A sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Matt 18:21-35

In the gospel text from Matthew, Peter asks: “Should I forgive as many as seven times?” And the answer is: “Seventy times seven.”

That doesn’t mean when you’ve forgiven someone 490 times, then it’s O.K. not to forgive. It means totally.

Then comes the parable of someone who owed ten thousand talents (about $25,000 in today’s terms). The king was going to sell the servant and his family into slavery, but the servant pleaded for mercy and the king forgave him his debt.

This same servant then turns around to someone who owed him a mere twenty-five dollars (!), and when that person begs for mercy, the servant says: “No,” and throws him in prison.

The point of the parable, which comes in the last verse, is to forgive from the heart. The point is: Don’t just forgive, but forgive from the heart.

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Matthew 18:15-20

A sermon for the Fifteen Sunday after Pentecost

There are amazing promises in the Matthew text for today. It says: “Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:19).

What do we have here? A crazy saying? To be sure, the next verse says: “where two or three are gathered in my name” (Matthew 18:20).

You might say: “Well, it has to be ‘in his name.’” That’s not too difficult. We often pray, as we should, in Jesus’ name. That means something enormous. It means by his authority, his power, to which we can appeal because we are adopted children of God, fellow heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16).

But how does it work really? Practically speaking. How it all works with our feet on the ground?

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Matthew 16:13-20

A Sermon for the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Ideally, the account in Matthew 16 about Peter is taken up as one story which begins with his confession: “You are the Christ” and then ends with Jesus’ rebuke of him (Matthew 16:16) and ends with Jesus’ rebuke of him, saying: “Get behind me, Satan!” (Matthew 16:23).

But the lectionary committee cut this account in half! They assigned the first half for last week and the second half for today. It’s not right, and therefore, we’re going to take up the story as a whole so you can see what’s going on.

First, Jesus asked the disciples: “Who do you say that am I?” and Peter answered: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16).

Then Jesus says: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it,” etc. etc. (These words are written inside the dome of St. Peter’s in the Vatican.)

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Romans 12:1-8

A Sermon for the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

A key word in Paul’s letters is the word “therefore.”

Our Romans text for today starts out: “I appeal to you therefore, . . .”

This is Romans 12:1. And he uses this word “therefore” also 2:1, 5:1, and 8:1. Watch out for it because it means something then happens.

In Romans 12:1 the “therefore” signals a turn to what this all means for the Christian life. What does it mean for what we do, how we live? He then writes: “present your bodies as a living sacrifice [and] do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your minds .

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Romans 11:1-2, 29-36

A sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

The first eight chapters of Paul’s letter to the Romans set out in logical form how salvation works. Then in Romans 9-11 Paul uses the Jewish people as a case study, an example of how salvation works.

In our text for today, Paul reaches the pinnacle, that is, having wrestled with the Jewish question, he can do no other than stand in awe, as he says in Romans 11:20: “So do not become proud, but stand in awe.”

Paul’s case study presents the problem: Why have the Jewish people not followed their Messiah? How is it possible they do not believe? God’s promises do not fail. His covenants with the Jews have not changed. Why then do they not confess Jesus as Lord? What do we say about this?

What follows as Paul wrestles with the question is daring and challenging. Just watch what he does.

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