Sermon 1-21-24

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

Based on 1Corinthians 6:9-11 and Exodus 3:13-14

Designer gods

For thirty years I preached extemporaneously from Scripture without a written text in front of me. Two things changed that: the internet and the technology to record a sermon. When I began to record my sermons I discovered that when I preached extemporaneously there were too many pauses, “um’s” and “ah’s” and other sounds as I collected my thoughts. Those of you who do Bible Study with me know about this. However, I guess out of vanity I wanted what I presented online to sound more like the radio preachers. Therefore, in 2009 I started to write sermons again so that I could smoothly speak them during a recording.

In those 30 years that I preached without a sermon text, great advances in technology were made that made it possible for writers like me to create a text without covering the floor with rejected sheets of paper like I used to when I had to make corrections on a typewriter. The ability to cut and paste text on a computer screen before printing a document has not only saved a lot of trees, it’s also saved my sanity.

So earlier this week, I decided to look over all the sermons I’ve written since 2009 for the third Sunday after Epiphany in what’s called Series B. As I’ve told you before, our Sunday lectionary goes in a three year cycle. So, the lessons we had this morning last appeared on January 24th, 2021. They also appeared in 2018, 2015, 2012 and 2009. It was interesting reading those old sermons from those years. The one in 2021 was just before President Biden’s inauguration. Therefore, I took on all the noise he was making at that time about eliminating “white supremacy” during his administration. Well, after three years of his administration it ought to be successfully eliminated and we should hear nothing further about it in the 2024 campaign. But, I’m not going to hold my breath. Politics is politics. And Marxism is Marxism.

However, the one I preached on January 18th 2009 caught my interest. Here’s how it begins: An internet headline this week trumpeted, “Americans Accept 'Array Of Faiths,' Abandon Biblical Teaching.” The article went on to explain: “A new survey finds Christianity is no longer the default faith of most Americans. The survey was conducted by The Barna Group, which found that half of Americans believe Christianity is just one of many options for genuine faith. George Barna, the group's founder, believes the study confirms that more Americans are adopting a pluralistic mindset. ‘Americans are increasingly very accepting of a diverse array of faiths,’ he notes. ‘They're less likely to think that Christianity is right or accurate in what it teaches.’ According to Barna, the survey also finds that many Americans are adopting their own ideas about faith, apart from God's Holy Word. ‘What we find is that people are deriving their biblical literacy and their views of spirituality from conversations that they have with friends, and they give that equal weight to things they might get in church or from other religious settings,’ he points out. ‘They'll get their faith views from their own personal reflections as well as from their personal experiences and observations.’” An example of this is that in the survey, one-third of the ostensibly Christian people questioned believed that Jesus had sinned in his earthly life.

The Barna group reported these findings in 2008. It’s safe to say it’s worse now. It’s quite clear that the enemies of Jesus Christ have gained the upper hand in the culture at the present time. They have succeeded in the following areas: 1. Creating tremendous doubt about the accuracy and truth of the information transmitted to us in the Bible. 2. Destroying the authority of God revealed in the Bible. 3. Destroying the person of the God who is revealed in the Bible and replacing Him with “designer” gods.

Designer gods are nothing less than idols. You literally create a god out of your own imagination or understanding. On a large canvas in the sky, you and your friends paint your own picture of a god or gods. In ancient times, people even made statues and images of gods from their imaginings. They created whole religions around such gods. The Old Testament prophets ridiculed these gods as being deaf, dumb and blind like the stone or wood they were made of.

But even if we don’t make physical images of gods, it’s still possible to make gods out of mental images. It’s done all the time. For instance, many famous people have had stalkers. These are deranged individuals who believe they know the famous person. They believe they are meant to be married or related to the celebrity in some way. These stalkers see the famous person, not as that person really is, but as they imagine him or her to be. In effect, they have created an idol for themselves. They see themselves in an imaginary relationship with their idol. 

I’ve made idols myself. In high school I had a girlfriend who I idolized. Looking back, I can see that she absolutely was not what I thought her to be. I foolishly introduced great sorrow into my life. I was oblivious to the fact that no amount of earnest and sincere belief on my part would make her what she wasn’t. Ironically, then, it’s not just the idol that’s blind and deaf. The idol maker is blind and deaf — blind and deaf to the truth.

