{"id":11444,"date":"2026-06-15T11:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T18:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=11444"},"modified":"2026-06-15T11:14:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T18:14:32","slug":"can-we-preach-without-offending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=11444","title":{"rendered":"Can we preach without offending?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Select here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew 10:24-39<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day in a seminary class, a student asked the professor: \u201cHow can we be relevant and yet respect the belief systems of others?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The professor answered: \u201cI think you are asking: How can we proclaim the gospel without offending anyone?\u201d Then he added: \u201cIt can\u2019t be done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s what the gospel text today is about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It says in Matthew 10:34: \u201cI have not come to bring peace, but a sword.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This doesn\u2019t mean he came to bring wars with swords. We know that from many things he said. But what he says is: \u201cThere is something which is finally decisive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not uncommon today to hear someone say: \u201cFamily comes first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here it says family does not come first: \u201cI have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law\u201d (Matthew 10:35).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, this doesn\u2019t mean he came to divide family members from each other. What it is saying is: \u201cWhat comes first if you are a Christian, is: What about God? What is your priority? What is decisive?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To answer what is decisive and why, we move to the second text, Romans 6, and what it says about being a Christian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To begin with, let\u2019s talk about birthdays. We remember the dates of our birthdays and those of our immediate family. But how many know the date of your Baptism? And yet this is the most important day of our lives; it is the day we were born again, this time into eternal life. It is the day we were adopted and became \u201cchildren of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ\u201d (Romans 8:17).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luther spoke of Baptism as the big death for each of us. And later yes, there\u2019s the little death, the day you and I die. But as Paul writes here in Romans: \u201cIf we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his\u201d (Romans 6:5). In Baptism we die with him to be by him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Large Catechism Luther says that every day I return to my Baptism. That\u2019s where my feet are placed on solid ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet we wonder: When it comes to Baptism, you do it, but does it make any difference? Is it that important?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the section before our text today Paul says law came in to increase sin but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. He then asks in our text today: \u201cShall we increase in sin in order that we have more grace?\u201d No, that\u2019s not our problem. We don\u2019t take sin that seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, we think: \u201cIf you do some good works, you\u2019ll surely go to heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is it really about? Paul says: \u201cWe were buried with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life . . . if we have died with Christ, we believe we shall also live with him\u201d (Romans 6:4-5, 8).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s basic to being a Christian is that we have been buried with him in his death by Baptism; therefore, we are forgiven and we shall live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That says everything about the seriousness of sin and death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be sure, some people will say that death isn\u2019t serious. Then the discussion is over. If that\u2019s what you can live with, then I guess that what you\u2019ll have to die with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But sin and death are two sides of the same coin. Sin and death are those things which show that in ourselves we\u2019re helpless and hopeless. We can\u2019t beat death. It will get us. And sin is a deeper corruption in us than we can imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer given to us is that through the cross alone, we then are given forgiveness and life. The cross alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that doesn\u2019t sell well in our culture, or any other, for that matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider how people like to celebrate Christmas but not Good Friday. It\u2019s not that we shouldn\u2019t celebrate Christmas, but the importance of it compared with Good Friday should be reversed because the real event, the event that changes everything, is Good Friday and Easter as a package.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That leads once again to the basic question of hell and God\u2019s justice. As you know from last Sunday you can quote Scripture on both sides of that problem. 1 Timothy 2:4 says that God desires all to be saved. And Romans 11:32 says: \u201cGod has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.\u201d These verses seem to say that everybody is saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that would mean that God is unjust, that he doesn\u2019t do anything about evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there are other verses, verses like Matthew 25:46 which say that some will go to eternal salvation and others \u201cwill go into eternal punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do we say to this? We are tempted to say: \u201cIt\u2019s difficult; let\u2019s go fishing.\u201d In other words, let\u2019s not deal with this now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or more seriously, we may start to say: \u201cMaybe God is behind evil, or maybe God isn\u2019t just.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you think back to the temptation story with Adam and Eve in the third chapter of Genesis, the temptation was that you and I then would judge what is good and evil. That\u2019s the great temptation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what\u2019s the solution for us personally? The text is plain about this. It says through Baptism he makes us his own. This means Baptism as we do it, so that it is God\u2019s doing and not ours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to think of it in a way that helps you remember it, just remember that all Baptism is infant Baptism, no matter at what age a person is baptized.  The person could be 2 months old or 20 years old. That is to say, all Baptism is that which is from outside of us, in spite of us, a gift, totally God\u2019s doing and not in ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can that be? It doesn\u2019t seem to work. We wonder: \u201cMaybe God has not really done it in the cross?\u201d And when we think like that, what we\u2019re really doing is attacking the cross and God\u2019s work there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, we remember Good Friday and the words of Jesus on the cross: \u201cIt is finished\u201d (John 19:30).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We go wrong when we think we\u2019re so smart and start saying: \u201cEither God does evil, or God isn\u2019t just.\u201d No way, no how. Neither of those is possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather: What God says and does is on the cross, and the cross is the remarkable manner in which he has taken care of what it is all about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that it is yours and mine through the promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And because it doesn\u2019t depend on us, we can be absolutely certain. We don\u2019t say it\u2019s mainly God\u2019s doing, but we need to add something else. We better do some good works. We\u2019d better accept him, make a decision for him because it\u2019s up to us to receive him rightly, to make it work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, it\u2019s not. It\u2019s God\u2019s work, thank God, because we can\u2019t and we don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And from the cross and the sacrament comes the certainty we have that neither life nor death nor anything can separate us from him because of what he has done and being in him forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why we can\u2019t preach without offending. It sounds so terribly intolerant because this is the message of salvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s nothing difficult; it simply that he\u2019s Lord, and he\u2019s done it, and therefore it is also the message of freedom. Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew 10:24-39<\/p>\n

A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n

One day in a seminary class, a student asked the professor: \u201cHow can we be relevant and yet respect the belief systems of others?\u201d<\/p>\n

The professor answered: \u201cI think you are asking: How can we proclaim the gospel without offending anyone?\u201d Then he added: \u201cIt can\u2019t be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what the gospel text today is about.<\/p>\n

Select here<\/a> to read more or here <\/a>for a pdf version.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11444"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11453,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11444\/revisions\/11453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}