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

I’ve heard people say a lot of questionable things before in the receiving lines at funerals. A really popular one nowadays is the phrase, “I’m sorry,” as if they were somehow responsible what happened. Another one that you’ll hear is something like “how are doing,” as if they don’t already know that you can’t being doing that great because your loved one just died. Sometimes people even panic and ask things like, “how did they die,” which I always want to respond to with, “it was sin.” I can still remember, though, how one time at my mom’s funeral some poor guy accidently asked, “what are you going to do with the house?” And that wasn’t after saying bunch of other stuff beforehand and building up to it. He just sort of blurted it out of his mouth.

But never in my life, and I’ve been to many funerals before, have I ever heard someone say anything close to what Jesus said to the grieving widow in our Gospel lesson from Luke chapter 7. I’ve never heard anyone say, “stop crying.” And yet that’s exactly what Jesus said isn’t it? As our text tells us, “And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 

So, in this morning’s sermon, I’m going to give a defense for what Jesus said, and explain what He meant by it, what we can learn from it, and why, as always, He was right when He said it.

First, I think it’s important for us to recognize that Jesus certainly didn’t tell the widow at Nain not to cry at the death of her son because death is something good that we should celebrate. That’s not what our Lord was getting at at all. Even Jesus Himself at another time in His life personally wept at the death of His friend Lazarus. I’ve always made a point of sharing that detail with grieving families. If even Jesus, who has a much more mature and informed understanding of death that you do, could weep and be sad at the loss of His loved one, then you’re allowed to shed a few tears at the loss of your loved ones too. It’s not unchristian to cry at a funeral. It’s just that we Christians grieve in a different kind of way. We do not grieve as those who have no hope. 

Regardless, though, this whole modern notion that death is just the circle of life, and that we should treat it as a natural part of being human, is totally foreign to the Biblical witness. God didn’t create us to die. He created us to live! Death isn’t our friend. The Bible says that it’s our enemy. In fact, it says that it’s our last enemy, meaning, our greatest one. The only reason that we at all, is because we bring it upon ourselves as punishment for our sins. I know that lots of people don’t like to hear that nowadays, but that’s what the Word of God says. As Saint Paul writes in Romans chapter 6, “the wages of sin is death.” And as it tells us in Romans chapter 5, “so death spread to all men because all sinned.” 

So, again, when Jesus told the grieving widow not to cry at the death of her son, that wasn’t because He was trying to get her to embrace death and welcome it as something good. It was the opposite. He wasn’t trying to undermine the terribleness of death, as so many people try to do today, He was trying to magnify the salvation from death that only He can bring.

The first reason why He told the woman not to weep was, of course, because of what He was literally about to do for her. Jesus was about to raise her son from the dead. Just like He did with Jairus’ daughter, just like He did with Lazarus, who had been stinking up the tomb for 4 days, and just like He will one day do for all people on the last day, Jesus was going to bring that man back to new life again. 

I love the details that Luke gives us in our text. First, he tells us that our Lord made a point of touching the casket. It’s sort of like when the woman who had the flow of blood touched Jesus’ garment and the Bible says that power went out from Him. Whenever we come into contact with Body of Jesus, there was an exchange. He takes something away from us, and we get something from Him in return. Think about how this happens in Communion. Jesus takes away our sins there, and we get His Body and Blood instead. We get the medicine of immortality, and the antidote to death itself. When our Lord places His healing hand upon us, just like He reached out at touched the casket at Nain, that makes death stop in its tracks. It reverses the effects of our sin, because Christ bears them as His own.

Next, our text says that Jesus talked to the man. That’s an important detail too. He spoke to a guy who literally couldn’t hear anything because his ears didn’t work anymore. But that doesn’t stop the Word of the Lord. God’s Word is living and active, shaper than any two-edged sword. It has the power to create the universe out of nothing, to give us the gift of faith in Christ, and to raise us to new spiritual and physical life. Everything relies on the power of God’s almighty Word. And when we know the promises of God’s Word, we can approach things as difficult as death with a totally different perspective. Like I said earlier, it’s not that we Christians don’t get sad, and aren’t supposed to cry at funerals. Its just that we do it in a totally different way than those who don’t know the Gospel. As Saint Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4, “But we do not want you to be uniformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you maybe not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep.”

The unbelieving world around us weeps as those who have no hope. They either pretend that death is a good thing, and that they’re happy with in happens, or they despair because they don’t know what will happen next. But we do. God in His mercy has revealed it to us in His Word. We know that because Jesus died and rose, when we die, we will rise again too. We know that because Jesus already paid the full wages for our sin Himself, we won’t have to pay for it eternally. Even when it looks like we pay for it momentarily, that moment doesn’t last very long at all. Through the power of His Word, Christ promises to reverse our death, and bring us to new life once more. In the twinkling of the eye, at the last trumpet, the Bible says, He will raise us, body and soul, and give us back to our loved ones, just as He gave the widow’s son at Nain back to her. That’s the reason why Jesus told her not to weep.

The account of the widow’s son at Nain teaches us Christians how to approach death differently. Yes, we get sad in the face of death because we know that that’s not how God originally designed it to be, and even worse, that we bring death on ourselves due to our sins. But we also know that in Jesus we have the victory over death because of the forgiveness of our sins and that through Him our tears of sadness will one day be transformed into tears of joy.

We can meet death with a smile on our face not because death is our friend, but because Jesus is our friend. Because we have a Savior who suffered and died in our place, and took away death’s power over us for good. He even transformed the horrible event of our dying into doorway and passage to eternal life. That’s one of my favorite lines from the hymnal. We sang in in our hymn of the day today, “Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve me.” The last verse goes like this:

“Now in Christ, death cannot slay me,

Though it might, Day and night

Trouble and dismay me.