It’s amazing then, that ancient idolatry has recurred in modern America. But here it is among us. People may be using names and forms borrowed from Christianity like “God” and “Jesus.” But the god and the Jesus that idolatry creates are like idolized high school girlfriends. There’s no objective truth basis in such idols.

For this reason, creeds and creedal statements evolved in the ancient church. Creeds are the antidote to idolatry. They prevent us from creating a designer God or a designer Jesus for ourselves. The creeds are designed to tell what Scripture actually teaches us about Yahweh, the three Persons of Yahweh and especially Yahweh, the Son, incarnate in human flesh. The creeds were the result of tremendous infighting within the church. And that infighting was and remains necessary, so that the truth of what Scripture teaches might reign supreme.

Because of Original Sin each of us is born our own god. In our heads we can design the world any way we want. Thus, if our world contains a Creator God, we can design that god any way we want. For instance, Mohammed’s God, Allah, is quite different from Yahweh. And even if we consider the Bible to be the Word of God, we can create a designer Jesus for ourselves by stringing Scripture together in an improper fashion. Indeed, within the modern church, a designer God, a designer Jesus and a designer Holy Spirit have become a huge problem. This is because we are our own gods, easily capable of making some kind of “truth” for ourselves out of falsehood and error.

When Yahweh appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai in the burning bush, we read about this exchange in Exodus 3:13-14, “13 Moses said to God, ‘Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name Then what shall I tell them?”’ 14 God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: “I AM has sent me to you.”’” Those words, I AM WHO I AM, are a translation of four Hebrew consonants that with additional vowel pointing form the divine name, Yahweh. Why does God tell us to call Him by that name? That divine name is the antidote to our sinful idolatry. To use that Name for our Creator God, we must be willing to say to Him, YOU ARE WHO YOU ARE — and not who I want you to be. I am willing to receive You as You are and not how I want you to be. I am willing to attempt to understand and relate to You as You really are, and not make of You an idol of my own creation. I am willing to receive your revelation of yourself in Scripture and attempt to put it together correctly as you would have it.

Actually, Yahweh has made it fairly easy for us to get a correct picture of Him. That picture is Jesus. Just check out what the creeds have to say about Jesus and you’ll get the correct picture of Yahweh. It’s especially necessary to know that Jesus suffered, physically died and was buried in a tomb. Because, on the third day, He was physically raised from the dead in a spectacular immortal human body that is now at the right hand of God. And Jesus’ death is our vicarious death to sin and death. His resurrection is for the moment our vicarious resurrection from the dead. For, all who are given faith in Jesus will be physically raised from the dead in totally righteous, immortal human bodies as well.

Now, in recent years, many main line Protestant churches have been making idols out of Yahweh and Jesus. But in the last several weeks, the Roman Catholic Church has done the same thing. On December 18, 2023 the Vatican’s office of doctrine issued a document called in Latin Fiducia Supplicans. This document deals with the blessings that Roman priests can give to people. The document permits priests to bless couples who are living in what the church calls “irregular” situations such as unmarried people living together, and people who are divorced and remarried. The Roman Church has long had a ban on divorced people remarrying. So, this is quite a change. But the most shocking permission is for priests to bless same sex couples. In history, the Christian Church won over pagan culture. But these days it looks like pagan culture is winning over even the Roman Church.

Last week our second lesson was from 1Corinthians chapter 6. We’re going to look at it again. But first, we have to note that this chapter in particular is the enemy of every sexually rebellious person. There are two other enemy chapters of the sexually rebellious: Leviticus chapters 18 and 20.

Back in the late 90’s all our bible studies were held in our former education building. At the time we rented that building out to an Alcoholics Anonymous group. One day I was thumbing through one of the bibles we used for study and discovered that several pages had been torn out of it. I discovered the same thing in another bible. I told the AA leadership about it since they were using the same room. In response I was told that members of the group had stopped a visitor to the group from defacing the bibles. What had he torn out? Leviticus 18 and 20 and 1Corinthians 6.

Chapters 18 through 20 of Leviticus cover the Ten Commandments and many other matters. Included are commandments prohibiting incest, beastiality, rape, adultery and homosexuality. The man who was stopped from defacing our bibles proclaimed to the group that he was doing so because these chapters contained the prohibition against homosexuality. That’s how big a threat these chapters are to the sexually rebellious.

