The Truth WIll Set You Free

Title: The Truth Will Set You Free By Pastor Lohn Johnson
Text:  John 8: 34 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.  35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.  36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” INTRODUCTION:  My dear friends in Christ, In the movie "Gone With the Wind," Scarlett O'Hara's father, Gerald, offers a most profound observation as he confronts his 16-year old daughter on the evening before John Wilkes' famous barbecue. [Video: After being rebuffed by Scarlett for wanting to bequeath to her Tara's rich landscape, Gerald tells his ungrateful child that the land "is the only thing that lasts.” It's the only thing worth fighting for, worth dying for."] Well, it's certain that the land will be here long after we're gone, but even the land we walk on won't last forever. It will continue to erode and to change as time goes on. But there is something that will outlast the land and the people who live on it. God’s truth will never change!  When we discover this, we will be free for now and forever. This is the Sunday when Lutheran churches celebrate the words and works of Martin Luther, whose search to know what was true and what was not true about the Christian faith hatched the Reformation movement Martin Luther was a diligent seeker after truth. Unfortunately, truth and the freedom it brings eluded him, because, at first, his search took him down the wrong path.
I.  Our text is also about the truth.  Jesus said to those who had believed in him, "You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."  But the Jews before Jesus were mistaken about the truth.
	A. Their words show they were mistaken about the truth of being slaves.
			1. The Jews told Jesus in our text: “We...have never been enslaved to anyone,”  Were they kidding?
						a. Had they forgotten about Tiberius over in Rome who was their master?  Their lives were under his control.  b. Had they forgotten their history books, or perhaps rewritten them in their own minds?  They had been slaves to the cruel Babylonians for seventy years, and before that slaves to the Pharaoh down in Egypt.
			2. But Jesus does not give them a history lesson.  He points to something far worse than physical slavery...spiritual slavery.  “Everyone who commits sin,” He says, “is a slave to sin.”  And this is a truth they would deny too.
		B. And here is where we come in.  Most Americans do not share, with the Jews, their history of slavery.  But we certainly do share with them the spiritual slavery to sin.  And even more, we share their denials as well.  It is common for us to be mistaken about the truth.
			1. We do not think of ourselves as slaves.
						a. We pride ourselves on our independence, and not just as Americans; as Christians, too.  We like to think that we can handle the problems that come into our life; even the spiritual problems. b. Like the Jews, we live in denial.  They claimed Abraham as their father, and so how could they be called slaves?  For us, it’s Martin Luther.  “Me, a slave to sin?  But I’m a Lutheran.  I’m no slave.”  Yet even Martin Luther himself recognized, not just that he was a slave, but that his master was a cruel tyrant.  He echoed the words of the Apostle Paul:  “Wretched man that I am!  Who will set me free from this body of death?” (Rom. 7)
			2. The truth is that we are sinners. Not simply ones who commit sin, that is, do bad things, think bad thoughts, say bad words. It goes much deeper than that. We are slaves to Sin with a capital S.
						a. We are born enslaved, captive to Sin and Death. We cannot free ourselves. We’re stuck. And any attempts at self-liberation only make matters worse. Even things we thought were OK, even those places where we felt self-justified turn out to be riddled with sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. The mere fact that we sin – in our thoughts, in our words, in our actions – reminds us that we are slaves to Sin. b. Rather than live in denial, we need to face up to the harsh reality that we who commit sin are slaves to sin.  Our selfishness enslaves us.  So does our sinful pride.  God’s Word is clear.  To deny the truth that our sins have enslaved us is to live in death.
II. As Jesus proclaimed the truth to those Jews, His word proclaims the truth to us.  It is designed to work like this:
		A. A man sat one morning at a table in a fast-food restaurant, facing a window coated with a film of dirt and grease. An employee appeared outside with a bucket of water and sponged the grime away. It was like the raising of a curtain on a stage. Now he could see clearly the scene outside. In the immediate foreground was an asphalt parking lot; beyond that a stretch of winter-browned grass, relieved of monotony only by a cluster or two of leafless shrubs. Distant signs proclaimed the presence of a cinema, a bank, and a grocery store. Sea gulls from a nearby river floated casually overhead, occasionally gliding to the ground to snatch a morsel of food. A small airplane parted the sky, while traffic flowed steadily on the highway below. What had been concealed was now revealed: the appealing and the unappealing; the inspiring and the uninspiring; the depressing and the uplifting. Everything stood out in sunny outline, bold and clear.  Truth does that for us. It removes from our eyes the film that coats and distorts reality, and enables us to see, with clarity, the totality of life.
