FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT March 13, 2016 10:15 a.m. Rev. Todd Goldschmidt, Pastor II. Theme: A Reality Check We Need to Heed I. With Hope for Those in Despair With a Warning for the Spiritually Complacent Sermon Text: Romans 11:11-21 11 Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. 12 But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring! 13 I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry 14 in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. 15 For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 16 If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18 do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say then, Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in. 20 Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. (425) 868-9404 - www.lhlc.org, pastortodd@lhlc.org Page 1 of 5
He thought that his grades were just fine. He was an honor student in high school, and it didn t take much effort to maintain a strong grade point average. He enrolled in a challenging major at a state university, and figured that the same amount of work he expended in high school would get the job done in college. In his first semester, one of his professors asked to meet with him. Son, I can tell you re an intelligent young man, but your grades so far don t reflect that. You need to buckle down and study more if you re going to make it here. That was the reality check he needed if he was going to succeed as a student. On this 5 th Sunday in Lent, just a week away from the start of Holy Week, our Scripture lessons provide us with a Lenten reality check. This reality check isn t about grades or finances. It s about our spiritual status. It s about the condition of the faith in our hearts. And it s a reality check that we d do well to heed. This reality check has hope for the fallen, but also warnings for the faithful. Today s 2 nd Lesson is from a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to Christians in Rome before he had the chance to visit them. The letter is full of Christian doctrine and practical spiritual advice for people Paul had yet to meet. In our text, he speaks on an issue that might seem irrelevant to us. He s discussing God s Old Testament chosen race, the Jews, and the sad reality that most of them had rejected Jesus as the Savior while many Gentiles came to believe in Jesus and were added to God s family. It seems like an academic exercise, but as we work thru these verses we ll see that their real-world application is far stronger than it might initially seem. Paul starts with a rhetorical question. Did the Jews God s chosen people of the past fall away from the Lord to the point that they could no longer turn back in faith to the true God and believe in Jesus as the promised Savior? Paul s answer is a clear, No! Yes, it was true that many Gentiles had come to faith in Jesus and become part of God s spiritual family. But on Paul s missionary trips, he d seen how the acceptance of the Gentiles had caused some Jews to become jealous that God no longer saw them as His specially-chosen nation. Paul hoped that their envy might actually draw some of them back to God and if it did, what a blessing! Paul s debate is a bit abstract, so he uses two pictures to advance his point, which we can benefit from deciphering. He writes, If the part of the dough offered as first-fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches. Paul s first example comes from Old Testament laws that governed worship. The Jews were to bake a loaf of bread made from the first grain they harvested each year and then give it as an offering. When they complied with God s decree, He vowed to bless the rest of their harvest. Paul s allows that a remnant of the Jews did, in fact, remain faithful to God. And if that group denoted the part of dough that was holy, then wasn t the whole batch holy before God? In Paul s 2 nd image, he depicts God s people as a tree. The roots of the tree are Israel s (425) 868-9404 - www.lhlc.org, pastortodd@lhlc.org Page 2 of 5
patriarchs men like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. If these men these roots were holy before God by grace, wouldn t their descendants be as well? It s vital that we get what Paul s talking about if we want to take something useful away from this passage. God s choice of the Jews as His special people must be put into proper perspective. The Savior that God pledged was going to be a real human being, with a family, ethnicity and lineage. Just as it was a high honor for Mary to be chosen by God to be Jesus mother, so it was a great honor for the Jews to be chosen as the race through which the world s Savior would come. But that doesn t mean that someone with Jewish lineage is saved apart from faith in Christ. Paul s point is that the Gentiles shouldn t assume that God s chosen people of the past had fallen away so badly that there was no hope for them to return in faith and be restored to their status as full-fledged members of God s spiritual family. Part one of our Lenten reality check contains hope for the fallen. All this talk about ancient Israel leaving God and possibly returning to Him is very practical. At times we think we ve sinned beyond the point of no return. We page back thru our life s story and