In the midst of the various prohibitions, Yahweh declares this to Israel in Leviticus 18:26-30, “26. . . ‘you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things, 27 for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. 28 And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you. 29 Everyone who does any of these detestable things — such persons must be cut off from their people. 30 Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the LORD your God.’” Unfortunately Israel did engage in the practices of the people who had lived in the land before them and finally Yahweh removed Israel from His land for the years between 721 and 517B.C. Yahweh eventually brought them back to the land, but not before they had forsaken idolatry and its rebellious practices.

When the Holy Spirit gave St. Paul what we know as the 6th chapter of 1Corinthians, all of this history was in the background. And Paul was bringing Yahweh’s righteousness in Jesus Christ to gentile people who had been lost in idolatry and pagan behavior for centuries. The very fact that these gentile people were able to give up the sexual rebellion of their ancestors for righteousness in Christ demonstrates the power of Lord Holy Spirit and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So, again, here is 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, “9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” To be clear, the Apostle is not talking about those who might be tempted into an isolated incidence of sexual sin so that they succumb to it. He’s talking about those who make an habitual practice of sexual sin — those who glory in sexual sin.

The Kingdom of God is the key here. It’s the very message we saw Jesus proclaim in this morning’s Gospel lesson: Mark 1:14-15, “14 After John [the Baptist] was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 'The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!’”

The Kingdom of God is righteous, eternal, resurrected life with our Creator God, Yahweh. Jesus came to make that possible. That’s the Good News. His vicarious death for us on the cross satisfied both the justice of God and the wrath of God against us. His death on the cross made forgiveness for our rebellion against God possible. His resurrection and the pouring out of Lord Holy Spirit upon us makes righteous living on this earth possible for us who are born in Original Sin. All we have to do is repent — to acknowledge that Yahweh is righteous in all His ways and we are not. I am not. You are not. Our sin is all the ways we deviate in thought, word and deed from Yahweh’s righteousness as described in His Word to us — Holy Scripture. Now, confessing that Yahweh is right and we’re in the wrong is the hard part. But, by the grace of God, Lord Holy Spirit can bring any human to that realization. And so, we can enter the Kingdom of God through the forgiveness of the sin we have recognized as sin.

Now, here’s what Jesus said about the Law. Matthew 5:17-19, “17 ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.’”

Here’s what the Apostle John was given to say in 1 John 3:4-6, “4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he [Jesus] appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.”

To know Jesus is to know freedom from the lawlessness of sin. Therefore, how can Christ’s Church deny this? How can it bless what God has not blessed? How can it bless lawlessness? How can it bless behavior that Yahweh has called unrighteous? That’s the mystery coming out of Rome with this new document.

But it’s no mystery. Whenever and wherever people fail to bow the knee and say YOU ARE WHO YOU ARE, there people will invent designer gods and designer Jesus’s for themselves. The real Jesus came to save us from ourselves. Therefore, it’s tragic when those whom Jesus came to save resist Him and resist the Holy Spirit.

At the end of the Fiducia Supplicans document, the argument is made that if people who are living in irregular circumstances are reaching out for God, the church ought to respond with a blessing. This is weird. People living in irregular circumstances are going to reach out to God for only two reasons. Some will want a confirmation from God that how they’re living is OK with Him. Blessing such people is in reality cursing them. For, the Apostle clearly said that living their way will deny them entry into the Kingdom of God. That’s no blessing. Such people don’t need a blessing. They need the Law and the Gospel — the Law to begin with.

On the other hand, there are some who may reach out to God because deep in their hearts they know that there’s something wrong with the way they’re living. Again, these people don’t need a blessing. They need the Law and the Gospel. The Law will confirm what their hearts are already telling them. It’s sin. The Gospel will tell them what no one can know by any other means — namely that in Messiah Jesus their disobedience can be forgiven as if it had never happened. And in Messiah Jesus they can trade in the shackles of sin for the freedom of a new obedience to God’s Word.

All those who die in their sin will be sentenced to an eternal life of evil disobedience, eternally separated from righteous Yahweh. On the other hand, those who live and die in Messiah Jesus will find themselves welcomed into eternal righteous obedience with all-righteous Yahweh — eternally in union with their loving Father. Therefore, we don’t love our neighbors if we help them live and die in their sin. We only love our neighbors if we enable their deliverance from sin in Messiah Jesus. May we be true to God’s Word. Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the NIV.