Septuagesima

Epiphany is over. We’re on the way to Ash Wednesday now. This is the three week mini-sort-of-season called pre-Lent. We’re getting ready for the season of fasting, prayer, almsgiving. We go from the excitement of the star, the miracles, the glory of the Lord, to the wilderness, the desert. We go from great excitement about the salvation of the Lord, to a time of repentance, as we prepare our hearts to hear again the account of our Savior’s journey to the cross for us.

And our reading as we start to pack our bags for this unpleasant trip, is a reading reminding us that our preparations aren’t going to make us worthy to hear the Good Friday Gospel. Our efforts aren’t going to make us deserve the promise of the resurrection. We will be adding to our efforts – increased services, increased chances to hear and learn the Word, extra time for prayer, giving from the bounty the Lord has given to help the poor, that we might learn not to love the things of this world and the comforts and pleasures of this life. And yet, the adding doesn’t earn us anything before God.

We are the church of the Reformation. We know that “Good works can not avert our doom, they help and save us never.” And yet, here we are getting ready to do a bunch of good works. What gives? The church starts out the season of Lent saying to her members – the faithful, “We’re going to ask a lot of you, but it won’t get you anything...” What’s up with that?

Paul explains it. We do not run aimlessly. We do not box as if we are fighting the air. We are focused in what we are doing. All of this is to point us to Jesus Christ. We are disciplining ourselves - out minds, our bodies, our spirits, between now and Good Friday so we don’t get distracted. A runner who only trains part time doesn’t win the crown, the medal. We discipline ourselves, we keep ourselves under control so that we are equipped for whatever God might send us.

In the collect for today we prayed: O Lord, graciously hear the prayers of Your people that we who justly suffer the consequence of our sin may be mercifully delivered by Your goodness to the glory of Your name...

We justly suffer the consequence of our sin. We pray in the confession at the beginning of the service, “I a poor miserable sinner... justly deserve your temporal and eternal punishment.” We deserve whatever punishment God might give us for our sins. And yet, we are told, “God is gracious and merciful, longsuffering, he does not delight in the death of the sinner, he is abounding in steadfast love.”

If we only ever received bad things from the lord, it would be no less than we deserve for our sin. And yet, God gives us grace after grace, mercy after mercy, blessing after blessing. All Underserved.

When we consider the parable of the laborers in the vineyard – the owner of the vineyard is never less than fair. He gives – at the very minimum – a fair wage. That’s what the men get. Enough to live on for the day, to feed their families, to care for themselves. They all get that. No one is treated less than justly. And so, the payment is not unjust individually. It is only when the men collectively consider the pay they are given that they believe it is unjust. Which is to say, it isn’t that they got stiffed. It’s that they looked around and wanted more. Their anger is from envy jealousy. They want the extra things the neighbor got, not the sufficiency they received.

When we consider our place in life according to the ten commandments, we know that we are sinners, that we are disobedient to our parents, or lazy in our job, or we rule poorly in our house, or we do not trust the goodness of the Lord to provide, or we reject his word, do not value it, do not gladly hear and learn it, we are slow, and lazy about loving our neighbor. There are certainly enough sins we know and feel in our hearts that we can not claim innocency before God. And so we are not worthy of a wage at all. In this sense the parable would more accurately reflect our situation if it was a landowner going out and finding men to lay around in his vineyard all day and tear out vines and crush grapes into the dirt. And some did it all day, some only did it for a few hours. And then all got paid.

But God would not have the sinner die. He sent Jesus to redeem us. Remember – all of our preparation is so that we would gladly hear and learn and gratefully receive the promise of salvation through Jesus death and resurrection – we’re getting ready for Holy Week. That’s what all the preparation is for. Not because that’s the only way to hear of the death of Jesus profitably, but because by considering our sin carefully, considering our weakness, our great need, we will appreciate it all the more. Just as a day chopping wood makes you appreciate dinner more than a day spent on the couch.

And scripture does talk about our works. Not the works we do to earn salvation. There’s no such thing. But having been given salvation, having received the Gospel through the work of the Spirit and not our own work, we do begin to grow in faith and to bear fruits in keeping with repentance. We believe teach and confess that as Christians – with the Holy Spirit bringing to us the flame of faith and regenerating our hearts, that the fruit of faith is good works. And these works are nothing more or less than loving God and loving our neighbor. And so the disciplines of Holy Lent focus us on those things – that we hear and learn God’s Word, and that we love our neighbor as ourselves. Prayer, almsgiving, fasting.

Not that these works earn us anything before God. In our altered version of the laborers in the vineyard where we just sit around all day, the vineyard owners son comes and does all our work at the end of the day, and we get the pay. Jesus came and lived our perfect life for us, and died in our place to pay the debt we owe God. And now, as the scriptures say, we are saved by grace, not by works, but also that God – and this is part of his mercy toward us as well – prepared good works in advance that we should walk in them, as Paul says in Ephesians. So it is grace and mercy from top to bottom. The salvation, the justifying faith as a gift entirely apart from works, but then also the works which God allows us to do so that we would learn more and more to love him and our neighbor.

And when in the weakness of our sinful nature we fall, there is grace and mercy for us. So we never need to doubt our salvation. We never need to wonder if God is gracious – not in general – but to us specifically. As we heard last week at Transfiguration – we have the prophetic word confirmed. Or even more accurately we have the more sure prophetic word. The Word of God is sure and certain. The Salvation of the Lord is sure and certain. We need never doubt the salvation of the Lord, the grace and mercy of our God. And so when we fall in weakness into sin each day, the Lord is there to pick us up and forgive our sin and restore us. That’s why in addition to Baptism, he gives absolution and the Holy Supper – so that every time we come before him, he offers us the fullness of his grace.

Like a loving parent – he disciplines those whom he loves – which may seem like the burden and the heat of the day to us, but it is a grace and a mercy so that we do not fall away. He restores us when we wander, he gently calls us back with his rod and staff.

The Lord wants nothing so much for you as this – salvation. And in this we are blessed by him, whether we are afflicted in this world, or given ease. In all things we are comforted knowing the love and mercy of the Lord are with us, that he promises salvation through our Savior Jesus Christ, and that we are freed from works of the Law. There is nothing we can do to earn our salvation. So we are now free to bask in the love and mercy of Jesus, and to in freedom show love to our neighbor without worrying about whether it is enough. Jesus is enough for you. He paid all there is to pay. The debt is gone. The rest is love and mercy. In this world, and in the life of the world to come.

Amen.