spy a page with something shameful, and as much as the Bible says otherwise, a part of us feels that this past sin is unpardonable. I did that. God couldn t possibly accept me. Here s where the academic rubber meets the real-life road. It might seem like Paul s words have little to do with us. But if God could forgive the very people who rejected His Son and called for His crucifixion, if He could erase their sins by the blood Jesus shed for them, if He inspired Paul s words hoping for the return of His Covenant people, can t He do the same for us? Is there some sin that the blood of Jesus isn t powerful enough to cover; some fault of yours that somehow wasn t paid for at the cross? Is there some reason why you aren t part of the world God so loved when He gave His one and only Son? Of course not! That s the Lenten reality check we need to hear a reality check with hope for the fallen who look to Christ for forgiveness and eternal peace! Paul expands on his image of a tree to give us a 2 nd Lenten reality check, this time with a warning to the faithful. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. We re used to talking about our family tee, so we can relate to Paul s expanded illustration. God compares the Israelites to an olive tree whose roots are the patriarchs of the nation. The branches are St. Paul s peers. When people of his day rejected Jesus, it was like they were a branch broken from the tree. And when Gentiles came to faith in Jesus as the Savior, it was like they were shoots from a wild olive tree that were grafted into God s family tree. Now, should Gentiles believers consider themselves something special because they were grafted into the tree? Granted, it was certainly a blessing for them. But could they take any credit for that? Not a bit! Branches don t graft themselves into trees; they are (425) 868-9404 - www.lhlc.org, pastortodd@lhlc.org Page 3 of 5
grafted into a tree. And branches don t produce their own nourishment either; they re nourished through their connection to the tree s roots. Paul adds to his picture: You will say then, Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in. Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. Paul s Lenten reality check ends with a warning to the Gentiles who took pride in their status as branches grafted into God s family tree. But there was no reason for such arrogance. God had called them from unbelief to faith; they didn t choose to believe on their own. God fed their faith through His Word and Sacraments; they didn t nourish themselves. Paul says that if God didn t spare the natural branches when they rejected Jesus, then He surely wouldn t spare the grafted-in branches if they followed suit. This 2 nd Lenten reality check has a dire warning for the complacent. There s no promise that if we become lax in nourishing our faith, if we take the gospel for granted, that we can t fall from faith. There s no get out of hell free card if we were born into a Lutheran family or baptized in a WELS congregation; no slam-dunk entrance into heaven if we were confirmed as an 8 th grader or own a copy of the Small Catechism. Physically attending worship while we re mentally checked out is no formula for staying grafted into Christ, either. We all need to heed Paul s warning. We were born spiritually dead branches destined for hell s burn pile. But we ve been grafted into God s family tree! On the cross, Christ endured the very flames of hell that should ve burned us up eternally. Linked to Him by His Spirit, our faith is fed with nurturing sap. We were brought to life at our baptism. There the Spirit connected us to Jesus resurrection from the dead. Instead of remaining a malnourished twig that could snap in an instant, we re vibrant, fruit-bearing branches fed by the very body and blood of Christ at this altar. So when the reality of our sin hits close to home and strikes our conscience, the answer isn t to despair. It s to rejoice that Christ has already spared us from sin s fiery consequences and that the Spirit has grafted us securely into Christ through God s Word and baptism and communion. With that connection in place, we will remain well-nourished branches attached to Christ. Reality checks aren t always fun, but they are vital. They come when you read your report card and realize that you have to study harder. They come when you open up your credit card statement and realize that you have to be more frugal. They come when your doctor expresses concern about your health. Reality checks aren t fun, but they re vital. And no reality check is as significant as the one St. Paul has given us this 5 th Sunday in Lent. Paul offers gospel hope in Jesus for the fallen sinner, and He offers a loving admonition for those who assume they can coast into heaven on their faithfulness. In both cases, Paul shows us a tree: the tree of the cross, where Jesus suffered and died to remove sin s guilt, and the tree of the church that the Holy Spirit has made us a part of. Stay focused on the tree of the (425) 868-9404 - www.lhlc.org, pastortodd@lhlc.org Page 4 of 5
cross, and when you do, know that the Holy Spirit will nourish you with God s grace daily so that you remain a healthy branch thru life and to eternity. Amen. (425) 868-9404 - www.lhlc.org, pastortodd@lhlc.org Page 5 of 5