Episode 37: 4/29/09

Readings:

Psalm 9
Daniel 4:19-27
1 John 3:19-4:6
Luke 4:14-30

Sermon:

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.”
2 Peter 2:1-3

Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

Test the Spirits…

Amidst our ranks, amidst our numbers there will always be false prophets, false teachers who take up the word of the Lord, the Gospel of Christ, and use it not as that liberating, binding force that frees us from our captivity to sin and offers us the freedom of the soul that comes through salvation but rather as a means to their own ends. Ambition, self interest, wealth, they guide the steps of those who walk down not a path of righteous but a road of iniquity seeking to manipulate the faithful to follow them for their purposes and their gratification.

In our text today we hear hard, harsh words from Saint Peter as he warns us about such men. Why though? After all, we live in a live and let live society, where we are perpetually taught that we must show understanding to every doctrine, to ever school of thought that is out there, never questioning other peoples belief’s unless they are so egregious that they effect the society as a whole or shock our sensibilities. Tolerance has become our creed, and under its guise we allow so many thoughts and notions effect our theology that, in many places, the Law and the Gospel are chased out of our churches and all we are left with are the shell of what they once were. Either they become reactionary and legalistic fundamentalist bodies or they become progressive political tools used to fit whatever the agenda of the day is.

Faith becomes nothing more than elaborate game of chess, the pieces moving across the board in intricate slides where, in many cases, we have become nothing more than pawns.

This isn’t to say that every church that somehow or someway believes something different than us or that every preacher standing behind his pulpit giving a message we somehow understand differently is a false teacher. A deeply personal experience moved by the power of the Holy Spirit calling us our understanding of faith and scriptures are unique to us based on how God, in love, reveals Himself to us. It is about our own encounters with the Savior and how he teaches us to live our lives. Amidst that there are a host of different beliefs that still abide within the Scriptures. To demand a perfect understanding this side of heaven from any of us is impossible.

No, when we speak of false teachers we speak of those who manipulate and massage the scriptures until they meet their approval, until they meet their own fixed agenda, ripping the heart and the soul out of them for their own means. For them God reserves the judgment of the most wicked of blasphemers against the Spirit, those who cause the weak to stumble and the faithful to falter in their steps.

In our Epistle lesson we hear the words of Saint John as he tells to us that we must test the Spirits. Why? So that we may recognize if it is the Spirit of God or the spirit of man seeking to remake and remold God so that they may masquerade their words as the Word of the Lord.

To test the Spirit understands that though God is everywhere He only chooses to reveal Himself in certain places and in certain ways in our hearts so that we may know the truth and that same truth will set us free. It is there that we know that He reveals Himself where His Word is preached with a purity of the heart and the purity of the soul, seeking to uplift and edify the believer, seeking to nourish their soul.

It is not enough that we should just expect that God will protect us from false teachers and false prophets, we must be on guard against them, coming to Him, asking him for His protection and His guidance. We must come to Him, as a child comes to their father when we wonder, seeking for Him to reveal His wisdom and truth within our hearts and our souls. It is not enough for us to wait for His judgment against false teachers, letting tolerance for their erroneous and self serving message be our guiding call and then, in the final days, saying “Ah ha, I knew that he or she was a false teacher.” We must use the calling of the Spirit to reveal them unto the world that we may prevent our brothers and sisters from falling into their snares, the vigilant soldiers wearing the whole armor of God.

We must remember that these people they serve not God. Rather they serve their own belly, tearing the unity of the church asunder by robbing the believer of the peace and comfort they have in salvation through Christ Jesus. Just as our savior, just as those early prophets, apostles and saints were, we too must stand ready to push back against them and their influence in all that they say and all that they do. Ours must be to be imitators of Christ, and just as he turned the tables in the temple we too must be ready to turn the tide against those who use the house of God and the word of the Lord as their own means of wealth, fortune and success.

Be therefore guided by the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of righteousness, the Spirit of love in the deepest compassion for your fellow man, forever seeking to remove all stones and stumbling blocks from their path that they may walk with certainty down the path of redemption. Be vessels of His divine providence, a helper to the weak brethren who perhaps do not see the challenges ahead and the road wrought with challenges. And, in all things, magnify the grace, and peace, the mercy and the charity of the Lord, showing, when others test the Spirit that you walk in the name of, that you stand with Christ by your side in all that you are and all that you do.

Lord, grant this unto us all.

