If we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself. 2 Timothy 2:13

 

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.. Luke 17:15-16

 

            As a Pastor I so often get a chance to observe human nature.  Many times I watch families or watch people interact with each other and I observe some of the most interesting ways in which people deal with their joys and their problems.  One of our most blessed mothers told me once about how she dealt with one of her children when they were growing up.  He had apparently done something wrong and he was causing this mother an endless amount of grief.  Eventually he hit her with the famous taunt every child tries out at least a dozen or so times on a parent:  “You don’t love me.”  The response of this mother was one I will never forget.  She said, “No, that is not so.  I love you very much right now and I always will love you.  I will tell you that right now I don’t like you in what you are doing.  I have to be honest with you;  sometimes it is hard to like you when you do wrong or disobey me.  But I always, always love you.”

            I guess there exists no one else on earth who can love us quite like Mom does, or did.  And you knew it was genuine.  She always loved you.  Yes, I know there are those of us who may not have had that kind of love but I think a lot of us can remember that love in such a special wonderful way.  No matter what you did and even if you did the worst thing on earth, Mom would always love you.

            That is what St. Paul meant when he wrote those wonderful words from our text today: “If we are faithless, he remains faithful.”  In fact, when St. Paul went on to say it was so because God cannot deny Himself it was the apostle’s way of telling us that it is in God’s very nature to be faithful to you and me no matter what.  For God to be otherwise would be to deny His own nature and it God does that the entire universe becomes schizophrenic and hopelessly messed up.  But God is faithful- even when we are not.

            That’s why I love it as the concluding verse of that epistle reading.  It is because there are a lot of “if” clauses at the end of 2 Timothy 2 and if clauses give me a belly ache.  The cause me grief because they seem like we are bargaining with God.  “I’ll be with you if….. you show yourself worthy of me.” God might say.  “I’ll bless you if…. You deserve to be blessed.”  Sure, today to us all God reminds us that we will live with him, and reign with him – but “if we die with him and if we endure.”  And I get this burden of the heart – have I done enough so that God will come through.  Have I lived enough of the way God wants me to live so that I can have these things He promises – and an honest evaluation of my heart when I search for the answer causes my heart to start beating pretty fast.  And when I read, “If we deny him, he also will deny us,” it doesn’t take my conscience very long to start scouring my memories searching for those times when by my sinfulness I must have denied him.

            But it is almost as if God says, “I know how you are thinking.  And believe me I know that you cannot live up to my holy standards.  But my Son Jesus did for you.  He was faithful to it all on your behalf.  He died for you.  He endured for you.  He never denied me.”  And because you are in Jesus my Son that is how I see you.  But even if then you still worry – don’t.  Because even if you are faithless, I remain faithful to you and I will never deny a single promise I ever made to you in Jesus.”

            Now that makes me glad in every respect except one.  It is in the area of stewardship – and if you recall stewardship is the emphasis we have this month here at St. Paul ’s.  What irritates me about this verse is that it takes away my ability to use guilt against you when it comes to how you give to the Lord.  You see, based on 2 Timothy 2:13 I have two important statements to make to you.  The first is that whatever you do for the Lord or give to the Lord will not make Him love you one iota more than He does right now.  Whether you have been faithful or not He will love you and never stop loving you and will never use that as any reason to bar you from heaven and eternal life.  And the flip side is the second great truth – even if you are an utter and miserable failure as a steward of the life God gave you He will not love you one iota less.

            So all the great motives for giving that a lot of people use go right out the window.  You see, I cannot use guilt as a motivator to get you to give anything at all to the Lord.  He loves you and always will and that will not change because of what Jesus did for you.  So I cannot use that beautiful line I wanted to use:  “You know, if you really loved Jesus Christ you would increase your pledge.  If you really cared about God you would give more in the offering plate…..  Nuts.”

            You see, guilt is never a motivator for stewardship.  In fact, guilt is not much of a motivator for anything in the Christian life.  The only thing guilt is good for is to drive us to the cross of Jesus where the Lord takes all our guilt and shame and fear and sin away – freely – no price tag.  No matter how faithless we have been He is faithful – and when Jesus died for us we all were in a state of unfaithfulness to God.

            So I am left searching for a motivator to faithful stewardship.  Maybe it is pride. Maybe instead of guilt I should go the other way.  “Hey, you folks are so redeemed and so wonderful I know that great Christians like you will gladly give more to the Lord!”  But again, that play to your pride is messed up by our text.  It is because no matter how much you do for Him He will always love you the same and His love is infinite.  You could build hospitals and libraries and universities in His name;  you could give every cent you have to God;  you could quit your job and move to India and serve at a leper colony 24 hours a day for the rest of your life and in the end the Lord would love you no more than He does today!  So there goes that plan!  At this rate I’m gonna have you all going home resolved that in joy you don’t have to give a single thing to God ever again and you’’ll still go to heaven – and you know what kills me?  You’d be RIGHT!

            But there does exist an incredible motivator for living for God and it is the one that stares at us from the words of St. Luke this morning.  Ironically, it does involve a group of lepers, nameless as all lepers were because their disease took away their identities and robbed them of family and everything good in the world.  And they had to lift up their voices to even speak to Jesus because by law they had to stand a distance off from every other human being lest they spread their horrible disease to the healthy.  And all they could say to Jesus was: “Have mercy on us,” because as one called “unclean” mercy from God was the only thing they could beg for.  And Jesus healed them.  He then told them to follow the law and to go and show themselves to the priests so they could be pronounced clean and they could return to their families and to society and to the world they had lost. 

