious life.
In the name of our Savior who is to credit for our righteousness and salvation, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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