Life in Christ is Boring
Matthew 11:12-19
October27, 2019 anno Domini – Redeemer
Confirmation of Leo Freeman and Kaleb Sohre
Leo. Kaleb. Let me tell you something I’ve learned about you during the last year and half. You’re bored. You can’t sit still. Luther’s Small Catechism isn’t very exciting and neither Pastor Timm, unless you get him off topic and then he becomes a little less boring.
But don’t think it’s just you. We are all bored right along with you. Church is boring. Sermons are boring. We hear the same words week after boring week. I am a sinner who sins. Jesus is the God who dies for my sins and rises again. He forgives me. I’m alive forever. Amen. Boring, accompanied by boring hymns and boring liturgy.
If I had Snapchat running on a big screen up here (Don’
t get excited. We are NOT getting screens at Redeemer), if we could tap in to everyone’s mind this morning you would see a hundred different daydreams that are more exciting than my sermon.
Boredom is not new. Jesus likens His generation to bored children in the marketplace calling to their playmates, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.”
We might say, “This generation is like teenagers hanging out at the mall or grownups browsing the internet. They are calling out – do you know what that word for call is “phonew” – that’s right our English word phone. We bored and we’re all on our phones and we all want something we don’t have because we believe that will give us real life – and that is most certainly true when it comes to Jesus. Life under Jesus is boring because it is life that is heard. Sin, death, and the Devil promise excitement through your eyes.
That two-lined playground parable of the text tells us the crowds were bored with John the Baptist and Jesus.
If John the Baptist showed up to be your pastor – at first you would be excited because he was bizarre. His pastor’s robes looked like a Halloween costume hybrid of Duck Dynasty, the Flintstones, and Naked and Afraid. He was out in the boonies, eating bugs and honey, wearing animal skins and like a new reality show everybody went out to see him. Then he opened his mouth and began to preach. His sermons were simple. You’ve heard them before. You are sinners. Repent. Be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. Some people believed. Some people got baptized, but some people thought John was such a downer. Who wants to hear about sin? Especially my own. Who does John think he is? So those who opposed John sang “We played the flute for you and you didn’t dance.” John you’re too strict. Get with the times. Have a couple beers. Loosen up and dance. Join the party. Since John wouldn’t dance to their tune they called him the devil.
We are bored with God’s Law. We don’t want hear of our sins. We’ll read self-help books, marriage enrichment books, job coaching manuals. We’ll learn every foolish thing our smartphones can do and spend hours on Minecraft, but won’t memorize the commandments or ponder their meanings for our lives because that’s boring.
After John the Baptist Jesus came along. He didn’t change John’s tune, He completed it. John preached “Repent, you are a sinner. You need forgiveness.” Jesus said, “I AM God’s forgiveness for you.” What Jesus preached He also practiced. Jesus didn’t sit down with good people. He sat with sinners – the worst of the worst – prostitutes, tax collectors who were really thieves, Matthew, Zacchaeus, the woman caught in adultery, Mary Magdalene who was possessed by seven demons. Some people believed, but others couldn’t believe God would sit with sinners. Jesus was simply too eager to forgive and too quick to let these people off the hook. Those who opposed Jesus sang, “We played a dirge, and you did not mourn.” Jesus overindulged in forgiving sinners, so they labelled Him glutton and a drunkard, a friend of sinners.
The real excitement began for John and Jesus when people refused to hear them. They were killed for their sermons. John called King Herod a sinner for committing adultery with his brother’s wife. Then after too many drinks and his wife’s daughter dancing in a very pleasing way, Herod had John the Baptist beheaded. That story is so exciting it doesn’t make it into Sunday School lessons.
The end of Jesus’ life got exciting too. Everyone except his mother and a few disciples abandoned him. He was betrayed by a good friend. He was arrested. At His trial people told lies about Him. He didn’t defend Himself. He wasn’t convicted of a crime yet sentenced to death. Crowds of people cheered and mocked as Jesus died. Nothing like blood and gore and suffering and death to get our attention.
Then came the real excitement, the excitement that changed the world. Jesus was the first guy to leave His grave after He was buried and never return to the cemetery. He rose from the dead on the third day never to die again. His resurrection proved every Word He said. He alone is God. The sins of the world were forgiven in Him. Your sins are forgiven. There is life everlasting for all who believe in Him. Your body will rise on the last day. And there I go again preaching those boring words you hear every week.
In the text Jesus says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” He says that because He knows we’re bored with words. We would rather see than hear. We would rather speak than listen. We would rather tap a little icon on our smart phone than have a conversation at the dinner table. We would rather do it our way than receive His way. He who has ears to hear, let him hear because even though the Word is boring to our eyes, the Word of Jesus is life.
Forgiveness is boring. Baptism is boring. Church is boring. In the same way breathing is boring. No offense, but most of the meals at your house are boring. Drinking water is boring. Do you know when life really gets exciting? When you struggle to breath. When you’re in such pain you cannot eat or drink. When you are dying.
Life is boring because God is gracious. We do not see the reality of what is going on because the excitement would kill us. Jesus says, “The Kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and the violent take it by force.” The Devil and his demons are at war to force us from Jesus. The Devil bombards us with lies. “Sin is fun.” “God is boring.” The Devil is the master of excitement. He aims at your eyes and feelings and body and then unloads a full magazine of lies promising life, but delivering death. He wants you to live for excitement.
Jesus, on the other hand, wants you to be bored to death, to die to your sins, to your feelings, to your way, and believe in Him. Jesus isn’t that exciting to the eyes, but to the ears He is the soothing balm of forgiveness for your guilt and shame. Jesus is the love of your Father when you’re not that lovely He is the One who delivers you from your lonely life of seeking excitement, into the communion of saints. So Leo and Kaleb it’s okay to be bored because life isn’t found in excitement. Life is found in forgiveness, in baptism, in God’s Word, in the Lord’s Supper, in Church on Sunday mornings, in the name of Jesus. Amen.