		B. Likewise We are to see the Truth about salvation through His words
			1. First, we are brought to see that No slave can free himself. A slave must be set free by his master.
					a. And because sin was our master, Jesus became sin for you.  He allowed sin --your sin, my sin-- to enslave Him.  That which was your master, mastered Jesus on the cross.  He surrendered to sin’s power.  He gave Himself up, and sin claimed Him completely.  It worked Him over.  It was a brutal tyrant.  The punishments Jesus endured from His Father for becoming the sinner in your place were far more brutal than any slave has ever endured. And then sin, as His cruel master, carried Jesus away in death.  b. But on the third day, the bonds of death were shattered.  The stone was rolled from the tomb.  Jesus came forth alive.  And He who lives is the One who draws you to Himself.  In Baptism he claims you.  In the Holy Supper He draws near to you.  Here in His Worship Service He speaks His words into you.  And so He who now has power over sin, death, and hell turns the key in your life and sets you free, free indeed.
			2.  The truth is It is Jesus Christ who snaps the chains of bondage - The alien power that has occupied our hearts since sin was first displayed in Eden has been crushed.
				a. The Truth is it is the Christ who loved us and who gave himself for us, who healed the sick, the blind, the deaf, and raised the dead. b. The Truth is it is the Christ of Calvary who bore in his own body on the tree the lies of all the world. c. The Truth is it is the Christ who stands before his table as our host and shares with us the broken body and his cleansing blood, "This is for you!" d. The Truth is it is the living, risen Lord beneath whose feet the ultimate, eternal bondage has been shattered and the powers of hell obliterated.
		C. The truth will set you free. It is a freedom from condemnation. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” The debt has been paid once and for all. The slate has been washed clean. The verdict has been read. The jury dismissed. No condemnation. God refuses to deal with you as your sins deserve. The entire burden of your sin was nailed to the cross in Jesus. He bore the verdict “guilty” so that you might hear the verdict “not guilty.” You are free.
			1. The story is told of a man who lived in England several hundred years ago. He was accused of crimes he did not commit.  All through his trial, he stayed totally calm, - not at all worried about the outcome. The reason for his peaceful attitude was that before the trial he had previously pleaded his case to the King of England, who gave him a full pardon should he be found guilty by the court. So the man sat calmly in court with the king’s written pardon in his pocket.
				a. Our situation is similar, but with one big difference -- we are actually guilty! The Bible says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) But we have pleaded our case before the King of kings, - and because of His great love and sacrifice on our behalf, He has mercifully declared us "not guilty," "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1-2) b. As we live out our days on this earth, we have "a pardon in our pocket," so to speak. Because of what our Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross, we have peace with God, forgiveness of sins, and assurance of eternal life with Him. c. But it is even better than that. The man in England only had a pardon from the king in his pocket. In our case, we have the pardon of the King of kings—a pardon good for all eternity!
			2. We cling to the truth of God, but do not expect this to be easy. The devil, the world and our own sinful flesh hate God's truth and seek to wrest us away from it.
				a. Jesus tells us the truth that He is the Savior—Now in Him we have certain hope for eternal life. The world objects, "Only one Savior? How intolerant! We must do away with that truth! b. Jesus delights to remind us the truth that forgiveness comes in His Word and Sacraments. Your Old Adam says, "Nuts to that. What matters is how you feel. If you feel God is near, He is. If you feel He's far away, then He's not." But the Lord’s truth is not that He is present in feelings! Instead, His truth is that He is as near to you as His Word and Sacraments, no matter how you feel. c. It doesn’t matter if you feel like a slave.  Jesus has set you free.  No sin in your life as the power to master you – that’s the God’s honest truth.
CONCLUSION:   The truth is we are enslaved to sin.  The truth is we cannot free ourselves from this tyrant.  The truth is Jesus became sin for us.  The truth is He was destroyed by sin on that cross.  The truth is He defeated sin and death when He rose.  The truth is what He did is given out to us through Word and Sacrament.  The truth is we have received the pardon of our King of kings.  The truth is now we live eternally in the freedom we have been given. Amen.

