What Do We Bring Before The Lord's Presence? (A Reformation Sermon)

Text: Micah 6:6-8

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

What should you bring before the Lord’s presence?  In other words, what should you offer before God when you bow down to worship Him? 

Perhaps you and I could present our faithful church attendance and rigorous study of the Bible. Indeed, maybe our religious activities as LCMS Lutherans would secure God’s favor toward us

Or, perhaps we could present our moral behavior before God.  Maybe our avoidance of certain behaviors and our good ethics of doing the right thing would secure God’s favor toward us.  Maybe our good rule-keeping could please God. 

Maybe we could present our charitable giving and service before God.  Maybe our donating of money and our donating of time and talents to the church would secure God’s favor toward us. 

What about presenting our politics before God?  You know, what if we show God how we are fighting against bad things in culture – what if we show God our good voting record? Would our political affiliation secure God’s favor? 

Maybe we should think about this like the medieval Christians did.  Perhaps we should present some indulgences, monastic vows, and pilgrimages before God, just as they did during the 16^th-century Roman Catholic Church.  Would an ancient Roman Catholic indulgence please God? 

Let’s think about this in an even older way.  Perhaps we should bring several calves before God, as well as 1,000 rams and buckets and barrels of olive oil.  Maybe the best sacrifices and the choicest offerings of the Old Testament would secure God’s favor toward us.

So, dear friends, what is it going to be?  What shall we give to the Lord to please Him?  Will your church attendance, good rule-keeping, charitable giving, giving of time and talents, or political affiliation be sufficient before God?   Will an ancient indulgence or a sacrificed lamb suffice in pleasing God? 

Truth be told, the Lord God is not really that impressed with any of these things.  In other words, if you and I think we can somehow please almighty God with these kinds of external offerings – no matter how precious or costly they may be – well… we are fools to be pitied.

Let’s be honest; anyone can go through the motions and do these kinds of deeds and actions.  That is to say, it isn’t that hard to accomplish flawless church attendance, keep the rules, give charitably, volunteer, and reject bad political and cultural positions.  Anyone can do that in an obligatory way; anyone can do that by making it a mere habit and going through the motions mechanically.  Godless pagans can do this and often do better than us Christians.  Furthermore, do we actually believe that our meager attempts to check things off of a list are enough to sway the heart of God? If we purchase an indulgence, sacrifice a lamb, attend a church service, keep a couple of rules, give a couple of bucks, serve a couple of hours, and cast a vote, will that be enough for God to say,

 

“Wow, color me amazed. I’m speechless.  Wow, you’ve really outdone yourself this time. It looks like I owe you a lollypop!”

God have mercy on us for believing that we have the ability to sway God with our tiny outward acts of compliance, as if God can be swayed or impressed by such empty acts of so-called piety. 

Dear friends, let’s be honest!  This kind of thinking is garbage.  We cannot buy God off with our actions, just as they could not buy God off with their silly indulgences 500 years ago.  You see your outward mechanical acts of piety and your outward actions of compliance to the Law – checking the boxes off - amount to nothing before God almighty.

So, if mere outward actions do not appease God’s wrath or woo His favoritism, what does? 

In our reading from Micah, we hear that the Lord God requires that you and I do what is fair and just to our neighbors, that we are compassionate and loyal in our love, and that we do not take ourselves too seriously – that we walk in humility.  In other words, the Lord God does not merely demand outward acts of piety, but He demands – even more so – the piety of your heart. 

And so, does the Lord God despise your church attendance, good rule-keeping, charitable giving, giving of time, serving with leadership, and your political and cultural positions?   No, He does not.  He just sees through it all when we do it without justice, love, kindness, and humility.  And that is the whole point of the reading from the Book of Micah.  It was one of the main points of the Reformers during the 16^th-century Reformation.   

Dear friends, if you uphold good church attendance, good rule-keeping, charitable giving, giving of time and talents, and rejecting bad political and cultural positions - without justice, love, kindness, and humility – you are a clanging gong.  You are an empty and hollow pot.  You have a mechanically dead piety.  And you need to repent. 

Now, there is another point that must be made:  do you really do all of these things with perfect justice, genuine love, complete kindness, and great humility?  Are you always fair with your neighbor? Do you give your best love to those around you? Are you always kind with your tongue and demeanor? Do you put others before yourself?  The answer is quite clear: no, you do not.  And I don’t either.  Maybe that is why it is so much easier to do all these things mechanically – to go through the motions. Perhaps that is why we like doing all of these external acts of piety without our heart – it is easier that way.  It is easier just to check the boxes off and not go into the basement of our hearts and realize that our love, kindness, and humility are, more often than not, halfhearted.  And that is really the culprit with all of us here.  If we are honest with ourselves, our love, kindness, and humility are carelessly incomplete, stained by sin, and inadequate.  And so, often, we just give the Lord God the empty shell – we just punch the clock, check the box, go through the motions, and hope that He won’t notice our corrupted minds with halfhearted love. 

Baptized Saints, we must realize that the core of our problem is right here in our hearts and minds, which means that no amount of external actions, indulgence, or sacrifices will be able to please God.  Our problem with a sinful heart and mind is much worse than we like to believe, which means that we need help from outside of ourselves.  We need the help of Another. 

During that great Reformation in the 1500s, Martin Luther and the Reformers destroyed the corrupt and empty theology of the day.  They dared show Christians that an indulgence bought from the church - and all the other silly rituals - were not adequate nor sufficient to bring before the Lord.  The reason was that humanity’s sin is so much deeper and bigger than anyone wanted to admit.  And then, the Reformers did something else.  They stated that the only thing we can bring before God on high to atone for our sins and appease God’s mighty holiness is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world – Jesus!   Indeed, we cannot bring anything before God except Christ.  Actually, let’s say it this way: we come before the Lord God as Christians buried and raised in Christ Jesus and Him alone.    

Baptized Saints, do not be misled! You and I are not tiny sinners but real and hard-boiled sinners.  Your sins are not small but big.  Your sins can damn you to hell for an eternity.  And so, doing a couple of religious things here and some good deeds over there accomplishes nothing concerning your sin. 

On the other hand, your Savior is not an imaginary fairy but a real Redeemer.  He is also not small but big.   Listen up! He is not some flimsy and minor-league savior who helps you through your imaginary sins.  Instead, Christ is a real Savior for real sinners who shed real blood for real forgiveness and really rose for real eternal life.  

And so, Jesus is not impressed with our outward mechanical actions that will supposedly appease our imaginary sins because He does not play these religious games. Instead, He is your Savior who redeems you from real, great, and damnable sins – through His innocent life and precious blood. 

Baptized Saints, Christ cannot be bought because He has already bought and purchased you at the cross.  He cannot be manipulated because He has finished everything on the cross for you.  He bled, died, and rose for your failed external actions and your internal sinful heart so that you might be His own.  This is what the Word says and what the Reformers confessed – it is why we exist here at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. 

A blessed Reformation to you this day in Christ, a Savior for real sinners.

 

In the name of Jesus. Amen.