            You want to know something?  The nine did not technically do anything wrong.  In fact they did what Jesus had ordered them to do and merely followed His directions to consult the priests.  He didn’t say that anyone had to give Him any thanks.  He did not say they owed Him anything at all.  Their healing was a gift to them.  So off they went.  But one of them, the one you would least have expected because He was a Samaritan, found in his heart a motivator to fall down and give His life over to Jesus Christ.  He was thankful.  Gratitude and gratitude alone was His motivator for giving Jesus all He had and all He was.

            Someone once told me that the one thing that sets Lutherans apart as Christians in the world is that the primary motivation and the primary emotion of a Lutheran towards Jesus Christ is thankfulness.  Many believers, good people equally redeemed as you and I will say, “I live for God because I owe Him my obedience.  I obey God!”  And certainly God does deserve our obedience.  But a Lutheran Christian always goes to God through the cross.  We cannot help but see God in heaven through this battered and beat and bloody man with a crown of thorns on His head who never did anything wrong but hung there because we did.  Even the littlest child in the Sunday School here knows that the answer to every single theological question is: “Jesus died for me!”  How do you know you are going to heaven?  Jesus died for me!  How do you know God loves you?  Jesus died for me!  How do you know you don’t have to be afraid?  Jesus died for me. What do you remember when you are sick?  Jesus died for me?  What is the recipe for deviled eggs?  Jesus died for me.

            We Lutherans are an interesting lot you know.  Nobody on earth really understands us if they are not Lutherans themselves.  And we sure have our faults.  For example, did you ever notice that Lutherans do not like change?  The old joke goes, “How many Lutherans does it take to change a light bulb?  Answer: One to change the bulb and nine to say they liked it better the old way.  But it doesn’t end there. Because a good Lutheran will go on and speak about the broken light bulb:  “And why should I change it?  My grandfather used that light bulb and if it was good enough for him, it’s good enough for me!”

            In fact, if you will indulge me, to give you a typical portrait of what Lutherans are really like I will try to use my best Lutheran Norwegian accent that comes right out of the heartland of Lutheranism in the USA – that of the Scandinavian Lutherans from the Upper Midwest.  For I am please to announce “dat Lutheran Viking AirLines is now operating out of Minnysota, Visconsin and Nort and Sout Dakota!”

            “If you are traveling soon, come on Lutheran Viking airlines, da no-fills airline vhere you’re all in da same boat because you’re all hopeless sinners.  So dere is no first class on any Lutran Viking flight.  All meals are potluck.  Rows 1-6 bring rolls, 7-15 bring a salad, 16-21 a main dish and 22-30 a dessert.  But if ya don’t bring dessert it’s OK… da Stewardesses on every flight make enough Jello to feed 400 and in da correct liturgical color for da season we are in.  We start every meal with a prayer and it has to be by the Pastor on board because every Lutheran knows that at gatherings it only counts if da Pastor prays.  All fares are by free will offering and da plane will not land ‘til da Church budget is met.

Okay, den listen up.  I’m a only gonna say dis vonce.  In da event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure I’m a gonna be real surprised and Captain Olsen will just freak out cause dat kinda thing will probably mean da Second Coming and I wouldn’t bodder wit those liddle masks on da rubber tubes.. you’re gonna have bigger tings to worry about den dat.  Just stoff doze back up in dair little holes.  In da event of a water landing I’d say forget it.  Start saying da Lord’s Prayer and just hope you get to da part bout forgive us our trespasses as we forgive doze who trespass against us.  And no using cell phones on da plane because dey are a pain in da neck and if God meant you to use a cell phone he would have put your mout on da side of your head and we always start off wit a hymn sing anyway like all good Lutherans do and nobody wants one of doze tings going off in da middle of “A Mighty Fortress is our God”  So don’t take yours wit you when you go or I am gonna be real upset and I’m a not kidding.  And just so we got it right I’m a gonna say da most famous Lutheran prayer right now:  “Come Lord Jesus, be our guest and let deeze gifts to us be blessed.  Father, Son and Holy Ghost – may we land in Hartford , or pretty close.”  Happy landing wit da Lutheran Viking Airline!

            Lutherans always seem to be able to laugh at themselves.  It is because we do not take ourselves too seriously.  But we take the Lord Jesus seriously.  And why do we give to God anything at all?  It is because we are thankful and are in love with that Savior of ours.  It is the emotion of gratitude to Jesus Christ that makes us who we are.  And part of our gratitude is that we do not have to do anything at all to go to heaven or to get God to love us except to believe Him when He says Heaven is ours and that He could never love us more than He does right now.  That’s is why it is a joy for me to give to the Lord whether it be in the offering plate or with my time or with any of the things the Lord has given me.  The Bible says that God loves a cheerful giver and who can be more cheerful than the one who truly knows what Jesus Christ has freely given him or her.  Ebenezer Scrooge hanging out the window on Christmas morning can have no more giddier or free heart than we do – and if the Lord said to me to run down to the bank and unload every cent I have for him no one would laugh louder than you or me the whole way.  Thankfulness has a way of motivating you like that! Amen.