The Whole Pie

Title: The Whole Pie By Pastor Lohn Johnson
Text:  Matthew 22:20 And Jesus said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?"  21 They said, "Caesar's." Then he said to them, "Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."    INTRODUCTION:  My dear friends in Christ,   Back in elementary school, we learned about pie graphs. Do you remember them? Sure you do! A circle represents the whole. Slices of the circle, whether large or small, represent portions of the whole. These slices are often shown in vivid colors. A pie graph can indicate how a budget is divided. It can indicate the breakdown of a population according to age or race or sex. A pie graph can convey many kinds of information in a way that is simple to understand.
I.  Did you know that life is like a pie chart or graph.  It is, it really is–let me explain.
	A. You and I may experience life as we live it now in terms of a pie graph. The single self we are is served up in several slices. One slice may be for work, another for school, another for family. There may be slices for church and recreation and community service. Still other slices represent meals and sleep. Together such slices as these make up the pie which is our life here and now.
			1. A pie graph of our life indicates what many of us realize in our bones: that there is only so much of us to go around. If we give more attention to one area, then we must give less to another. If we work more, we may have to sleep less. Increased attention to school may require decreased attention to family. 2. Each of us lives out a different pie graph, but in this respect all of us are the same: we have our limits. We have only so much time, so much energy.
	B. No one today seriously denies that we all have our pies sliced too thin. Sometimes there are too many slices for our own good.  And those slices tend to control us.
			1. There was a film from years ago in which a scene opened to show two puppeteers arguing over who would control the strings tied to a marionette on the stage below them. As they argued, one tried to wrest the strings from the other. The result was predictable. The puppet was pulled and thrown this way and that across the stage, as first one puppeteer and then the other pulled the string to an arm or leg, hand or foot.
						a. Our many pie slices can do the same to us. We may feel that the strings tied to us are being tugged, and then we have to move as they direct. The company we work for, the government we live under, the family we belong to, the possessions we own - all these things exercise varying degrees of control over our lives. To a large extent they determine how we spend our time, our money, our energy. b. It’s common for people to be pulled in so many different directions that they jump and jerk across the stage of life, often feeling helplessly out of control.
			2. Our problem is that there are too many slices of our pies. It's impossible to please them all. Giving each slice it’s due is often more than we can handle.  We are just spread too thin.
II. Our text, though, is partially about Caesar’s part of the pie.  As much as we’d like to deny it Caesar is to have his slice.
		A. The land where Jesus lived was ruled by a Caesar, an emperor. It was an occupied land. The people felt the weight of foreign domination. They were taxed beyond endurance. In such a place, it is important to determine a person’s attitude toward Caesar. It can prove dangerous to give Caesar anything less than the slice of pie that he wants. Yet to accept his claim to the lion’s share can be dangerous as well.
			1. Thus, in their campaign to trap Jesus, his opponents ask him a loaded question. "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?" If he says yes, then he loses the support of the masses, who long for freedom. If he says no, then he reveals himself as a subversive and may forfeit his life. 2. In answering Jesus says, “Render unto Caesar.”  In this Jesus is telling them that they are to pay their taxes, because this was their duty as citizens.
					a. Whether they believed it or not, Caesar was God’s agent for their general well-being.  It mattered not that Tiberius wasn’t a very noble ruler.  The office of Caesar was his.  He had God’s authority behind him, even though he did not acknowledge the true God.  Still, God used him to maintain law and order in the land.  b. And what were they to give to Caesar in return?  Respect, and taxes.
		B. We, too, are under government.  We have to be.  Non-government would be chaos.  We need the police.  We need the courts.  We need laws.
			1. We need to have respect for authority.  We don’t always agree with everything our government says and does.  But we disagree respectfully.  2. And we have the duty to pay taxes.  We owe the government our support…our service.  “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.”  Because Caesar, whether he is good or evil, acts in the place of God to keep the peace and maintain law and order.  Yes, Caesar demands his part of the pie.
