The Eighth Sunday after Trinity – Sunday 21 July A✠D 2024
✠ Psalmody: Psalm 48:9-10; 1, 3, 11, 14;31:2b, 1a;78:1
✠ Lection: Jeremiah 23:16–29;Romans 8:12–17;Matthew 7:15–23
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
It’s never heard of for eyesight to naturally improve with age. As we all advance in years, such things deteriorate and most of us are bound to conclude this life under the same description as the patriarch Isaac when it is written that he was old and his eyes were so dim that he could not see. We do much to try to counter the decline: see doctors, get glasses, contacts, surgery; reluctantly coming to terms that it cannot be stopped in this life. Even more important are the things we do for our spiritual vision; yet, not merely to correct it, but to improve it. It’s an improvement that equips us with strength and godly insight on how to deal with all that this sinful life brings, even the deterioration of physical eyesight as we advance in years.
We were conceived in sin, brought forth in iniquity, already in bondage to sin before our little hearts were formed, thumping their first rhythmic beats in our mother’s womb, but blind in both eye and heart. Blind to the truth and love of God, our sinful flesh still, second-by-second, seeks incessantly to lead us into this ditch of false teaching or into that pit of despair, revealing to us our need of constant vision correction so that we can continuously make good, right, and salutary decisions not just on Sunday mornings, but in every moment of every day. Four Sundays ago, the Lord Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount that judging the world around us isn’t the problem, but improper, hypocritical judgment is; that He actually calls all His people to judge by the pure standard of what He has given to us in His Word, because there only can we find the 100% sure, never-failing truth that will stand the test of all times, the measure to which all in the world are held, woefully for those who put it off godly discernment to the Last Day. We are only able to rightly judge by having constantly corrected and improved spiritual vision conformed by that blessed Word. And today you see that you are to judge not only what you see around you in the world, but also, and especially, what you hear from pulpits, what you turn on to hear preachers on TV say, on the radio, garnering from the internet. In your life where someone stands and speaks on behalf of God, you must be able to see when there are wolves lurking among the flock of Christ dressed as His sheep. Unfortunately, without diligent faith and intentional improvement by the means that God provides, your eyes will be too dim to spot those eyeing you as spiritual prey for their lunch.
Woe to these wolves in disguise, bearing poisonous fruit, for their judgment will be severe. The twisting of God’s Word is atrocious enough that the Lord describes their fate: to be cut down and thrown into the fire, cast away and declared never to have been known by God. Oh, what a terrible fate! Therefore, if their end for feeding you with bad fruit is this level of eternal judgment, then you, too, must realize how important it is for you to discern what you hear when someone stands before you claiming, “thus saith the Lord.” Only one perfect man has stood in the Office of Christ and that was the God-man Himself, Jesus. All others, though well-mannered, polite, faithful on many levels, sacrificial, caring, are flawed-to-the-core, sinful men, fully capable of failing you even in your most critical times. This stands true for the pastor speaking these words into your ears this morning, meaning my words and fruit must be measured by the pure standard God has placed into your hands on the pages of Holy Writ; holding me not to the standard of what makes you feel good, sends you away with a smile, or speaks to what others won’t, but to the objective standard of God and His Word. For your hope lies not in me nor in any other man installed into this Office, into this place of Christ through which your Lord serves His beloved sheep who live under the threat of ravenous predators seeking not only your temporal destruction, but your eternal one as well. Do not hope in me, but in Christ. Do not hope in your government or any elected official, but in Christ. Do not hope in your country or world, but in Christ. Do not hope in yourself, but in Christ alone, for the Good Shepherd Who laid down His life for every single one of His sheep is the only One truly able to protect you from all assaults of the world, your flesh, the Devil, and all his wolves dispatched to devour you.
Prepare yourself as those weak by sin can and must do, equipping yourself as you need to be to be able to discern well what you hear and what you are told is true. Such is not the calling only of biblical scholars, or the great, high, and mighty theological minds within Christianity. Every Christian needs a life fully lived out abiding in Christ and Christ abiding in him or her. God is giving you an abundance of evidence of this need in these days. And He’s giving you time to do something about it.
Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.’” The will of His Father, your Father, Who art in heaven, is that He sustains you in this life into the next. The will of the Father is that you realize that you are a sheep, weak, susceptible, and a mighty fine dinner for Satan and those He sends to devour you. The will of the Father is for you to see that your weakness runs sin deep and that confessing your trespasses against God to Him is actually you banking on His strength, His protection, His forgiveness, His peace. The will of the Father is that you have His forgiveness in the only begotten Son of God Whom He sent into this world, not to condemn you, but to save you. The Good Shepherd stands watch day and night over you, His flock, having defeated even your worst enemies, the ones you can’t even see. He sets before you good gifts to help you, to improve your spiritual vision; beneficial gifts, tools, treasures for you to make regular in your everyday life so that you know that you are helped by God everyday. You have help in the Catechism, for you are never too young, nor too old, to read it, pray it, memorize it, committing it to heart so it serves to sharpen your spiritual vision, strengthening your faith when you find yourself in need of banking on it and the One above in Whom you place it. You have help in prayers, even if it’s just making sure that you pray the Lord’s Prayer when you wake up and before you go to sleep. You must start somewhere. You have help in hymns, treasures of great poetry that confess the truths upon which your faith is built and your vision sharpened. You have help in the rock-solid source from which these all are derived, that is the Sword of the Holy Spirit, the precious Holy Scriptures for they proclaim to you your Savior and all that He does for you. Do not loathe being a sheep, for you are His sheep, and in Him you will always have more than you’ll ever need. Abide in Him, see Him in His pastures where He provides Himself to you for your eternal good.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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