Proper 22 A
Better than Most Isn’t Enough
Philippians 3:4b-14
5 October 2014 – Redeemer
St. Paul is better than you, way better. If a person could get into heaven by his works Saint Paul would be the guy. He is the Old Testament poster boy of righteousness – circumcised on the 8th day according to the Law. His great, great, great, great grandaddy was Abraham the father of Israel. He was of the favored tribe of Benjamin. According to his lineage a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He was a Pharisee who kept the law perfectly. He never lifted a finger on the Sabbath (that anyone could see) and he didn’t speed even when there were no cops around. When Jesus came along Paul was so faithful to his religion of works that he persecuted Christians to death because they believed that Jesus had done all the work of salvation. Outwardly – perfect. Faults – none. In the eyes of all – blameless. When it comes to righteousness Paul takes on all comers and knocks us out by his works.
If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. So says Paul. Do you have confidence in your flesh? Now Paul doesn’t just mean your body – he means you, yourself. And he isn’t simply talking about confidence to get through today, or this week, or your next surgery. He is talking about getting through death, getting through an appearance before the judgment seat of God, standing before Satan’s accusations and answering your own conscience. Are you confident your flesh will get you through death and judgment day to life everlasting?
I think you are. I think you do trust you. After all none of you are really that bad. None of you are registered sex offenders. Your picture isn’t on the news for whipping your kid with a switch or beating your wife unconscious. You’re not staying out till four in the morning drinking and putting your life in danger. And you’re here this morning, early, and you’re willing to spend more than an hour here, while most of your fellow Lutherans get out in under an hour. I think other people think you’re good too. It is one of the common (though unfounded) accusations against the Christian church – it’s only for good people.
Paul was beyond righteous according to the Jewish regulations of his day and all of us here today are pretty righteous according to the standards of our day. But all our righteousness is nothing, because our standard of righteousness is nothing. We adjust our standard to accommodate our sin, just like the Pharisees, just like Paul. It’s OK to lie about your income if you think government taxes are unfair. There is nothing wrong with speeding if everyone else is doing it. Viewing a little pornography won’t hurt anyone – it’s just you and the screen. It doesn’t matter that I gossip about my neighbor – after all its true. I can daydream during the sermon because I’m still setting an example by being here. According to that standard, which is about as firm as jello, you and I are righteous.
Even so Paul was better than any of us and this is what he says, “Whatever gain I had, I count as loss for the sake of Christ.” Something happened to Saint Paul when Jesus met him on the road to Damascus. The Holy Spirit brought Paul out of one religion and into another. In all the world there are only two religions. They might go by a hundred different names but there are only two – the religion where you work to please God and the religion where God works to make you pleasing to Him. Paul had been in the former – in Judaism, a Pharisee above Pharisees and he was the best, but by the work of the Holy Spirit he saw the truth. His best was nothing in God’s eyes. What he thought counted for him in reality counted against him. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Paul realized that because of his sin his works, even his best works were nothing but sin before the Father in heaven. His works wouldn’t cut it, so he gladly depended on the work of Jesus.
Let me illustrate these two religions using the Parable Jesus proclaims in the Gospel reading.
Everything in the vineyard belongs to the master. From the beginning to the end the master does all the work. He plants the vineyard. Puts up a fence to keep the deer from nibbling the grapes. He digs the wine press for the grape stomp festival. And He puts up a watchtower that His grapes might be guarded and protected from thieves. Whose work? His. Whose grapes? His. When the harvest comes in whose harvest is it? It’s His.
But amazingly the Owner wants others to feast on His fruits. He rents out His vineyard to tenants and simply wants them to recognize that the vineyard and everything in it is His. They get their portion of His fruit and He gets His portion of the fruit. The renters simply need to remember everything they have is from the Owner.
Jesus is talking about His Father’s Kingdom in this parable. The vineyard is the Lord’s work in the world, particularly His work of making the Israelites His people and through them bringing life and salvation to the world through His Messiah. The Lord chose Israel. He planted them in the promised land. He set the hedge of His Law around them to protect them. He delivered them from their enemies. He gave them the temple by which they could feast on the fruits of His hand. He set up a watchtower in the prophets who proclaimed His word to guard them from their enemies.
His vineyard reached its fruition when He sent His Son Jesus Christ who declared, “I am the Vine, You are the branches.” “I am the resurrection and the life.” The Lord’s Word of life and salvation to Israel is fulfilled when that little shoot named Jesus comes from the stump of Jesse, when a little baby is born of Mary. Every Old Testament sacrifice for sin is fulfilled when Jesus drinks the cup of the Father’s wrath on the cross. The life blood of Jesus is squeezed out of Him, pouring from His side in death, but by His death for your sin, the water of Holy Baptism and the wine of Holy Communion now flow freely with forgiveness and life for you. As the lord in the parable planted his vineyard so the Father sends His Son to do all the work of giving us life. Jesus Christ is our righteousness. His sinless birth. His perfect life of mercy and obedience. His sin-atoning death. His vindicating resurrection. Jesus did the work – all of it and like the Master of the Vineyard He foolishly (or we might say graciously) gives it to others, to us.
Jesus wants you to have His work. He wants His death to be your death for sins. His resurrection to be your resurrection. His righteousness before His father to be your righteousness. This is why He came and why He sends His Holy Spirit – that you might taste and receive the fruit of His work in your baptism, when your sins are forgiven, and when you receive communion.
And what does the Lord want of you? He simply wants you to receive His gifts, to receive them with thanksgiving and joy, and to acknowledge that the fruit is His. That’s all the Owner wanted from the vineyard workers. His fruit. All He wants from you is faith that receives His gifts and confesses like Saint Paul, “For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.
The renters forgot they were renters enjoying the gifts of the Master. They wanted all the credit, all the fruit for themselves. Kill the son and the inheritance will be ours. That’s the religion of works – it kills Jesus. If you imagine that what you do makes God happy – you’ve joined the religion of works. If you think you play the littlest part in your salvation, that it’s Jesus and church membership, Jesus and being a Lutheran, Jesus and fill in the blank, in essence you are telling God that you don’t need His Son. Saint Paul switched religions and he was better than any of us, but the works of a sinner count as nothing, so he received all of Jesus, counting everything he had as a loss, and gaining righteousness and the fruits of forgiveness, life, and salvation in Christ. God grant you the faith to leave behind the religion of works and cling to the Christian faith, where your forgiveness is complete, your life is eternal, and your resurrection is sure – in and only in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
4 October 2014 anno Domini