III. But the second part of Jesus’ response involves God’s part of the pie.  He says, "Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
		A. With this reply, Jesus raises the debate to a different level. What is at stake is more than tax payments, more than even the rule of Rome. Now the question becomes whether God claims a slice of the pie.
			1. Here Jesus insisted that the claim God makes is unique. What belongs to God is not some slice of the pie, but the whole pie, the complete person. Nothing less will do. Our Creator has a claim on us. The pie belongs to the one who baked it.
					a. Give your money to Caesar if you must, Jesus says, but give yourselves to God.  God does not want a slice of who we are, whether that slice is thick or thin. God wants our whole selves. God is not part of the competition that pulls us this way and that, but He is the one who makes us whole. Our relationship with God is not a matter of the logic of fractions by which we give away portions of who we are.  b. But even this seems like another demand for even more than another piece of pie – a pie that’s already cut too thin.
			2.  “Render to God,” says Jesus, “the things that are God’s;” and we don’t…not one of us.
				a. We all begrudge giving Him our money.  We all begrudge giving Him our time.  We may do it only out of a sense of duty.  We may show up here to worship or to work only because we think we have to.  We certainly can’t give Him our whole selves. b. But despite our attitude toward Him, our God is never offended at us.  He’s not keeping track of the number of hours you work in His church.  He doesn’t keep a worship attendance chart.  He does not render His blessings to you because of what and how you render to Him.  c. God is no Caesar.  Caesar does not know the meaning of the word mercy; but God is that word.  God is merciful.  He is the One who loved you to the point of rendering His own Son for you.
		B. Remember the image on the coin?  Jesus made much of that image.  It was important.  “Give to Caesar what you owe him because his image is on your money.”  And so with God.  What is it that bears the image of God?  Or, rather, who is it? The answer is not us.  The image of God that we had was destroyed in the fall.  So now the only answer is Jesus.  Colossians 1:15 says that “He is the image of God.”  He, Jesus, is the exact representation of the invisible God.  So when He tells us, “Render unto God what is God’s,” He is saying that God wants us to give Him Jesus.
			1. Perhaps we’re a little confused by this.  After all, our government does much to take care of our well-being, and so we owe our government tax dollars, respect, our works of service, and so forth.
				a. If we owe all these things to our government, then don’t we owe the same things, and more, to God?  That’s what our sinful flesh thinks.  We think we owe it to God to love and respect Him.  b. Our flesh thinks we owe it to God to be in church on Sunday mornings.  We think we owe Him our loyalty and obedience; that we owe it to Him to put our money in the offering plate.
			2. Friend, you may owe things such as these to your government, but you do not owe them to God.
				a. Because Jesus, on the cross, paid the price for everything that we owed to God.  Because of our sin, we owed Him more than we could ever pay.  Jesus paid it.  He paid the price for our sins.  He suffered all the agony of hell for us.  He took the debt which we owed and wiped it clean, paying for it in full. b. And so, what will we render to God?  Our works of service?.. Our love and obedience?.. Our hard-earned money?  None of these will gain us a place in heaven.  None of these will earn God’s favor and eternal reward.  What God wants us to give Him is... Jesus.  He is the image of God.  He is the One, the only One who lived a perfect, holy life.  He is the One who satisfied God’s justice with His atoning sacrifice.  God wants us to give Him Jesus.  Little baptized children have it right—the answer to every question is Jesus.  c. When God confronts us about our sin and accuses us of wrongdoing, give Him Jesus.  When God asks, “Do you love Me with all your heart, soul, and mind?” give Him Jesus.  “I don’t love as I should, but Jesus does.  He loves You perfectly for me—in my place.”  When God asks, “Do you love your neighbor as yourself?” give Him Jesus.  “I fall short, but in Jesus I love my neighbor, for He loved, and loves all people for me—in my place.”  And when God asks, “Why should I let you into heaven?” give Him Jesus.  “Because Jesus died and rose for me.  He did everything in my behalf.  In Holy Baptism He made me His forgiven child, and in Holy Communion He gives Himself, and all that He has, to me.”
			3. To “render unto God what is God’s,” is simply to approach God always and only through Jesus.
				a. Because Jesus removed from us the burden of our sin, we can freely give God, through Jesus, our thanks and praise, our love and devotion, our works of service, our offerings.  b. We owe Him nothing—we, in Christ, are not under Law but under grace—we owe Him nothing, but through Jesus we freely give Him all that we are and have—the whole pie.
