“Practice what you preach.” “Actions speak louder than words.” “If you are going to talk the talk, then you need to walk the walk.” “You cannot live a life that says, do as I say and not as I do.” Or as our Lord tells us in our text for this morning, “this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me” (v. 13). Is our life a demonstration of what is in our heart? Certainly it is, one way or another. So, instead of asking ourselves what we think is in our hearts, if we really want to know what is in our hearts we may simply look at our lives. And when we look at our lives, what do they say is in our hearts? Do we live life as if our lives in this world are most important, or as if our life in the world to come is most important? The greatest indication of what is in our hearts is to look at our lives and see how we spend the gifts God gives us, our time, our talents, our treasure?
I believe one of Satan’s greatest temptations is not the temptation to not believe in Jesus, nor even to not go to church, per say, but one of his greatest temptations is that we speak with our lips that God is first in our lives and then we live life filled with the business of this world so that we have little or no time left for God, which, as we have been saying, is another way of saying that God takes a backseat to all else in life. Are we honoring God with our life?
Our text for today is God’s Word given through the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah speaks of the corruption of God’s people. The vision the Lord gives to Isaiah is a vision delivered as words in a book, but it cannot be read by those who have closed their hearts to the message. Those with closed hearts are those who worship God with their lips only and not with their hearts. Those with closed hearts hide from the counsel of the Lord and then they attempt to pervert and turn everything up side down. Certainly we can see this in our world, society and culture today. What was once known to be wrong and sin is now touted as mete, right and salutary and what was once seen as mete, right and salutary is now seen as sin. And this mind-set has made its way, even into the church. What God says through Isaiah is true, the faithless do not understand. And the faithless have closed their hearts and minds to the Lord.
Today people are leaving the Church in great numbers and one of the reasons is because our culture has elevated human reason above God’s Word, which is what we talked about last week. God’s Word is no longer thought to be the authority by which all things are to be judged, instead, human reason has taken over as the end all, judge of all. Now, in previous years we might have used this text to talk about the difference between tradition and doctrine and the problem of elevating tradition over doctrine, and although this continues to be a great concern with in the church, I believe that today that is one of the least of our concerns at least outside the church. I am sure those outside the church think it silly of us to contemplate tradition and doctrine when they believe neither are important.
When others look at us and the way we live our lives, when we speak to others concerning our church and our church lives, what do they see and what do they hear? Do we live and speak as if God and His Word are the ultimate authority or as if we are the ultimate authority, that is, that our human reason is the ultimate authority? Do we live and speak of the importance of our faith and faith life, of the importance of making regular and diligent use of the means of grace, or do our lives and our words speak something different? God’s desire is to have our heart. I would suppose that much like a parent of a grown child or the grand parent of grown children and grandchildren would like their children or children and grandchildren to come and see them often, so our Lord’s desire is that we are in divine service every Sunday and that we are reading His Word every day, so that every Sunday and every day He might pour out on us and lavish us with His good gifts and blessings.
In our epistle lesson for this morning, Paul speaks of the relationship of husbands and wives, but he does so in order to help us to better understand the relationship of the Lord to His bride, the Church. Paul reminds us that the Church is the bride of Christ and so the Church should subordinate herself to Him, putting Him first, not simply in words, but in action. For the Church to subordinate herself to the Lord means that the Church recognizes the authority of the Lord and His Word. His Word is above all else, especially and including our sin tainted human reason. All things in heaven and on earth are to be judged by His Word, thus anyone, or anything that speaks contrary to the Word of the Lord should be judged accordingly.
Christ is the groom and He loves His Bride, the Church. The ultimate loving of Christ, the groom, for His Bride, the Church, is demonstrated and witnessed in the giving of His life for His Church. No greater love can anyone have than this, that one will lay down His life for the one He loves and that is what Christ, the groom has done for His bride, the Church. Because of God’s great love for us, because He has given His life for ours, because He gives us faith, forgiveness and life, because of all He has done, all He does and all He continues to do for us, how can we not subordinate ourselves to Him, recognize His authority and the authority of His Word, and live lives that profess such faith, even if we do so imperfectly?
