God's Always Doing Great Exciting Things.

GOD'S always doing great, exciting things. That's what the first guy completely missed or forgot in Jesus' parable. Jesus told the parable and the first guy totally forgets that God is the one does it. He apparently thinks he does.

All this week, we have been reminded that God does the great exciting things. We started off by looking at creation. God made the world. It wasn't an accident. It didn't just happen. God made it. Then we looked at how He changed water into wine, showing that He is the Creator. If is he able to make grapes out of nothing, surely He can make water into wine. The next day we looked at the parable He told about the sower and the seed. The Word which we had been hearing throughout the week is planted into our hearts through our ears and by His grace, creates or grows faith. Thursday we looked at the Transfiguration, when Jesus shows that He is truly God. Finally, Friday we saw how Jesus rose from the dead.

We discovered, also this week, that we recite a list of the great, exciting things God does and has done, just about every Sunday when we confess our faith with either the Apostles creed or the Nicene creed. The Te Deum does kind of the same thing, but not as clearly. Speaking of creeds, the Apostles creed gives us the outline for today's sermon.

When we look at the first guy in Jesus' parable, the Pharisee, we see a guy who gets the first article completely wrong. He barely gets started before he goes completely off course. This isn't a prayer. It's bragging. "Look at all I do. Look at all I am. Boy, Lord, aren't you lucky to have me!"

But who gave him what he has? How is he able to do what he does? Isn't it the Lord? Isn't it the Creator? How is it that he has the willpower to fast twice a week and have anything to give as a tithe? Isn't it the Lord that gave it to him as Creator? How is it that he is not an extortioner, an adulterer or whatever he might consider so terrible? Isn't it that the Lord has prevented him from it?

Hadn't the Lord made him what he was? We know all about the creation. Again, we talked about it in VBS on the first day. We know the heavens and the earth were created by Him in just six days--six literal 24 hour days. There wasn't anyone there, but we know it was six days because God told Moses and God was there. And it wasn't an accident. Humans were created very intentionally. He told the dirt to be a man and it was. He then formed a woman. It wasn't mutated apes as some would have us believe. He wanted to form these two people, and then He gave them to each other. As Creator, He also endowed both of these with certain gifts of creation. Even after the fall into sin, they had certain talents and skills He had given them as Creator.

The same for us. He has given each of us different talents and skills. Some of you are a whiz with mechanical things. Some of you are athletic. Some of you are good with animals. Some of you are artistic. Some of you are good looking. Some of you are popular. Some of you are good at making money. Some of you are good at saving and managing money. Some of you are smart. Some of you are street smart. Some of you are good at farming. Some of you are good at games. Some of you have a nice singing voice. Some of you are good parents or will be good parents. Some of you are a great support for friends. Some of you are pious and devout. But all of you, every one of you, are what you are because God has made you this way. Even if you have developed a talent, the interest you had, the time and the raw talent was all given to you by God.

What right, then, would any of us have to brag? What right would we have to look down on someone else, when they were given something different? Now, we definitely want to acknowledge these gifts are from him. We don't want to act like He hasn't given them to us, if He has, because that would be to belittle those gifts, but we have no right to act like they are our own. God has done a great, exciting thing by giving us this talent, this skill. Unfortunately, we forget that and then look down on other people. Too often, we consider our gift better, and consider those who don't have it or don't have it to the same extent, inferior to us.

That was this Pharisee's problem. He thought he was something special. But it's worse than that. This man lacked faith. When we do this, like he did, maybe not so crassly, but still do it, when we look down on others, we see indications of the same. We struggle against a lack of faith, even as Christians. We have the tendency to credit ourselves with what we have. There's our sin popping up and showing itself, when we do this.

The thing is, this guy didn't even struggle. He lacked all humility. He considered that he has done it all. His arrogance is revolting to us, and yet too much of him is in us.

Thanks be to God, we are not left in it. We have a much better model in the tax collector. And as we turn to look at him, we start to look at a different article from the creed. Instead of the second, as we should expect since it is next, we will look at the third article. "I believe in the Holy Spirit."

God did a great exciting thing for this man. He showed him his sin. The Holy Spirit convicted him of his guilt.

That may not seem so great or exciting, but look at what Jesus said, "I tell you this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other." Had the Holy Spirit not done this, this man never would have cried out in faith, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." He recognized that he could not meet God's standard of perfection, and he realized only One could do something about it.