CONCLUSION:  We are free now, in Christ, to love and serve God not because we have to, but because in love of Christ, we want to.  So in Christ we are freed from the TYRANNY of the pie chart.  Amen.

My House is Your House

Title: My House is Your House by Pastor Lohn Johnson
Text:    Matthew 21: 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.'  38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.'  39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.  40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?"  41 They said to him, "He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons."  INTRODUCTION: My dear friends in Christ,  I’ll bet none of you have experienced a parsonage – that’s a house for a pastor and family owned by the church where he serves. It can be a blessing or a curse.  Felicia and I have experienced one.  In my first church in Saskatchewan we had one.  Not a bad house overall but there were some problems.  In the cold Saskatchewan winter we had ice all over the fireplace which couldn’t be used. This is just a hint of how cold it was.  We also had snow blowing in under the door ways, showing how drafty it was.  Members would come in at all hours, to visit or to repair something.  They would give no notice – after all it was their house.  We could not change anything – no painting, no improvements even if we paid for it.  They were the landlords and we were the tenants and we were not allowed to forget it.  It did lead to conflict but for the most part we concentrated on the blessing part of it all.  It’s pretty easy to see how this can lead to problems between a pastor and a congregation. It seems clear that the relationship between a landlord and a tenant is at best a tenuous one: the landlord is understandably concerned about the use or abuse of his property (after all, it is his house); the tenant understandably concerned about the maintenance being cared for and privacy of the place (after all, it is his home). So long as one party is owner and the other merely occupant, the best anyone can hope for is a distant, businesslike relationship. And the worst is conflict, maybe even violence.
I. And it’s striking how often our relationship with God is like that of a haughty tenant and landlord.
	A. And so the setting for St. Matthew’s teaching story of the Wicked Tenants is quite pertinent because: God is landlord of a vineyard and the people of God, tenant farmers. And it’s more like everyday life than we’d probably like to admit.
			1. We can get a handle on the source of this conflict in this modern parable: One afternoon a secretary who worked in a large office building took a well-deserved coffee break. She stopped by the vending machine and bought a bag of cookies, which she slipped into her purse. The she waited in line for a cup of coffee. After she got her coffee, she found a vacant chair at a table in the break room and sat down to enjoy these few brief minutes away from the office. She had brought the latest issue of her favorite magazine with her, and she opened it to the article she had started reading that morning over breakfast. After taking a sip of her coffee, she reached out and took a cookie from the bag. To her astonishment, a man sitting across the table from her also reached into the bag and took a cookie! She was a little bit upset by this, but she didn't say anything. After all, it was only one cookie. A few minutes later, she took another cookie. Once again, her table companion also took a cookie from the bag. Now she was getting a little bent out of shape, especially since there was only one more cookie left in the bag. Apparently the man also noticed that only one cookie was left. He reached into the bag, took it out, broke it in half, offered one half to his break companion, and ate the other half himself. Then he smiled, rose from the table, and walked away. By this time, steam was coming from the woman's ears! She was mad enough to chew nails! How dare this jerk ruin her coffee break by helping himself to half of HER cookies! She hastily folded the magazine and snatched up her purse, which fell open to reveal an unopened bag of cookies. All this time, she had been helping herself to someone else's cookies, and he didn't seem to mind at all! Actually it was the person with whom she shared the table who had every right to be offended. She had taken what had belonged to him without asking or even acknowledging the generosity of her host with a word of thanks.
			2 The same mistake - but with a decidedly different amount of anger and violence - was made by the tenants of the vineyard in the parable Jesus sets before us today.
				a. The tenants didn't own the vineyard they were working in, nor did they own the fruit it produced. As tenants, or sharecroppers, they had only leased the land. They didn't pay any purchase price, they only paid rent. And the rent they agreed to pay was a portion of the harvest. This is the obligation the tenants in this story b.  But like the weary woman on coffee break, the tenants of the vineyard took for their own something that rightfully belonged to someone else.
	B. So it may be with us. All our lives, we've been helping ourselves to God's bag of cookies. Whether we realize it or not, whatever cookies we have are cookies that come from God.
