WEBVTT 1 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:06.000 Brothers and Sisters in Christ. 2 00:00:07.300 --> 00:00:09.100 Turn and live. 3 00:00:10.900 --> 00:00:16.100 It was a hard word that God gave Ezekiel for the people of his day. 4 00:00:16.100 --> 00:00:17.200 Therefore 5 00:00:17.200 --> 00:00:21.500 I will judge you or House of Israel. Everyone according to his ways, 6 00:00:22.200 --> 00:00:27.600 declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions 7 00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:33.600 lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions 8 00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:37.500 that you have committed to make yourself a new heart and new spirit. 9 00:00:38.300 --> 00:00:39.300 Why will you die 10 00:00:39.300 --> 00:00:44.100 Oh House of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone 11 00:00:44.100 --> 00:00:45.900 declares the Lord God. 12 00:00:46.800 --> 00:00:47.700 So turn 13 00:00:49.300 --> 00:00:50.100 and live. 14 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:56.400 Let's begin by being clear about the context here. 15 00:00:56.400 --> 00:01:03.900 God was not offering the nation of Judah one last chance to repent. The 16 00:01:03.900 --> 00:01:05.900 broader context of Ezekiel's message makes that much 17 00:01:07.500 --> 00:01:09.000 quite clear. 18 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:11.900 God had already pronounced his judgment 19 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:15.700 and his sentence of Exile upon the nation. 20 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:24.600 In our text the focus shifts so that God's message through Ezekiel 21 00:01:24.600 --> 00:01:31.400 is not directed to the nation collectively but to reach individual who 22 00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:33.900 hears the word. 23 00:01:34.900 --> 00:01:38.100 And that's what the first part of our reading makes clear. 24 00:01:38.100 --> 00:01:42.100 And that's also why it speaks to us today. 25 00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:46.200 But it was a hard word. 26 00:01:46.200 --> 00:01:50.700 That's the call to genuine repentance always is 27 00:01:52.600 --> 00:01:53.300 Turn 28 00:01:54.400 --> 00:01:55.200 and live. 29 00:01:56.900 --> 00:02:01.000 This week we've been reflecting on racism is a manifestation of one of 30 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:06.200 the ways that the church in America has failed to make true disciples 31 00:02:06.200 --> 00:02:07.400 of the people of God. 32 00:02:09.199 --> 00:02:14.800 We often lament the decline of the influence of the church in American 33 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:22.500 society today. But as we do so we must recognize that if the church in America today is in a state of decline. 34 00:02:22.500 --> 00:02:25.900 It's not the fault of liberals for being liberal. 35 00:02:27.400 --> 00:02:30.800 It's not the fault of unbelievers for not believing. 36 00:02:30.800 --> 00:02:36.800 It's not the fault of television or video games or the broader culture 37 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:37.300 in general. 38 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:45.800 If the church in America is in decline, it is in large measure our 39 00:02:45.800 --> 00:02:46.600 fault. 40 00:02:47.700 --> 00:02:52.900 We have not listened to what God has spoken to us through Saint Paul 41 00:02:52.900 --> 00:02:57.100 when he says, "do not be conformed to this world." 42 00:02:57.900 --> 00:03:02.600 "But be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may 43 00:03:02.600 --> 00:03:02.900 discern 44 00:03:02.900 --> 00:03:08.300 what is the will of God what is good and acceptable and perfect." 45 00:03:09.900 --> 00:03:15.100 What is Ezekiel's Israel fail to understand, what the church and Roman 46 00:03:15.100 --> 00:03:15.500 St. 47 00:03:15.500 --> 00:03:21.700 Paul's day fail to understand and what we too often fail to understand 48 00:03:21.700 --> 00:03:26.500 is the radical nature of a Call of God. 49 00:03:28.100 --> 00:03:31.000 To be called to be the people of God. 50 00:03:32.200 --> 00:03:39.700 Is to die to what we have been and to receive a new life in Christ. 51 00:03:41.900 --> 00:03:48.200 In the Bible redemption always entails transformation. 52 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:51.600 Turn 53 00:03:52.500 --> 00:03:53.200 and live. 54 00:03:55.600 --> 00:03:57.800 About 18 or 19 years ago. 55 00:03:57.800 --> 00:04:03.800 I was asked to deliver a paper to a joint gathering of students from 56 00:04:03.800 --> 00:04:07.900 this institution and our neighbor to the South Eden Seminary here in 57 00:04:07.900 --> 00:04:08.200 St. 58 00:04:08.200 --> 00:04:08.300 Louis. 