“Know the Truth”
Mark 12:18-27

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost—July 15, 2018

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Several people who watched the recent royal wedding commented to me how similar a lot of it was to our own worship services.  That’s because the Lutheran Church and the Anglican Church have a common worship heritage from before the Reformation, much of it going back to the earliest years of Christianity.  At the time of the Reformation, worship was still conducted in the old Latin language of the Roman Empire, which most people could no longer understand.  So, this ancient Liturgy was translated, first by Martin Luther into German, and later into English by Thomas Cranmer, the first Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury.  The result was this, the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.

Four hundred later, when World War I broke out, there was pressure on German-speaking Lutherans in America, like our ancestors here at Block, to stop using German in worship services, or at least offer English services also.  Because they needed to quickly find an English version of their familiar old German services, instead of making a new English translation, they simply adopted the already existing Anglican Book of Common Prayer.  That’s why the liturgies and prayers and readings found in The Lutheran Hymnal of 1941 are pretty much identical to the traditional Book of Common Prayer.

But, you may have heard in the news last week that the Episcopal Church, which is the Anglican Church in the United States, just voted at their national convention to make a bizarre change to the Book of Common Prayer that is used in this country.  They’re going to eliminate in their liturgies and prayers and readings all masculine references to God—actually forbidding that God be referred to as “he” or “him” in their services!

Now, on the one hand, it is true that the Triune Godhead is neither male nor female, in the human sense.  The same is true of the angels, which are neither male nor female, as Jesus says in today’s Gospel Reading, “When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.”  So, it is true that the Triune God does not actually have a sex, is neither male nor female in the human sense.  That’s why Genesis can declare, “God created man in his own image . . . male and female he created them.”

But, on the other hand, both Hebrew and Greek have distinct masculine or feminine pronouns—“he” or “she”—and God is ALWAYS referred to, throughout the Bible, as “he,” NEVER as “she.”  Jesus taught us to pray to “Our FATHER” who art in heaven.  The Bible says clearly that “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten SON.” 

When he “came down from heaven . . . and was made man,” the second Person of the Trinity took on a real, fully male, human nature and body.  As the angel declared to the Virgin Mary, “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son . . . the holy one to be born of you will be called the Son of God.”

So, although the Triune Godhead does not actually have a sex, is neither male nor female in the human sense, throughout Scripture God chooses to refer to himself and present himself as male, and we are bound by the language of Scripture.

Martin Luther is called the “father of the German language” because he invented standardized German with his translation of the Bible.  In England, there are two revered books that form the basis for standardized English: the King James Version of the Bible, and the Book of Common Prayer. But, now, the venerable Book of Common Prayer will be mutilated, to accommodate the freakish, unbiblical, unchristian ideas of some in society today.  How could that happen? Why would they do such a thing?  In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus tells us how such a thing could happen.

“Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.”

The Sadducees were the theological liberals of their day.  They denied all supernatural occurrences, including resurrection.  So, the question they pose to Jesus about resurrection was not sincere, not actually seeking an answer.  They were only trying to find a way to make Jesus look foolish, by presenting him with an extreme, hypothetical case, of a woman who marries seven brothers in succession. “At the resurrection, whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”

Jesus explains that the presupposition behind their question is all wrong.  “When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.”  Scripture tells us that we will certainly know and rejoice with our loved ones in heaven.  But, marriage is an earthly institution, which does not carry over into the heavenly realm.  So, it is really their question that is foolish.

Jesus tells us WHY they ask such a foolish question, and why some church bodies today do such foolish things as forbidding God be called “he” or “him”: “Is not this the reason you are in error, because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”

Now, in one sense, the Sadducees actually did “know the Scriptures.”  It was customary for them to memorize huge portions of the Old Testament in Hebrew, and they surely had a much greater familiarity with and “head” knowledge of those Scriptures than any of us.  In the same way, there are many theologians within modern liberal denominations who also have a great “head” knowledge of the Scriptures.

A lack of “head” knowledge isn’t the problem.  But, “head” knowledge isn’t enough.  James puts it very bluntly: “You believe that there is one God.   Good!  Even the demons believe that—and shudder.”  You see, even the Devil himself has “head” knowledge about the Christian faith.

When Jesus says, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God,” you could translate it, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures AND the power of God”; the Scriptures “in conjunction with” the power of God; the Scriptures “read through the lens of” the power of God.  Jesus is talking about the two sides of faith: not only in the head, but also in the heart.

The Sadducees had down pat head knowledge about what the Scriptures say.  But, the problem was, they didn’t actually believe it.  The book of Hebrews puts it this way: “The message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.”

That’s also the problem with modern day liberals and liberal denominations.  Not so much the people in the pews, but their radical leaders.  They may have the head knowledge, but they do not “combine it with faith.”

“You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”  Sadly, though the faithless theologians and radical leaders of liberal churches and denominations may know the Scriptures academically, in the head, as Hebrews says they do not “combine it with faith” in the heart.  Jesus put it this way: “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.”

Peter prophesied, “There will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them.”  The decline of many once strong church bodies actually began decades ago, when the truthfulness of Scripture as the inspired Word of God was attacked, at first secretly and subtly, then brazenly and openly.  That’s what the Sadducees in today’s Gospel Reading are doing: calling into question the truthfulness of Scripture as the inspired Word of God.

Paul warns in Colossians, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world, rather than on Christ.”  That describes exactly what has happened in these liberal church bodies today.  They are basing their theology on “human tradition and the basic principles of this world, rather than on Christ.” Jesus put the sad situation in many churches today  this way: “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.” 

Paul says in Romans, “What shall we conclude then? Are we any better ? No, not at all! We have already made the charge that . . . all alike are under sin. As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one.’”  What should our reaction be to such bizarre developments as forbidding that God be called “he” or “him”?  Sadly, such odd things are happening in many churches and church bodies today, fulfilling Paul’s prediction to Timothy about the end times: “There will be terrible times in the last days . . . for the time will come when men will not put up with sound teaching. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will stop listening to the truth, and turn aside to man-made fictions.”

Our reaction to such sad developments should neverz be one of superiority, but of sorrow.  Sorrow for our brothers and sisters in Christ, who are being led astray by unfaithful shepherds; and also sorrow for our own sins.

Last summer, Terry and I visited the house and bedroom where Martin Luther passed away.  After his death, a small slip of paper was found in his pocket, scribbled in his handwriting with the last words he ever wrote: “We are beggars, it is true.”  That is the true Christian and true Lutheran attitude.  We are in no way spiritually superior, but poor beggars, who rejoice in the mercy of God, who forgives you all your sins because of Christ’s sacrifice for you.

We should also be inspired to a greater personal commitment to the Word of God.  A greater commitment, as today’s Collect says, to “hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by patience and comfort of Your holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life.”

“If you continue in my Word,” Jesus says, “you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth.” “By this Gospel you are saved,” Paul says in 1st Corinthians, “if you hold firmly to the Word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.”  “Therefore,” Hebrews says, “. . . let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.”  “So then, brothers,” Paul says in 2nd Thessalonians, “stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you.”

Amen.