The Lord Keeps You

Pastor JonAlden Pedersen

There is an old phrase, I don’t know how common it gets used today. I certainly don’t use it very often, but I have used it in the past to describe myself and Lord willing it will stay in the past, and I wonder if you would agree that it describes you too. The phrase is: “to have a chip on your shoulder.” To have a chip on your shoulder means that you hold a long-held grudge or grievance against someone or maybe something like an organization or institution. You might have a chip on your shoulder because you feel angry that you haven’t had the same advantages as other people. Or because you don’t feel like you are as good as other people. Or because no matter how many times or different ways you say that there is an issue, nothing gets done. Whether we are aware of it or not, all of our grievances against one another are also grievances against the Lord. How could I say such a thing? Well for one thing every time we say the Lord’s prayer we plead: forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. For two, if we would have gotten to the very next section of Luke in our Wounds that Heal series we would have read these verses from Luke 17:

 “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” To which the apostles reply: “Increase our faith!”

 It is true, friends, that there is nothing easy about forgiving those who have wronged us and we know that if they do not say “I repent” or “I’m sorry!” We are not bound to forgive them. But how can they repent if we do not go and tell them to. Is there a part of us, that doesn’t want to rebuke those who wronged us in case they do repent? I do not doubt that each of us have been wronged in terrible and unjust ways, ways that we probably have a hard time forgetting. That’s what we say right, “Forgive but don’t forget!” Yet in our text the Lord himself swipes the chip off of our shoulders by establishing his new covenant where instead of rebuking us and carrying out just judgment on us for all of the times we have grieved him with our sin, he proclaims:

 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

And it is true, brothers and sisters, that we all do know this new covenant because Jesus told us exactly when that time had come, and he even invited us to participate in his new covenant by saying the words of institution…. “Do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

So since it is October 26th and we agree with Luther that we are at the same time sinners and saints, let’s ask that Lutheran question: what does this new covenant mean? Well, the Lord declares in Jeremiah two things: our wickedness has been forgiven, and our sins are remembered no more. Now let’s ask that question that so often is the genesis of the chip on our shoulders and also the reason the body of Christ refuses to be unified: “why?”

Why is our wickedness forgiven? Why is the sin that we commit or that is committed against us (those sins we have such a hard time forgetting) intentionally forgotten by the Lord? Why does the Lord keep us? 

For some, the answer is so that we can prove ourselves. This is exactly why in Paul’s instruction for overseers he says that overseers “Must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgement as the devil.” You see, trying to ‘prove yourself’ will also mandate that you know how to improve yourself so you will spiral downward seeking the knowledge of good and evil eventually trying to ‘become like God knowing good and evil’ and you will work out the law over or instead of faith begin climbing that ladder to improve your status before God. And you’ll miss the mark. We are not God and will never be God. And trying to prove yourself to God or even worse to others, causes you to walk farther from God. This is also why in our second reading Paul rebukes Cephas, or Peter, so harshly and openly. You see Peter began to let his reputation before other Jews trump his saved and redeemed status before God. Paul calls out Peter, saying: “We know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified. 

So we return to that question, if it is not to prove ourselves, why does the Lord keep us? And an old and former devout monk/catholic in Germany would want you to know that the Lord keeps us ONLY BY THE GRACE OF GOD DEMONSTRATED IN JESUS CHRIST ALONE. Who being in very nature God, having given Moses the law of the old covenant to protect us from ourselves… proceeded to watch his beloved children kill each other, cheat on each other, lie to each other, hate each other, covet each other, hold grudges against each other, resent each other, and to add sin to sin openly worshipping their own image and other gods that included child sacrifice. 

Why does he forgive our wickedness? And remember our sin no more? So that we would forever know his heart, which includes both the wrath he has for sin and the mercy he has for his creation, he sent us the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One, to set us free. And by his blood we are Atoned and a part of the new covenant by faith in Jesus and not by works. The Lord Keeps You Not So That You Can Prove Yourself But So That He Can Prove Himself To You. And he proved his justice when he died, and he proved his mercy when he rose, and we will finally realize when we rise. 

And this is exactly why I’m preaching to you today, so that you may share in the freedom that comes from the joys of the certainty of your salvation. So that when death comes, either suddenly or not suddenly you won’t have to wrestle with the devils of doubt saying “there’s no way God can love a sinner like me” or uncertainty saying “am I worthy to stand before God?” But that you will be filled with the Spirit that says “I get to go home to be with the Lord!” And until then I pray that you join me in this ministry of reconciliation. To live the joys of telling people: God reconciled the world to himself through Christ for you! And I also pray that you may cherish the true freedom we have as Christians who have been set free. I pray you don’t feel burdened by the weight of expectations, especially those given to you by other people. Because here you are free to be not what others expect you to be, but who God made you to be. 

 The last reading yet to be mentioned today is our Gospel text where Jesus himself says these words: “If you hold to my teaching, you really are my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Martin Luther changed his last name to Luther from this Greek word ‘eleutheros’ which means freedom. Despite what people called him, or attributed to him, or even resented him for, he knew he was free, because in his heart dwelt the Lord Jesus. God grants us all that freedom, that we may not be taken captive by past grievances, or resentment, but instead that we may instead enjoy the blessing, grace, and favor of the Lord’s new covenant. Where he dwells in our hearts, forgives our wickedness, and remembers our sins no more. Amen.