59 00:04:08.300 --> 00:04:13.900 The paper was to be on the theme of the moral imperative of the church 60 00:04:13.900 --> 00:04:18.899 and is often the case in these things a lot of me 40 to 45 minutes for 61 00:04:18.899 --> 00:04:23.600 the presentation in 15 minutes or so before questions and answers. 62 00:04:25.900 --> 00:04:27.300 I didn't need that much time. 63 00:04:27.300 --> 00:04:35.200 You see the entire text of the presentation that I prepared consisted 64 00:04:35.200 --> 00:04:36.500 of one sentence. 65 00:04:38.200 --> 00:04:43.900 The moral imperative of the church is to live the life of Christ in 66 00:04:43.900 --> 00:04:44.200 the world. 67 00:04:47.100 --> 00:04:50.800 What I said then I still believe today. 68 00:04:53.100 --> 00:04:57.700 We try to make this hard to understand because if it's hard to 69 00:04:57.800 --> 00:05:00.400 understand a you need. Well (A) you need 70 00:05:01.500 --> 00:05:04.900 highly paid professional Seminary professors to explain it to you. 71 00:05:06.200 --> 00:05:13.100 But more importantly (B) if it's hard to understand we have an excuse 72 00:05:13.100 --> 00:05:14.200 for not doing it. 73 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:18.600 But there's nothing hard to understand here. 74 00:05:19.700 --> 00:05:24.100 Luther said it quite plainly in the first of his 95 Theses. Our Lord and 75 00:05:24.100 --> 00:05:28.900 Master Jesus Christ when he said repent willed that's a whole life of 76 00:05:28.900 --> 00:05:31.600 believers should be repentance. 77 00:05:33.100 --> 00:05:37.700 And this call to a life of repentance wither given by Ezekiel or Paul 78 00:05:37.700 --> 00:05:43.000 or Luther is nothing other than the call to die to our life 79 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:48.000 and receive and live in the Life of Christ. 80 00:05:52.100 --> 00:05:52.800 Turn and live. 81 00:05:55.600 --> 00:05:57.800 But that's what we have failed to do. 82 00:05:59.400 --> 00:06:04.100 And because we have not truly heard and embraced the call to live the 83 00:06:04.100 --> 00:06:05.600 life of Christ in the world. 84 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:09.500 We have fallen short of the high calling of God. 85 00:06:09.500 --> 00:06:15.700 We have abandoned the Adoration of the Holy One in favor of a weekly 86 00:06:15.700 --> 00:06:18.000 religious entertainment hour. 87 00:06:19.300 --> 00:06:24.400 We've shifted the focus of the Christian Life from what we can give to 88 00:06:24.400 --> 00:06:25.400 what we can get. 89 00:06:26.600 --> 00:06:32.000 We have made the rightness of our ideas rather than loving one another 90 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:35.900 the measure of our churchmanship. 91 00:06:35.900 --> 00:06:37.000 Now please understand me here. 92 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:41.100 I'm not giving you permission to be heterodox. 93 00:06:42.200 --> 00:06:48.700 We have an irreducible calling to believe, teach, confess and practice 94 00:06:48.700 --> 00:06:51.200 the Word of God without compromise. 95 00:06:53.000 --> 00:07:00.100 What I'm telling you is that right teaching without a right heart is 96 00:07:00.100 --> 00:07:02.200 no orthodoxy at all. 97 00:07:05.300 --> 00:07:11.700 Most of all, we've neglected the call to a transformative discipleship 98 00:07:11.700 --> 00:07:16.600 and substituted in its place the easygoing message of a happy 99 00:07:16.600 --> 00:07:23.600 feel-good gospel that excuses rather than redeems sinners. 100 00:07:26.500 --> 00:07:28.800 Turn and live. 101 00:07:31.100 --> 00:07:34.900 Several times this week we've heard the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer spoken 102 00:07:35.900 --> 00:07:41.300 Well, Bonhoeffer could have been addressing the Church of 20/20 America 103 00:07:41.300 --> 00:07:43.500 instead of the Church of 1930s Germany, 104 00:07:43.500 --> 00:07:48.600 when he wrote this. "The price we are having to pay today in the shape 105 00:07:48.600 --> 00:07:52.000 of the collapse of the organized church is only the inevitable 106 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:57.900 consequence of our policy of making Grace available to all at to low a cost." 107 00:07:57.900 --> 00:08:02.300 "We gave away the word and Sacrament wholesale. 108 00:08:02.300 --> 00:08:07.400 We baptized confirmed and absolved the whole nation without condition. 