Although this is a fictional character, a man in Jesus' story, this easily could have happened. Many men had heard Jesus preach. Any one of them, especially one of the tax collectors would have heard Jesus say, "Your righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees." The man would then look at himself and say, "How? I'm a tax collector. I have pretty well sold my soul." Then he would have looked at the scribes and Pharisees he knew, and felt even worse. He saw them. They fasted twice a week, and gave a tithe of everything they got. They managed to keep themselves pure and were so careful to follow and protect God's law.

And yet, according to Jesus, not even these guys were good enough. He wouldn't know their heart; he would just see what he saw, and think, "If these guys aren't good enough, what hope do I have?" So he cries out from the anguish of his heart, "God be merciful to me." "God be merciful to me, I have no other hope. I have no other recourse. I know you are loving. I believe you will show me mercy, even though it is so painfully apparent I don't deserve it." And for the sake of Christ, God forgave him.

These are the great exciting things God does today. Today, even now. The acronym is God's always doing great, exciting things. He is always doing them. He is doing them now. I want to emphasize the present tense. Always doing them--as in now. His Word is being delivered. The Holy Spirit is delivering it to you right now, even as I speak.

This room, these pews, this altar, this is the location of some of God's greatest, most exciting work being done these days. Here He creates faith and strengthens it. He draws us closer and transforms us to be more like Him. All this happens in this building. He shows our helplessness and then gives us Christ who has secured all. This is the work of the Church.

The main job of the Church is to deliver these gifts. And you are here to receive them. Most, that is, just about all of you, have been baptized. God delivered to you all the riches of eternal life in that simple action. This is a great and exciting thing.

He also puts His body and blood here for us to eat and drink. In this gift we are given forgiveness of sins. Our faith is strengthened, and we show unity with all who confess the same faith we confess. Here, again, is another great, exciting thing God is doing.

He speaks to us the actual words of forgiveness in the absolution. Although these are features of the Divine Service, this is available to us regularly. Here we confess our sins, we admit God is right, we truly are sinners, and then He speaks words of forgiveness. Where else--let me ask you--where else do you get this? God's Always Doing Great Exciting Things, is more than just a clever acronym, it describes what actually happens in church, even what some may consider to be boring church.

But as we have been speaking of forgiveness, because this is what is delivered to you as you worship, we need to speak of how that forgiveness was gained. This is what the tax collector was hungering to hear. His soul yearned to hear what the storyteller who created his character was going to do for Him.

This is given to us in the 2nd article as we double back and pick it up after skipping it. In this long list, we talk about not what God is doing, but what He has already done.

We start with, He has become flesh. Imagine that. Although this is the message of Christmas, we couldn't get to anything else He had done, had God not become flesh. Jesus is God. The fact Jesus was God could not be hidden, as we heard on Thursday. He was transfigured. He chose, for a brief time, to not hide His divine glory so the disciples could see it and witness to it. Like Peter said, "For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you to power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty, for we were with Him on the holy mountain." So, God, true God and true man, conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of a virgin is the miracle worker, the wonderful teacher, the prophet extraordinaire we call Jesus.

Why did God become a man? Because He loved His human creatures and did not want to see them eternally lost. He became a man so He could fulfill for us His demand for perfection. We couldn't do it, but He could; so He did. He loved and obeyed His Father perfectly. Then in obedience He allowed Himself to be arrested, tried and then crucified. At this point, He suffered hell.

He suffered what we deserved. We sin and He is punished. Isn't this a great and amazing thing? That the Almighty God would do this for us? And then He died--a real, literal death. He gave up His Spirit and his body became cold. They laid Him in a tomb, because this is what you do with dead people. But it is more than just HIS death. His death becomes ours in our baptism. When we are baptized we are treated as though we had actually been crucified, as though we had suffered the punishment for our sins, and we don't even break a sweat, much less suffer hell as He had done.

But He didn't stay dead. He announced His victory to the hordes of hell, and then He rose from the dead on the Third day. His resurrection also becomes ours in our baptism. We know we will now rise from the dead because He has given to us His victory over our spiritual enemies. He made that announcement to two of his disciples on the same evening He rose from the dead. They were on their way to a little town, east of Jerusalem, called Emmaus, and that's where He spoke to two of His followers, the story for the last day of our VBS.

Then, we complete confessing the second article. He went back to heaven, reigns from there and will reign until He returns to judge on the last day. Looking back, the wonderful thing about all this is that He did it for you. God's Always Doing great, exciting things--for you.

How tragic for that Pharisee who had no idea what He needed or what had been done for Him. It may be only a parable, but many people are like that Pharisee who play the game, even look Christian, but have no idea what God has done for them. But God's always doing great, exciting things, and maybe one day He will speak to them through His Word and tell them what He has done. In the meantime, you have heard and you have received, and you have been blessed because God is always...well, you know.

AMEN