Lent Midweek Service - The Eighth Commandment

                                          Fourth Midweek Service in Lent - March 29

Midweek Lent 4                  March 29, 2017

8th Commandment           Pastor Pautz

Grace and mercy to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

We continue to look at the Ten Commandments during our Lenten Midweek services, so that we can say that God's holy Law is good.

In addition to the treasures of your own body (5th commandment), your spouse (6th commandment), and your earthly possessions (7th commandment), you also have another treasure which is your good reputation (8th commandment). The 8th commandment is the focus for tonight. Please turn to page 323 in your hymnal:

What is the 8th Commandment? You shall not give false testimony against your neigbhor.

What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.

Let us pray: Dear Father, here you teach us to be true to each other, to avoid all lying and backbiting, and gladly to hear and tell the best about others. And so you have established a wall to protect our reputation and innocence against wicked mouths and lying tongues. These you will not permit to go unpunished. Amen.

This commandment is given to protect you in three ways

First, in civil jurisdiction/standing. A jurisdiction (standing is the legal term) is an area of responsibility that you are given before the law. If someone steals your car, you have standing to press charges or not. It is your call.

Second, extending to spiritual jurisdiction, this commandment is broken against all Christians. Why? Because the world judges that Christians are wicked people. You don't ordain women, so you are wicked people. You do no bless all marriages, so you are a wicked people. You must bear that sentence. Why, because you are Christian and you can't make people observe God's good and holy Law.

The Lord forbids all sins of the tongue. These are the things you say that hurt someone's reputation. In order to protect your neighbor, God gives this commandment. The most detestable sin of the tongue is talking behind someone's back.

Suppose you have something against someone else. Like what? I don't know, let say you saw someone at work steal office supplies and knew he was selling them on eBay for his own profit. Under what circumstances, in light of the 8th commandment, may you talk about this publicly?

You need two things to go public. First, you need evidence that will hold up in public. Second, you need jurisdiction/standing to act on that evidence.

Having clear evidence puts most gossip to an end. You gossip because they don't have evidence. You gossip because there is nothing you can do to correct a problem, so instead you say bad things about the person and hurt their reputation. However, without evidence that would hold up in public and in light of this commandment, you are to let a secret sin remain in the dark. You are to remain silent. Suffer the injustice and uphold your neighbor's reputation, unless you have jurisdiction/standing.

What is jurisdiction/standing? Take a look are your daily vocations; your daily callings as listed in the Table of Duties in the Small Catechism.

Are you a pastor or hearer of the Gospel? The pastor has jurisdiction/standing to forgive sins before the whole congregation and members of the public that are present. The rest are to remain silent but receive what is given. But that same pastor does not have jurisdiction in a neighboring congregation.

Are you a governing authority or a citizen? The governing authority has jurisdiction to create laws or have them enforced in his city or county or state or nation? The citizen does not have jurisdiction. You cannot make new laws or enforce existing laws yourself. You are to remain silent.

Are you a husband or wife? Well then you have jursidiction/standing to make decisions together regarding your marriage. Where will you live? Will you buy a house or rent? Will you go out for a romantic dinner this Friday night or night? But that same husband or wife does not have standing with another man or woman. Among others, you are to remain silent.

Are you a parent? Then you have jurisdiction/standing to discipline and raise your children but only your children. You have no jurisdiction/standing to discipline or raise the other kids on your block. Among them, you are to remain silent.

So, under the 8th commandment, you probably do not have much jurisdiction/standing among other people. You are tempted to talk behind the backs of others because of your low standing, but you are to remain silent.

The good news is this: The Lord has placed someone who does have jurisdiction/standing in every possible situation. There is not a situation in which someone is given to has jurisdiction/standing to fix a wrong. This is by the Lord's design.

The good news is this: You are not God. But God has perfect jurisdiction over heaven and earth and He takes care of all creation. He also has jurisdiction/standing over sin and death like this: Our Father sent Jesus give up His standing before the Father and take on the lowest standing possible – the bearer of your sin.

Wednesday Matins Service - March 29th

     Wednesday Matins Service

Divine Service on the Jesus Feeding of the 5,000

Uploaded by Our Savior Lutheran Church Muscatine on 2017-03-27.

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Printed Sermon  on John 6:1-15 Jesus Feeds of the 5,000

Grace and mercy to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let me read the text as written in John chapter 6 again: 5Lifting up His eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” 6 Jesus said this to test Philip, for Jesus Himself knew what He would do. 7Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” 8One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Jesus, 9“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 10Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. 11Jesus then took the loaves, and when Jesus had given thanks, Jesus distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12And when they had eaten their fill, Jesus told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” 13So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. 14When the people saw the miracle that Jesus had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

Let us pray: Bread of Heaven, You richly feed all who follow You. This includes not only the pious, but the weak as well. Heighten my awareness of Your concern for me, and for all people, as shown in the miracles You perform and as heard in the message of Your goodness. Sometimes I’m embarrassed I have so little to give to advance Your purposes through the Church. Assure me that nothing I offer is too small or insignificant for You to bless and to increase for the benefit of others. Teach me to put my daily bread to use by not letting Your blessings go to waste. There will always be great needs and yet Your provision is sure; in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The Feeding of the Five Thousand is a text, like all the written Holy Scriptures, shows our ears how to grow in faith toward God and to grow in fervent love toward our neighbors. Faith and Love.