109 00:08:07.400 --> 00:08:13.200 Our humanitarian sentiment made us to give that which is holy to the 110 00:08:13.200 --> 00:08:15.700 scornful and the unbelieving." 111 00:08:16.700 --> 00:08:21.700 "But the call to follow Jesus in the narrow way was hardly ever heard." 112 00:08:25.800 --> 00:08:26.700 Understand this 113 00:08:27.900 --> 00:08:32.200 when Bonhoeffer writes that the call to discipleship is a call to 114 00:08:32.200 --> 00:08:32.600 death. 115 00:08:32.600 --> 00:08:38.600 He is not saying that we're saved by our self sacrifice or any good 116 00:08:38.600 --> 00:08:42.400 works that we do, even repentance as a good work. 117 00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:50.900 The call to discipleship is a call to death because it is a call to be 118 00:08:50.900 --> 00:08:53.500 joined with Christ in his death. 119 00:08:55.100 --> 00:09:02.000 And that call comes to us accompanied by a word of comfort that in being 120 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:03.900 joined to Christ in his death 121 00:09:03.900 --> 00:09:06.800 we are also joined with him in his resurrection. 122 00:09:08.900 --> 00:09:11.500 But make no mistake. 123 00:09:14.300 --> 00:09:17.500 Resurrection follows death. 124 00:09:20.300 --> 00:09:24.600 The genuine repentance to which Ezekiel calls us is nothing other than 125 00:09:24.600 --> 00:09:28.600 what Saint Paul tells us in Romans 6 when he says, "that we are raised 126 00:09:28.600 --> 00:09:33.200 with Christ that we might walk in newness of Life." You see, 127 00:09:33.200 --> 00:09:37.900 we desire to be raised with Christ so that we can continue to walk in 128 00:09:37.900 --> 00:09:39.500 our own life. 129 00:09:40.700 --> 00:09:44.100 We want God to say you're forgiven. 130 00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:49.400 Go ahead and continue to be what you have always been. 131 00:09:52.100 --> 00:09:58.100 Genuine repentance is embracing by faith the death of what we have 132 00:09:58.100 --> 00:09:59.100 always been. 133 00:10:00.400 --> 00:10:02.200 And receiving by faith 134 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:06.100 and in humble gratitude for the undeserved 135 00:10:06.100 --> 00:10:11.500 mercy of God who gives it, the new life of Christ in us. 136 00:10:12.500 --> 00:10:14.700 With its invitation to walk 137 00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:19.600 however, stumbling and ineptly 138 00:10:20.700 --> 00:10:23.500 in the higher calling of his narrow way. 139 00:10:26.700 --> 00:10:27.300 Turn 140 00:10:28.300 --> 00:10:29.100 and live 141 00:10:31.300 --> 00:10:37.200 I said a few moments ago that in the Bible redemption always entails 142 00:10:37.200 --> 00:10:38.800 transformation. 143 00:10:40.100 --> 00:10:41.100 The point of the Gospel 144 00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:46.600 is that this transformation comes from outside of us, 145 00:10:46.700 --> 00:10:50.200 not from within us. It is not something that we achieve 146 00:10:50.900 --> 00:10:54.600 by better education or moral exercise. 147 00:10:55.600 --> 00:11:00.200 It is the free gift of God's grace that we receive by faith. 148 00:11:02.700 --> 00:11:06.100 But sometimes when we're trying to work a deal with God we're tempted 149 00:11:06.100 --> 00:11:09.600 to say, Oh Lord just give me one more chance. 150 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:13.400 Well brothers and sisters 151 00:11:14.800 --> 00:11:20.200 the fact that you woke up this morning and are alive today is God's 152 00:11:20.200 --> 00:11:21.900 answer to your prayer. 153 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:30.000 Today is the one more chance that you have freely received to strive 154 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:36.400 to walk with him in the life that he lives in you by the end dwelling 155 00:11:36.400 --> 00:11:39.400 of the spirit. Knowing as St. 156 00:11:39.400 --> 00:11:40.300 Peter writes, 157 00:11:41.400 --> 00:11:45.500 "Knowing that you were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your 158 00:11:45.500 --> 00:11:51.800 forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold but 159 00:11:51.800 --> 00:11:55.500 with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish 160 00:11:55.500 --> 00:11:57.100 or spot." 161 00:11:59.000 --> 00:11:59.600 Hear, 162 00:12:01.100 --> 00:12:01.900 believe, 163 00:12:03.300 --> 00:12:04.200 receive, 164 00:12:06.200 --> 00:12:08.100 turn and live. 165 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:10.600 In the name of Jesus. Amen.