Today’s Chapel Homily

Prayer and Preaching, p. 260

Reading: Jeremiah 7:1-11

Jeremiah 7:1-11 (NLT) 1 The LORD gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 2 "Go to the entrance of the LORD's Temple, and give this message to the people: 'O Judah, listen to this message from the LORD! Listen to it, all of you who worship here! 3 This is what the LORD of Heaven's Armies, the God of Israel, says: "'Even now, if you quit your evil ways, I will let you stay in your own land. 4 But don't be fooled by those who promise you safety simply because the LORD's Temple is here. They chant, "The LORD's Temple is here! The LORD's Temple is here!" 5 But I will be merciful only if you stop your evil thoughts and deeds and start treating each other with justice; 6 only if you stop exploiting foreigners, orphans, and widows; only if you stop your murdering; and only if you stop harming yourselves by worshiping idols. 7 Then I will let you stay in this land that I gave to your ancestors to keep forever. 8 "'Don't be fooled into thinking that you will never suffer because the Temple is here. It's a lie! 9 Do you really think you can steal, murder, commit adultery, lie, and burn incense to Baal and all those other new gods of yours, 10 and then come here and stand before me in my Temple and chant, "We are safe!"--only to go right back to all those evils again? 11 Don't you yourselves admit that this Temple, which bears my name, has become a den of thieves? Surely I see all the evil going on there. I, the LORD, have spoken!

Homily:

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

People loved by God, the crowds to whom Jeremiah preached and wrote were tempted to abuse the great promises of God regarding His temple. They remembered God's words to Solomon: 1 Kings 9:3 (NLT)  "I have heard your prayer and your petition. I have set this Temple apart to be holy--this place you have built where my name will be honored forever. I will always watch over it, for it is dear to my heart." But their selective memory ignored the threat God made only a few verses later in the same chapter: "But if you or your descendants abandon me and disobey the commands and decrees I have given you, and if you serve and worship other gods,  then I will uproot Israel from this land that I have given them. I will reject this Temple that I have made holy to honor my name. I will make Israel an object of mockery and ridicule among the nations. And though this Temple is impressive now, all who pass by will be appalled and will shake their heads in amazement. They will ask, 'Why did the LORD do such terrible things to this land and to this Temple?'" Couldn't have been much clearer, could He? And yet they dared to treat the Lord's temple as a talisman, a sort of magic charm that warded off destruction and somehow guaranteed their continuing as a nation in the land regardless of how faithless they were to the covenant; how much they rebelled against His commands. "The temple of the Lord! The temple of Lord!" they chanted, and thought they were safe. So they deceived themselves, but Jeremiah exposes their deception and invites to repentance. 

Oh, people loved by God, do we face a similar danger today, particularly we Lutherans Christians? Do we not sometimes treat Holy Baptism and the Holy Eucharist as talismans? As Lutherans we're convinced we've got the straight on biblical scoop on the Sacraments. But do we ever abuse them to comfort ourselves that impenitence and rebellion in our lives against God is all going to turn out okay because we've been baptized and take communion. With our imagined "get-out-of-hell-free" card in our back pocket do we blithely go on our way, blind as ancient Judah to God's implacable opposition to impenitence. "No sin can bring me into judgment! I am baptized! I took communion last Sunday! i am saved. I am good to go." 

Ack! Lord, have mercy on us if those sacred gifts offered to us to grant us forgiveness AND grace to resist and fight disobedience to Christ in our lives, to enable lives of genuine repentance and contrition, end up being abused by us, by not being used toward their intended end. 

Throughout the prophets God is clear that He's not interested in mere ritual compliance. "This people draws near to me with their mouth, but their heart is far from me!" "To obey is better than sacrifice." "Rend your hearts and not your garments! Return to the Lord that He may have mercy and to our God for He will abundantly pardon."

make no mistake, the temple as the forgiveness place pales in comparison with Christ's sacraments. Yet Holy Baptism and the Eucharist, so chocked full with the forgiveness of Jesus, poured into them by the Savior Himself, the very atonement of the cross dished out richly over your life and into your body, mind, soul, and spirit, both, I say, end up bringing only judgment if you use them with the assumption that merely receiving them outwardly guarantees God's certain favor. That is no different from "the temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord" that Jeremiah decried. 

So while it is true that baptism now saves us, as St. Peter taught, and as our Lord said: "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved" it is also true that "he who does not believe will be condemned." Yes, even though he be chanting: "I am baptized! I am baptized!" all the way to the grave. And the Eucharist is of course the very body and blood of Him who wiped out all the sins of the all the world on the tree of the cross and is given now to you to eat and to drink for your forgiveness, but when you receive in an unworthy, thoughtless manner (particularly by not discerning the body of the Lord), what was intended for life brings judgment instead. 

Our Augsburg Confession expresses this matter with clarity in article XIII: "Our churches teach that the Sacraments were ordained...to be signs and testimonies of God's will toward us. They were instituted to awaken and confirm faith in those who use them. Therefore we must use the Sacrament in such a way that faith, which believes the promises offered and set forth through the sacraments, is increased. Therefore, they condemn those who teach that the Sacraments justify simply by the act of doing them."

When the Lamb of God makes you a beautiful promise, people loved by God, this promise is to be heard, relied on, and put to work in your life. That's what it is to receive the Sacraments in faith, that is in repentance, because genuine faith only exists in repentance. God deliver you and me and all of us from presumption in the use of His holy gifts and stir up our hearts to living faith, through His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord. God grant it! Amen.

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

Hymn: 583 God Has Spoken by the Prophets

Prayers: Al, Zoey, Kent, Joel, Bonnie, Herb, Gene, Paula, Roger, Allan and Jan; for all those in missionary training this week.