First faith toward God. Jesus teaches you not be overanxious about your daily bread. Do not be overanxious about the size of your paycheck or the size of you monthly bills. Jesus already sees next month. And He is testing you, "Where are we to buy bread so these people may eat?" Jesus already knows what He is going to do. Or, "Where are we to earn enough to pay these bills?" Jesus already know what He is going to do, so don't be lazy or overanxious about the problem, rather repent of you misuse of His daily blessing that got you into this trouble and trust Jesus. Or, "How will I ever be ready for retirement?" Jesus already knows what He is going to do, so don't be either lazy or overanxious about the problem, but repent and look to Jesus. He remains kind and friendly toward you. Jesus is the generous one.

Contentment is the opposite of our anxiety. Trust Jesus to give you contentment according to your new nature while repenting of your anxiety. For in this instance, no trust in Jesus leads to anxiety or a trusting in yourself to get through the daily problems. That anxiety is not just an emotion. That anxiety, caused by a lack of trust in Jesus, is sin. Repent of the anxiety itself. Turn away from yourself and toward Jesus.

Jesus is the generous One. He feeds all the people until all the people had their fill. Some people in the crowd follow Jesus because they heard the Gospel and saw the miracles. The Gospel and the miracles gave them to trust Christ. Others in the crowd follow Jesus not because of the Gospel but because the miracles took away their hunger and they wanted more to eat. They saw publicity and honor in following Jesus too and that was to their benefit. They were part of the "in" crowd while Jesus was still considered the "it" guy. Jesus even fed this group.

Jesus is the generous One. He sees the untrusting nature of His disciples. Philip brings his reason and intelligence to the problem. Well, Jesus, "The cost is so high to feed these people that a rich man could only give each one a little. And they would still be hungry. Andrew speaks like a foolish child even saying, "I found a boy with some bread and fish, but how could that feed so many."

Jesus sees our untrusting nature as well. He see that you worry about monthly bills, you worry about this building, you worry about local evangelism.

And yet, what I see is a faithful God serving you His people. In a few weeks five faithful young men and women will be confirmed in God's Word and receive the miracle Christ's Body and Blood. Every week, I see young and old faithfully receiving the same. Last week, we heard that our own Johnny Fry is expecting a boy in August. And that young man won't be very old when he hears the Gospel and receives the miracle of Holy Baptism. All this just as the 5,000 heard the Gospel and received the miracles Jesus was giving to them.

This is the lesson of faith. You follow Jesus because you trust Him to both save you from your untrusting nature and also give you all your daily bread. The lesson of faith says, 'Do not be overanxiou about daily bread. Rather, turn to Jesus for He already knows what He is going to do.'

That is the lesson of faith.

But what about the lesson of love?

Love is a fruit of faith. Love has to do with how you care for your neighbor and not how you will be saved. God simply expects you to love your neighbor, but, in the saving faith of Jesus, He does not hold your failures against you.

What does love look like this account of the Feeding of the Five Thousand?

In one word. Love looks like generosity. When you are generous, some else receives the benefit. Generosity is love.

Jesus shows generosity to Philip and Andrew first. Holy Scripture does not paint Philip or Andrew in a good light but rather as weak disciples. Philip brings his reason and intellect to the problem of where they will get enough food to feed the five thousand. A year's salary would only afford each to eat a little. Jesus listens but doesn't hold Philip's lack of trust against him. Andrew brings his lack of reason or intellect to the problem. Here's some bread and fish? But that won't be enough, will it? Jesus listens and doesn't hold Andrew's lack of trust against him. But Jesus excels at generosity. Jesus excels at loving His neighbor, even Philip and Andrew.

Looking to Jesus rather than Philip and Andrew, what does Holy Scripture teach us about growing in generosity?

First, receive Jesus' Word and Sacrament more often. You can only give away what you have first received. If unforgiven sin is what you have then all you have to give is sin. So repent and receive the forgiveness of your sins.

Second, Jesus also says this, "But just as you excel in everything- in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us --see that you also excel in this grace of giving...Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

Third, generosity is proportional. You can only give what you have. If you have little you can only give s little. And that is ok. If you have a lot then you can give more. And that is ok, too.

So, here in the Feeding of the Five Thousand we see both faith and love. Therefore, first, I encourage you in the faith of Jesus by not being overly anxious about your daily bread, what you will eat or what you will wear or how you will pay your next bill. Jesus already knows what He is going to do for you. Second, I encourage to love your neighbor a little more. It begins by receiving the grace of God and continues by considering how you might become more generous to those around you. Like, Jesus, who was generous to all the 5,000 of both good and bad folks gathered on that day of the Feeding of the 5,000.

And remember God loves you, His closest neighbor; in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes understanding, guard and keep you in body and soul through Jesus Christ, His Son, our Savior. Amen.

Movie Tickets: Martin Luther - The Idea That Changed the World

This is a big deal.  Our Savior Lutheran Church is hosting a one time showing of Martin Luther - The Idea That Changed the World at the Fridely Palms 10 Theater in Muscatine.  There is no cost to us but we need to have sold 63 tickets by the end of April.

If 63 tickets are purchased, this special showing will take place on Wednesday, May 3 at 7:30pm.

So, this is the first of many announcements to spread the news and buy a ticket.

Tickets cost $10 each and can be purchased at this website

https://www.tugg.com/events/martin-luther-the-idea-that-changed-the-world-uno_.

Watch the Trailer here:

      Martin Luther Movie Trailer - The Idea That Changed the Word