Third Sunday in Lent March 4, 2018
Lent 3
Luke 11:14-28 & Ephesians 5:1-9
March 4, 2018
“Good and Right and True”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The sermon this morning will especially draw from two verses in the Scripture readings today:
Luke 11:28, “But Jesus said, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and keep it!”
Ephesians 5:9, “Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.”
The sun is shining today. After so many of the gloomy, overcast, and dark days we‘ve had this winter, the sun is warmly welcomed. Makes us feel good. Of course, once the sun starts getting closer to us and it gets warmer and the days get longer, then what starts to happen? Then trees and plants can start producing again. The light makes the fruit. So the sun chases the darkness away and things starts growing.
That’s as simple as it is with Christ. Jesus is Light. True Light. Even greater light than the sun. And when He comes into hearts, He chases away the darkness, chases away Satan and his demons, and Jesus starts producing fruit. That’s why Paul says, “Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.”
In the Gospel reading today Jesus, the Light of the World, chases away a demon. That’s what the Light does. It chases away the darkness which is Satan and his demons. So the man starts talking again. But some of the crowd hates Jesus so they accuse Him of actually being on Satan’s side Himself. But Jesus says that’s ridiculous. Only one stronger than Satan and darkness can chase him away. And that’s what Jesus is. He is One stronger than Satan and stronger than darkness.
So there’s a simple answer to the darkness that you and I so often find in our hearts. There’s a simple answer to the demons you and I battle and an answer to the temptations that Satan is continually sending at us. There’s a simple answer to the guilt and shame that reside in our heart. Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.” You keep Jesus, His Word, the Light of the World, in your heart and Satan and his darkness must flee.
Hear the Word of God. Keep the Word of God. Hear the Word of God. Keep the Word of God. Now let me remind you again—Jesus and His Word is more powerful than the sun. Right? He is more powerful than the sun. He chases away darkness and demons. Now would you like to live even a day without the sun? Our nephew is in the Army and stationed right now up in Alaska. He wasn’t digging those days with only a couple hours of sun. What would happen to us if we went a year without seeing the sun?
If you can imagine how bad that would be, then remember that Christ is even more powerful than the sun. You do not want to live without Him. So He says, “Hear the Word of God and keep it.” Daily hear the Word of God. Today there are countless ways to make sure you are reading God’s Word every day. If you have kids or grandkids, there are wonderful story Bibles available. I will order you one if you ask me about it. If you don’t mind reading on your phone or tablet, there are wonderful apps with built in reading plans that will get you through the Bible in a year or two years. And, of course, there are many good books you can use like the Treasury of Daily Prayer which I will gladly order for anyone who asks. And Portals of Prayer which gives you the reading for each day. But we need to be hearing. Just like you know the sun is going to work every day—you can count on the Word of God working every day.
And then you keep that Word. For this I want to go then to Paul’s words in Ephesians 5. He says, ‘Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.” Children imitate their parents. For better or worse. The Greek word there for imitate is where we get our English word mimic. Children mimic Mom and Dad. There were two things I wanted to be growing up—a farmer and a church worker. Guess what? My Dad was a farmer and my Mom was a church worker (a Lutheran teacher).
You don’t have to tell children to imitate their Mom or Dad. They just do. Not in everything, of course. But in many things. So we are called to imitate God. And how do we do that? By keeping His Word. By listening to Him. You can’t imitate God without hearing and keeping His Word.
Walk in love, Paul says, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Nowadays we have all these things to make our homes smell good. Air fresheners, candles, incense, warmers, and whatever else. Well, God cares about smell too. He wants you to smell good. In the Old Testament, when God gave the sacrifices He specifically said they were a pleasing aroma to the Lord when they were done in faith. Jesus, however, was the perfect and final sacrifice and He was the ultimate fragrant offering to God.
So we also walk in love for God and one another and this is a fragrant and pleasing aroma to God. When you walk in the love of Christ, hearing and keeping His Word, imitating God’s goodness and righteousness, this smells good to Him.
But, of course, there are things that bring a stench to God. Paul lists them out for you. Sexual immorality and all impurity. The sexual sins of our day are a stench in God’s nostrils. When we take a good thing that God gave for the procreation of children and for the blessing of husband and wife and we pervert it into nothing more than a vehicle for pleasure, God is angry.
And covetousness, Paul says. Our love of all things money. Our greed and envy. It must not even be named among you, Paul says. Covetousness doesn’t imitate Christ. He gave Himself entirely for us. Paul continues, “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but let there be thanksgiving.” If we think it’s no big deal the way we talk filth and the way we have nothing good or decent to say about anyone and the way we tell crude jokes about anyone and everything—beware. Repent. You are not walking in the light or imitating Christ.
But finally, I have come to Paul’s last words which are especially what I wanted to give you today. Finally, he says, walk as children of light. Live in the Son. The Son is shining—Jesus, that is. Shining here from His holy Word. And you are baptized into Him! You are God’s children. Every day you wake up the Son is shining—Jesus is. No matter how dark or dreary or cold the day. He is always shining because you are baptized into Him. You wake up, push off the darkness of the night, the darkness of your sins from days past, the darkness of guilt and shame—and you get up and walk in the light.
Now when you do, when you live in Christ, praying, hearing His Word, going to Church, receiving the Lord’s Supper—then that light of Christ will produce fruit. Just as surely as the sun up in the sky will produce fruit this spring and summer again—if you’re hearing the Word of God and keeping it then Jesus will just as surely produce fruit in you.
And what is that fruit? Paul says all that is good and right and true. Good and right and true. I’m a firm believer that deep down inside of every single person is a deep conscience. A conscience that intuitively knows something about what is good and right and true. The Scriptures talk about the conscience much. And this gives me much hope. Because I know that even those who rail the loudest against Jesus and the Gospel, even those who publicly show their hatred of all things Christian, even those who vehemently proclaim the goodness and truth of evils such as abortion, and assisted-suicide, and atheism, and gender fluidity—even these have a deep conscience that tells them what is truly good and right and true. They have only suppressed it with all their might.
This gives us hope. Because we know that when we proclaim and live what is good and right and true—every single person has a deep conscience that tells them it is good and right and true. Satan’s lies do not last. They are self-defeating. But blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it. You know what is good and right and true. And when you’re living as children of light you’re producing that fruit that is good and right and true. And others will see that light and recognize it for what it is—good and right and true. Not everyone, of course, But many will see.
One last word—remember that you yourself aren’t what is good and right and true. We are sinners as everyone else is a sinner. But living in the Sun/Son—baptized into Christ—living as God’s children—imitating God—hearing His Word and keeping it—this is what’s good and right and true. Jesus in you and you in Jesus.
Amen.