A Life-Giving Lesson in Faith

Editor's Note: Without really meaning to I have neglected to post sermons for the last several weeks. This is somewhat due to the fact that the sermons for both Pentecost and Holy Trinity needed to be edited before being published because they contained the names of people in the congregation. All the sermons from the rest of May and this one from June 1 are now available and I hope you have a chance to read them and find meaning in them.


The Third Sunday after Pentecost


A sermon based on Romans 1:16-17; 3:2228 [29-31] and Matthew 7:21-29

In the name of Jesus; amen.

This gospel troubles me. Actually, the gospel of Matthew often has that affect on me. By the end of this liturgical year, which will end the Sunday before Advent begins, I will be grateful to no longer have to preach on it. By the end of Matthew we will hear all about the gnashing of teeth that takes place to those who fall outside the scope of salvation and wind up in the eternal fires of hell.

By the end of this cycle of Matthew we will be thoroughly challenged by the law and commandments that have been given to us by God and reinforced by Christ and I will be relieved.

This text is scary. It should frighten you. It frightens me. I like to think that heaven is an infinitely large place where all are welcome and this text tends to contradict that thought. This gospel does not suggest some universalistic, everybody goes to heaven theology, but rather that Jesus will actually turn people away, telling them literally to “Get out of my face; I don’t know you.”

Those that Jesus recognizes will be those who did the will of his Father. They will get a pass to enter into the kingdom of heaven. But not everybody who acts as though they know Jesus will make it through the pearly gates. There will be some who will say they know Jesus who will not enter.

It’s as if heaven was an exclusive night club and Jesus is a celebrity who gets to decide which of us standing behind the ropes will be let in by the bouncers.

Jesus will point out those cool enough to be let in and the rest will be left out trying to get his attention, “Jesus, Jesus, remember me?”

This text doesn’t just challenge my universalistic tendencies, but also my Lutheran tendencies as well. It’s not enough that I know Jesus; I also have to do stuff too. We believe as Paul writes that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law. In other words, we aren’t saved by anything we do. We cannot earn our way into heaven. We can’t do anything that will get us into heaven. Following the law doesn’t get us saved. We are saved by grace alone.

Only God saves us and we trust that God saves us because of the work that Jesus did.

But this reading seems to say that what we do does matter to our salvation.

We live in what most consider a meritorious system; that is a system which operates on merits. We get things because we earn them. Most people work hard to get the things that they need and the things that they want. And we tend to want to punish those who get things by taking them. And we tend to want to despise those who get things just because they are lucky or born into the right family.

So the idea of getting into heaven based upon what we do makes a lot of sense. And actually from a preacher’s perspective it sounds like a helpful tool: want you parishioners to act differently, put more money in the plate, volunteer more hours of their week, come to church more often? Make sure they hear loud and clear that to do otherwise would be against the will of God and would send them to hell for certain.

But here’s the problem: can any of us ever do enough to be certain that we’ve done enough to get into heaven?

Entrance into heaven doesn’t work based on merits, except for the merits that Jesus earned for us. We are saved because Jesus did the work and gave us the credit. This means that even though we cannot do enough we are still welcomed into heaven.

And here is the trick: because we have been saved, not by our own works, but by the work of Jesus, we should do the will of the Father. We shouldn’t follow the law, or what we know God wants from us because we are afraid that we won’t make it into heaven if we don’t. We should follow the law and do what God wants from us because God has given us everything.

There are some people who claim that they know Jesus; they even use Jesus’ name, but they do not follow the will of God by loving God and loving their neighbor. And perhaps we can all agree that there are days and moments that we fall right into that category.

What Jesus wants from us is not to use his name to drive out demons, but to let his name use us to drive out demons: to follow the way of loving God and loving neighbor because God loves us.

What Jesus wants is for us to do more than say we are Christians, but to actually be Christians in the way we live our lives. Not so we will get into heaven, because we can’t ever do enough for that, but because it pleases God who has already made certain that we will go to heaven.

The funny thing is that in doing those things that please God we actually live better lives and help those around us live better lives too.

So take this wonderful gift that we have been given of God’s grace and let yourself be used by it by loving God and loving others. And suddenly you will discover that these words of Jesus aren’t scary, but life-giving.

Amen.