			1. Seldom if ever do we acknowledged the source of the gifts with which we have been blessed.  Often we simply claim them as our own and dare anyone to try to take it away.  2. But we are tenants; and we claim to ourselves the rights and privileges belonging to the owner.  We resent His ownership. We would just as soon have Him out of the way.
II. God knew from the beginning that it would come to this. Knew that given human nature, and the landlord-tenant relationship, conflict and death were inevitable.
		A. The penalty for tenant’s wicked conduct is clear to all: death. But instead of evicting us and killing us off, God does a new thing: God does not give “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.”  But He responds to our sins with mercy – with undeserved love.
			1. You see, the old, wicked tenants were correct in a weird sort of way.  The Son, the Heir, had to be killed if His inheritance was to be gained. And this is why Jesus died willingly, so that all His inheritance would be given to miserable sinners like us.
				a. So the Heir, Jesus, was killed. He was taken outside of the vineyard, just like in the parable.  He was nailed to a cross.  On that cross He was punished for our sin of being wicked tenants – for our taking God’s cookies ungratefully.  b. No matter how wickedly you have acted toward God, He responds in mercy toward you.  The death of His Son guarantees this for you.  Now what He did is given out to all through Word and Sacrament. His inheritance--forgiveness, life, and salvation--is all yours—a gift from God to you because of Jesus.   c. Why would God give this wonderful gift to disobedient people like you and me?  Well, there is no one else to give it to.  There is no one on earth who is not a wretched tenant.  There is no one who obeys God.  But God desires above all things to give Christ to sinners like you and me.  This He has done, and this He will always do.  He sent His Son to those wretched tenants in the parable.  He sends His Son to wretched sinners like us.  He makes Jesus’ death our death, the old, jealous, murderous tenant is killed.
			2. And, when God raises His son to new life, he therein and thereby raises us up to new life and a new relationship also.
				a. Not only has our relationship with God been fundamentally altered, but also our very identities are altered: we are no longer sharecroppers, but heirs; no longer tenants, but children dwelling in the family home. Our adoptive father has said to us, my house is your house. b. There is a touching story about... ...how a teddy bear sat high on a shelf in a department store that majored in rapid turnover of stock. But there he sat. He was a pretty, brown teddy bear, but he had a problem. He had on a cute pair of bib overalls, but the button that held one strap over the shoulder was missing. The strap drooped by his side, and the bib hung over his chest. And as he sat there he got more and more dusty. No one seemed very interested in a teddy bear like that. Then it happened. A little girl walked into the store and spotted the dusty teddy bear with the drooping bib. The clerk suggested that perhaps she would rather have one that was perfect, but the little shopper was insistent. She wanted the dusty one on the top shelf. When the clerk finally got the teddy bear down and handed him to the little girl, she threw her arms around him and exclaimed, "I love you, but I think you will feel better if I dust you off and sew a button on you." That is Christ's word to all of us who find ourselves sitting on shelves, covered with dust, with a few buttons missing. But He does more than dust us off, sew the buttons back on and help us get on with our lives, He make us new.  More He makes us sons and daughters.
		B. But there are many of God’s children who still act like tenants and who still treat their Father like a landlord. From time to time, we do it ourselves.
			1. That is an unhappy, and distant relationship.
				a.  We twist things around to where our whole way of looking at Christ and his church is "what they can do for me." We're angry if this or that isn't done for us the way we want it done. Shouldn't we rather concentrate on the privilege that is ours to be a member of His church, to have an opportunity to serve in this place? b. Our lives have been set in a gracious vineyard, and that's a privilege. We ought to look at our community and our church in the frame of mind that says, "How can I properly respond to this great privilege given me?" Rather than ask how well we might be entertained, we ought to be concerned about how well we are serving the Christ of the church because we are privileged to be in his vineyard. c. And when He sends His Son through the preaching of His Word, the water, bread and wine—all too often we respond like those tenants and cast Him out of our hearts, for there is no room there—For we think just as the tenants thought…we want to own the vineyard…we want to own what God has given…we want God out of the way, so that we can act as our own “god” in life.
			2 For Christ’s sake and by the grace of our loving Father, it need not be so. We are continuously reminded we have a loving Father who treats us with mercy, who takes us from being tenants to being heirs.  And there’s room in this adoptive family for millions more..
