LENT 1, C - February 21, 2010

SCRIPTURES: Ps. 91; Dt. 26:1-11; Rom. 10:8-13; Luke 4:1-13

Two years ago, the TV program ER had a story about a retired doctor who was brought into the hospital. He was dying of cancer; but, that was not his biggest problem. Dr. Truman had served for years as the doctor at a prison, and as part of his duties he had administered lethal injections to carry out death sentences. The last man he had executed was later found to be innocent, and Dr. Truman was crushed by guilt. While in the hospital, he was visited by a hospital chaplain, and he told her of that execution and how it had at first failed; the IV had gone through the vein. But, he carefully inserted another needle and injected the drugs that killed him. This exchange then took place:

Dr. Truman: It took him 90 seconds to die. Two months later a police officer came forward. The boy was framed for the murder. He didn’t do it.

Chaplain: You couldn’t have known that.

Dr.: God tried to stop me from killing an innocent man, and I ignored the sign. How can I even hope for forgiveness?

Chaplain: I think, sometimes it’s easier to feel guilty than forgiven.

Dr.: Which means, what?

Chaplain: That, maybe your guilt over these deaths has become your reason for living. Maybe you need a new reason to go on.

Dr.: I don’t want to go on. Can’t you see I’m old? I have cancer. I’ve had enough.  The only thing that’s holding me back is that I’m afraid. I’m afraid of what comes  next.

Chaplain: What do you think that is?

Dr.: You tell me. Is atonement even possible? What does God want from me?

Chaplain: I think it’s up to each one of us to interpret what God wants.

Dr.: So people can do anything? They can rape, they can murder, they can steal, all in the name of God, and it’s ok?

Chaplain: That’s not what I’m saying.

Dr.: What are you saying? Because all I’m hearing is some new age, God is love, one size fits all crap! I don’t have time for this now!

Chaplain: I understand.

Dr.: No, you don’t understand! You don’t understand! How could you possibly say that? No, you listen to me. I want a real chaplain who believes in a real God and a real hell.

Chaplain: I hear that you’re frustrated; but you need to ask yourself…

Dr.: No, I don’t need to ask myself! I need answers, and all your questions and your uncertainty are only making things worse!

Chaplain: I know you’re upset.

Dr.: God, I need someone who will look me in the eye and tell me how to find forgiveness! Because, I am running out of time!

Chaplain: I’m trying to help.

Dr.: Well, don’t! Just get out! Get out! 

What was the chaplain’s solution to Dr. Truman’s overwhelming guilt and fear of God’s judgment, which was eating him up inside? “Look inside of yourself! Find the answers you need and the strength to go forward inside of yourself” – where he found nothing but sin and guilt, for which he deserved to be condemned! 

This is how Satan works. He directs our attention to ourselves. “If you are the Son of God… prove it!” he says to Jesus. “You can’t trust in what God said at your baptism and follow that. After all, look at you now: alone, starving, led by God into this wilderness where you have nothing. God loves you? You’re His Son? It sure doesn’t look that way. Put forward your own evidence! Prove who you are!” 

We begin Lent with the question of identity. Who are you? Can you say that you are God’s child, that your sins are forgiven and God is pleased with you? Is this really true? Where’s the evidence? 

Yes, where’s the evidence? Is it seen in your life? Well, I hope so. You can’t say you believe in God and are His child, that He loves you and you love Him, but live as if He means nothing to you and doesn’t direct your life. Your life must show your faith! Jesus tells us one way we are to show our faith: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” Ok, and so here you are, worshipping the Lord your God. Great! So, you’ve proven that you’re God’s child! By the way: you worship Him completely, right? You always offer God the worship and praise He deserves, right?

       You’re always glad to be here, in your Father’s house, and have no desire to be somewhere else instead, or to get the Service over quickly. That would be like going to your grandmother’s for dinner and stealing glances at your watch, wondering how much longer it would be before you could leave! How insulted she would be!

       You’re not distracted, but your mind and heart are completely on your Lord. Of course, for what else in this world compares with God, so that you should think about it instead of Him?

We don’t offer our great and holy God the worship He deserves, do we? We poor sinners, who are so easily distracted and dissatisfied in heart and mind, cannot do so. We serve ourselves, and not God only! Should God accept this? Will He? And, don’t say that you’re doing your best. Dr. Truman in ER put to death an innocent man. “You couldn’t have known that,” said the chaplain. He was just doing his job. So what? Did that mean he didn’t do it? 

Examining how we live our lives, although important, will give certain evidence that we are unfaithful children of God. So, how about considering how things are going in our lives? Surely, if you are loved by the almighty God and are His child, He will bless your life, right? But, what if you’re sick? My mom has Parkinson’s. Is God mad at her?  What if you’re unemployed? What if you’re not as successful as someone who doesn’t care about God at all? Have you done something wrong? Is He condemning you? How do you know? 

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God,” Jesus says. You must listen to what God says and believe Him! This is the only way you will know with certainty that your sins are forgiven, that you are loved by God and are His child. Romans 10 says:

“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Satan wants you to ignore what God says and listen to your heart, or to trust in the goodness of your life. They deceive and will fail you. God would turn your focus outward, away from yourself and to what the Bible tells you about your Savior and how He has saved you. 

This is why God told the people of Israel to bring the first part of their harvest to His temple and, as they brought it to the priest, to confess, “A wandering Aramean was my father.” That wandering Aramean was Abraham. He was not chosen by God because of his goodness and his great faith, for he worshiped false gods before the true God appeared to him. God saved him by grace! And, the people’s deliverance from Egypt was also His work alone. God saved them; they had nothing to do with it! And so, the people were confess that God’s blessings were undeserved, His freely given gifts, that they might rely on His mercy and then enjoy with thankfulness the blessings He gave. 

It is the same for us in our lives. Yes, we begin Lent with ashes on our foreheads, reminders that “Dust you are and to dust you shall return.” We are only here briefly. What comes next? For, we are sinners who have disobeyed God, as we confess week after week. This is all so that we might look to Jesus alone and rely upon His life, death, and resurrection for us for the assurance that we are forgiven, are God’s children, and have eternal life. 

Dr. Truman asked, “Is atonement even possible? What does God want from me?” How sad that the chaplain did not know. You have a real God who out of love for you became a real man and paid for your sins by dying for you! God wants you to believe in Jesus alone as your Savior and to call upon Him in faith! He wants you rejoice in your Baptism and believe what He says about it in Gal. 3:26-27: “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” He wants you to hear His Word and believe His promise: “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” In His Word God looks you in the eye and tells you where your forgiveness and life is found. It is in Christ alone! Let us hear Him alone, and then give our Triune God all thanks and praise!