Now may the peace of the Lord, that peace that transcends all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus even unto life everlasting, Amen.

Episode 36: 4/3/09

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Readings:

Psalm 128
Jeremiah 25:30-38
Romans 10:14-21
John 10:1-18

Sermon:

I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
John 10:9

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus gives us our most beloved image of Him, that of the Good Shepherd, who is willing to lay down His life to protect His sheep. It is easy to picture Our Lord searching for the lost sheep, or carrying the injured lamb on His shoulders, bringing it safely home. We are reminded of other famous shepherds in the Bible: of Moses leading his flock to water in the desert before hearing the voice of God in the burning bush, or David killing the lion and the bear threatening his sheep. We are told in Psalm 23 that God Himself is our shepherd, leading us to good pasture and fresh water, His rod and staff defending us from attack.

We all know what a good shepherd looks like, and what he does, but what are the qualities of a good sheep? Not much is required, simply that they recognize the voice of their shepherd and follow him, not allowing themselves to be deceived by imposters.

In Our Lord’s day, it was common for many flocks of sheep to graze together in the same pasture. At night they would be led to an enclosed sheep pen, where one of the shepherds would stand guard at the gate, ready to fight off any wolves or lions or bandits who saw the sheep as easy prey. In the morning, each shepherd would call his own flock, and they, recognizing his voice, would follow him back out to the pasture for another day of feeding.

In today’s reading Jesus tells us that there are two kinds of shepherds, the good shepherd who owns the flock and will defend it to the death, and the hired hands who will flee at the first sign of danger, abandoning their flocks to be devoured by predators. And then there are the thieves, pretending to be shepherds but instead stealing the flock and leading them to their deaths. The good sheep will stick close to his own shepherd, but the foolish sheep will run this way and that, heedless of the dangers that lay before it.

We Christians like to think that we are good sheep, that we listen to the voice of our Good Shepherd and are eager to follow His lead. And for most of us, that is a sincere desire, we have no wish to be foolish sheep. But with many competing voices claiming to be shepherds, it can be difficult to discern the truth. And where we were once able to rely on the Church to act as a good shepherd and guard its flock, now it seems to be full of hired hands and downright bandits who are on the prowl for souls to steal and lead astray.

The problem of false teachers is not a new one, St. Paul and St. Peter both warned us in their epistles of this danger. This is where it is so important for Christians to read and study the Scriptures so that they can discern the true voice of Christ and not that of imposters telling us what we want to hear but that will lead to our destruction. As St. Paul warns the Romans, beware of those who use flattery and smooth talk not to serve the Lord but to fill their own bellies. (Romans 16:17-18)

How else can we correctly evaluate the claims of those who say they are preaching a Gospel of compassion and love when they say that abortion is not only not a sin, but a blessing? How else can we know the truth when a clergyperson speaks in sacramental reverence of the sucking out of a child’s brain so that it can be aborted late in the pregnancy? Where once we would expect such a person to be condemned for their false teachings, now such persons are given positions of authority and responsibility for the shaping of the next generation of Church leaders.

Jesus said He is the gate through which we must enter to be saved. And Scripture, the word of God, must be our only sure guide by which we test the claims of those who would be our teachers and leaders.

Abortion, of course, isn’t the only area of false teaching in the Church, but it is a pretty reliable gauge of a person’s overall spiritual orientation and their view of Scriptural authority. In Psalm 128 we read today that

3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house; *
your sons will be like olive shoots
around your table.
4 Thus is the man blessed *
who fears the LORD.

This is only one of many verses that refer to children as a blessing from the Lord; not one cites the murder of those children as the true blessing.

Jesus says He comes to bring life, and this is a simple but trustworthy guide to follow when evaluating competing claims. Scripture says children are a blessing, the false teachers say they are disposable. The Bible tells us to honor and care for our mother and father; they say it is more compassionate to let our elderly parents kill themselves when they become sick or disabled. Jesus says that there is no greater love than to sacrifice our lives for others; the wolves say they have the freedom to eat anyone who gets in their way, all in the name of love and mercy.

It’s not easy being a good sheep when the pen is so full of fake shepherds and wolves in sheep’s clothing, but we must train ourselves to listen to the true voice of our Good Shepherd, no matter how sweet the other voices sound. It is a matter of life and death: will we be the blessed sheep led to green pastures or will we be lambs led to the slaughter?

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.