CONCLUSION:  The landlord-tenant relationship is tenuous at best. But the father-child relationship is tender and precious. By the grace of our Father God and for the sake of Christ his Son, we are tenants no more, but children. No longer sharecroppers, but heirs.  And we are heirs who look to serving gratefully in his vineyard now and we look toward living in his remade vineyard for eternity The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.   Amen

The 3rd Son

Title: The Third Son By Pastor Lohn Johnson
Text:    Matthew 21: 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.” INTRODUCTION: My dear friends in Christ, Kevin, that scamp of the Home Alone movies, is mischievous, and just as cute as could be! But what really made Kevin such a memorable character was how he taught us the value of family. We learned that even if we're not always that crazy about the folks we live with, when we're separated from them, it's terrible. But he repented of wishing his family away. When Kevin was reunited with his family and ran into the arms of his mother.  Kevin is an example of what we will call for the purpose of this message “the bad son changed to the good son.” Macaulay Culkin's portrayal of a "good kid" was so convincing that when he played a "bad kid" in a movie called “The Good Son,” the effect was stunning. Macaulay played against his stereotype. He appeared to be an ideal boy; polite, courteous, and obedient. Since he was perceived to be all good, when things went wrong around his house the blame was just naturally placed upon his less charismatic cousin, Mark. It was only at the end of the movie that his parents learned that this son, who appeared to be good, was, in fact, evil.  He is an overboard example of the “good son—who is really the bad son.”   All this applies to our parable because in a way there we see the same two sons.
I. In our text the first son is the Bad Son who is changed to Good Son—like the Home Alone Macauley.
	A. That first son was a real piece of work, wasn’t he?
			1. His father said: “Go, work in the vineyard today, son.”
				a. “No!” he said, “I will not!”  right to his father’s face.   b. That was the way of the prostitutes and tax collectors, and others in Jesus’ day who publicly opposed the will of God.  What God commanded they rejected…for all to see.
			2. Later, God’s Spirit moved them to go his way after all.  Like Macauley Culkin in Home Alone as he repents of his wish to be rid of his family.
	B. We are so often this son whenever we outwardly oppose the will of God.
			1. By our words, by our actions, when you and I reject what God commands we are displaying the very same rebelliousness.  God says, “Do this,” but we say “No!”  God says, “Do not do this,” but we say, “I most certainly will!” 2. Yet God’s Spirit continues to work on us until, perhaps at a time of crisis or despair, we are brought to believe and respond. Then those who were most enslaved and paralyzed in sin may become the most eager and energetic workers in the vineyard.
II. The second Son who looks good but is really bad underneath – like Macauley Culkin in “The Good Son,” where he looked like the good son, but is really evil.
		A. The second child, who so eagerly said yes but then did not go to the vineyard, masterfully depicts unfaithful Israel and especially the religious leaders.
			1. They were quick and proud to profess obedience, but their actions did not match their words. 2. To pretend to obey and then disobey was the way of the Scribes and Pharisees in Jesus’ day.  They said all the right things, but did not follow through.  They recounted the words of God, but did not act on what God had said.
		B. The hypocrisy of the second son lives within us.  We say what God wants to hear, when we’re here in His House, but then we go out and do the opposite.  We promise to be faithful, but we don’t follow through.  Our words count for nothing when our actions show them to be meaningless.
			1. How many of us have made promises and then faltered in keeping them?  In fact, every one of us can most identify with that son who told his father, "Yes, I'll go and work for you." Like him, we get distracted, frustrated, or just "weary of well doing." How many confirmands have promised to remain faithful, yet fall away from the faith.  How many members promise to remain faithful yet when the going gets tough we fall away. We all know what it is like to say one thing and then find ourselves doing another. We are a bundle of inconsistencies. We are all guilty. Jesus' little story hits us right between the eyes. 2. We are too much like... ... the rich young man who was taken to the hospital, critically ill. His condition worsened, and his doctor even told him that he wasn't sure if he'd recover, but that they would do all they could. The man was obviously scared to death, and said to the doctor, "Please, doctor, I don't want to die, I have so much to do yet in life. If you can help me get better, I'll donate $100,000 to the hospital building fund. Fortunately, the young man began to improve and recovered, and a few weeks later was released and went home. Several months later, the doctor happened to see the man at a social function, and after seeing that he was doing very well with no sign of his former illness, the doctor reminded him of his promise. "You remember you said if you got well, you'd like to donate $100,000, and we could really use that now." The young man replied, "Wow, if I said that, I must have been really sick!" (1) There are many in the church like that. They never argue, never criticize, or give others any problems. And yet they never live up to their promises.