In our Gospel lesson for this morning we have Jesus’ interpretation of these Words, that are actually His Words as God, through the prophet Isaiah. In the Gospel reading Jesus was dealing with the Pharisees who elevated their own laws or traditions over God’s Word. You might remember that the Pharisees were rather legalistic. They believe they earned special merit, even eternal life, by obeying the laws of the Lord. What they failed to realize was that they were sinners who could not fully keep the law. In order to help them keep the law they had hundreds of laws that pertained to the ten commandments so they would not break them. Of course, their laws were not the commandments, yet they insisted that their laws were to be kept, not necessarily the commandments of the Lord.
Just a side note here on the reference of Baptism, or ritual washings as it is translated, in this lesson. For those who believe in immersion, do you really think they immersed their dinning couches, which is one of the items on the list of those things included in their ritual washing or baptizing?
Anyway, true worship of the Lord is worship in thought, word and deed. We cannot separate these things; our thoughts, from our words or our words from our deeds, or even our deeds from our thoughts. As we think, so we speak and as we speak so we act. And yes, even as we act, so we tend to think. And all this flows out of our hearts which are either in tune with the Lord or far from Him.
So, what does this mean? One of the questions we might ask ourselves is this, “Are we “members” of a church, and in particular this church, for social reasons or because of what the church, our church, this church, believes, teaches and confesses? Do we believe we “have” to go to church or do we believe we “get” to go to church? Or do we live according to what is really in our heart, which is unbelief, and not go at all? Perhaps I should ask the question, “Do we know what our church believes, teaches and confesses?” “Do we know all of what our church believes, teaches and confesses?” Why would we be a member of any organization of which we do not know what it is they believe, teach and confess?
A second question we might ask ourselves is this, “Is our desire, our yearning to make regular and diligent use of the means of grace?” Or is our desire simply to have a church as a place to go if I do not have anything else going on in life. Is church a joy or a chore and if it is a chore why? I think it is interesting when someone says, “I don’t get anything out of church.” My response is, “Did you put anything into it?” I am sure you do not remember every sermon you have ever heard and certainly some are less memorable than others, but do you remember what you had for dinner last Wednesday night? Are not some of your dinners more memorable than others and most simply forgotten meals, but you still eat, do you not?
Do we rejoice in our Messiah or do we look to ourselves and how do we know? You know, it does not necessarily matter what we profess with our lips, because God can and does look into our hearts. I would suggest to you that, not only does God look into our hearts and know what we believe, I believe that others can look at our lives and can truly get an idea of what is in our hearts, because we do live according to what we believe and we do act according to what is important in our lives, no matter what we might profess with our lips. Unfortunately, as we look at our attendance records and let me say, I do not want to simply pick on us here at St. Matthew, because the records of attendance at churches all over America are very much the same, and even those in Europe are worse, but our attendance records attest to the fact that God must certainly be disappointed in us. He has so much He want to give to us, so many gifts and blessings He wants to pour out on us and we constantly refuse and reject what He has to give by staying away from the very place and the very means He has to give us the gifts He has to give.
Thanks be to God that He is a gracious and merciful God. And please do not take these words as an excuse, but God’s great love and mercy are shown in the fact that God’s promises are true and God is faithful, even today, even when we are not faithful. We know that God’s greatest gift is forgiveness of sins. We know that because without forgiveness we would remain in our sins and we would be lost eternally, but with forgiveness of sins is life and salvation. So, when we fail and we do fail, miserably, we can come to the Lord, we can confess our sins and we can hear His wonderful words of forgiveness and absolution. And we can try again, preferably with His help, to be the people He would have us to be.
I would encourage you, whenever you hear the Old Testament lessons, never think they are meant only for a certain group of people at a certain time, in other words, never think they were meant only for the children of Israel a long time ago. Please understand that all of God’s Word is written for us even today. God has so much to give and I would encourage you, be given the gifts He has to give and even more, live in the gifts He has to give. I would also encourage you to share His love and gifts with others so they too might be a part of His kingdom. May the Lord continue to love you, lavish you with His good gifts and blessings, strength and keep you in faith, and make you always ready to give an answer for the faith He has given you in His Son, Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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