		C. At this point we should note that the response of both sons is imperfect. One says no and then on second thought decides to go, and the other says yes but for some reason never enters the fields. Neither response is ideal from the father’s perspective. But given a choice one has to say the first response is preferable to the last.
III.  I’m sure that this father was wanting to ask:  Do I have any other sons out there?  And the answer is…yes.  There is one more son (the third Son).  The Son who told the parable.  The Son of God, Jesus Christ.  When the Father said, “Go,” He said, “I will,” and He did.  No rebelliousness here.  No disobedience of any kind.  This Son obeyed the Father’s voice.
			A. God called Jesus to work in His vineyard.  And that vineyard is Israel or today we would call it the church.  This Son answered His Father with humility and respect.  He said, “I’ll go.”  He gave an open and honest answer to His Father.   There was no deceit or guile.  B. And He went.  He didn’t just speak some agreeable words to keep down conflict.  He was called and He went willingly.
				1. He came from heaven to be born in a lowly stable.  It would be a humbling experience to do this at best.  He was a Son who was also God and man together.  This was the only way a son could be perfect today. 2. He lived a perfect life.
					a. He kept all of the Father’s commands.  Jesus was tempted but did not sin.  b. The perfect Son was sitting there telling this parable – working in the vineyard as He spoke.
				3. He was so obedient that he willingly went to the cross.
					a. That was His major work in the vineyard.  b. On that cross He suffered hell for us.  Only He had infinite value to pay for an almost infinite amount of sin.  On that cross God punished Him for our sin.  And He died there on that cross.  But on the third day He rose from the dead.
			C. He, the obedient Son, did all this for mankind.   And now this work is carried to mankind in Word and sacrament.  Jesus, Himself, was carrying his deeds to those listeners as He spoke the words of this parable.  Now because of this third Son the vineyard’s gate stands open to all who are brought to repent and believe. But does it matter that the gate to the Vineyard is open?
				1. You know, for many people it does not.  They live as if there was no third Son—no Son of God who lived, suffered, died, and rose again for them…even though He did.  2. But for you who are baptized into that “third Son,” it means everything.  It means that even though the first two sons live within you, with all their wickedness and rebelliousness, so does the “third Son.”  And He, Christ, puts an end to their rule within your heart.  3. Jesus brings you to repent of your sins against God’s will, and He leads you into the vineyard where He gives you the cup of forgiveness to drink.
					a. He brings you to sorrow over your sin so that you believe the words:  I forgive you.  b. That forgiveness changes everything like this:... .... Two brothers were found guilty of stealing sheep.  In that time and country, the punishment they received was to have their foreheads branded with the letters S and T, standing for “Sheep Thief.”  The first brother was so embarrassed and bitter that he fled to another country.  He nursed the resentment the rest of his life and died there buried in a forgotten grave.  His brother, however, repented of his crime and decided not to leave home.  His attitude was this: “I can’t run away from the fact that I stole sheep.  I’ll say here and hopefully some day I will win back the respect of my neighbors.”  As the years passed, he did establish a reputation for honesty and integrity.  One day a stranger came into town and saw the brand on his forehead.  He asked one of the local people what it stood for.  After thinking a while, the man answered, “It all happened so long ago, I can’t really remember the details.  But I think the letters are the abbreviation for ‘Saint!” Jesus does much the same for us.  He changes us to live as His saints—or sons like Him.
CONCLUSION: We have seen three sons this morning – two represent the reactions men can have to God’s overature to us in Christ.  The first was the bad son who was turned good.  He responded badly they thought better of it.  The second was the good son who was really the bad son, who says one thing and does another.  But God’s third Son was the good Son through and through.  He went when told and followed through.  He worked salvation for us all.  Now He comes to us through Word and sacrament and makes us like Him.  Honest workers in God’s vineyard.  Workers who respond well and follow through.  Amen.