Christ has made my death a portal,

From the strife, Of this life

to His joy immortal.”

When someone dies in the faith, they don’t lose anything. “To live is Christ,” Saint Paul says, “but to die is gain.” We don’t lose anything when we die because when you have Jesus and His forgivness you have everything. When you belong to the One who is the Resurrection and the Life, not even death has the power to hurt you. It might sting you, but it can’t destroy you. It might give you some sorrow now, but it cannot end your gladness eternally. Soon, Jesus will command your tears to depart from you for good, just like He did for the woman and Nain. In heaven, He will wipe away every tear from your eyes, when He reunites you will all those who believed in the Lord like you do. He will raise you up, and restore your body back to perfect heath, making it even better than it ever was before, because it will be free from everything that makes it corrupt right now. Your sin will not only be forgiven, it will be gone, and so will all of sins terrible wages.

So, for now, go to where Jesus is. Meet Him in the places where He promises to meet you, in His holy Word and in His Sacraments. Let Him stop you on your way too, and in your mourning over your sin and what it costs you, listen to what He has to say. Receive His healing touch, through His Body and Body, and hear the same words He said to the boy spoken over you, “Young man, I say to, arise.” In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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

Today is “Rally Sunday” here at St John. In the past, some churches might have called it “Christian Education Sunday,” but more or less, as far as I understand, it’s basically the same thing. The point is that we take some deliberate time not only to recognize the beginning of a new year in Sunday School and Confirmation Classes, and encourage people to attend those things, but also that we think about the sacred responsibility of raising our young people in the Faith and the importance of diligently study God’s Word for ourselves.

And what a perfect text we have this morning to encourage us all to do that! In Matthew chapter 6, our Gospel lesson, we get to hear once again those famous words from Jesus that many of us probably know by heart, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

So, in this morning’s sermon I want to do three things based off of this verse. First, I’m going to explain what these words mean in general. Second, I’m going to give some concrete examples of the most basic ways that they apply to our daily lives, especially in the area of hearing and learning God’s Word. And to close the sermon, we’ll reflect a on the unique blessing and comfort that Jesus attaches to this exhortation.

First, though, there’s the general meaning. In its most basic sense, to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness means that we put the Word of God first in our lives, and devote our attention to heavenly things, instead of the things that are passing away. As Jesus says, we Christians don’t need to worry about what we will eat, or what we will drink, or what we will wear. Rather, our chief concern is always with the salvation of our souls. And no, that’s not because our bodies don’t matter, and God doesn’t care about them, it’s just because our daily bread is not nearly as important as the Bread that endures to eternal life. What matters most is whether or not you have righteousness of Jesus.

And where do we get that righteousness? How do we receive it? The Bible says that we receive it through faith alone. We get it by believing the gospel. As Saint Paul tells us in Romans chapter 1, “for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes… For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.” When someone listens to God’s Word, and hears about what Jesus did for them on the cross, and how He lived, suffered, and died in their place, the Holy Spirit is at work to give that person the gift of faith, and credit them with the righteousness of Christ. Remember what it says about Abraham? He believed in the Lord, and it was counted to Him as righteousness. That’s how it works for us too. 

So, seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness means occupying your time above all with the things that make you believe. It means going to where God promises to give you the gift of faith and strengthen your faith in Jesus. And how does He do that? He does it through His Word and Sacraments. Here’s another verse that I bet you have memorized: “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing the Word of Christ.”

So again, that’s what it means to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. It means prioritizing the Word and the Sacraments and putting those things before everything else because that’s where God gives you the righteousness of Jesus. That’s where He gives you faith.

Now let’s talk about what it means in practical terms for your daily life and the lives of your family. There are at least three basic things that deep down I think we all know every Christian needs to be doing on a regularly basis to be following these words from Jesus. The first, and the most obvious one is that you need to come to church every Sunday. How can anyone argue that they are seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, if they repeatedly put other things in front of the most basic place where we get it? Say what you will, but Church is the main spot where God strengthens our faith.

This is the place where you remember your Baptism by confessing your sins and hearing the absolution from the pastor. The Bible says that when you get Baptized into Christ you put on Christ and His righteousness covers you like a garment. You need to be reminded of that all the time. This is also the place where you eat and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus, that cleanses you from your sin. You literally get a place in God’s kingdom, by receiving the pledge and promise of your inheritance in Christ. And this is where you hear the preaching about Christ too. This is the main place where His Word is opened to you and explained by the pastor that God has called and sent to you, so that you can know and believe in all that Jesus has done for you.

If it doesn’t bother you to skip church, you have a spiritual problem. And I know that everyone who is here this morning is in Church. But that doesn’t mean that we’re all here all the time. We have over 300 members on the roles at St John. And yet, our average attendance barely ever gets up to 100. In the summer time, it’s even worse. And I know that some people are out of town, or at the lake, or visiting family, but the numbers still don’t add up. And by the way, you can still go to church when you’re on vacation too. There are good, solid, Bible believing Lutheran congregations all over the country that would be glad to have you visit. It might be good for you to take a break from you job for a little while, but you don’t take breaks from Jesus. You don’t miss out on the important stuff that Jesus gives you for other stuff that in the end doesn’t really matter. Is staying up late to watch a football game more important than what you get in church? Is going fishing or hunting or golfing more important than what Jesus gives you in church? Is sleeping in more important than what Jesus gives you in church? Do any of those things strengthen your faith and can any of those things bring you the righteousness of Jesus? You know the answer. You got to go to church.

Next, there’s Bible class. I know that Jesus Christ did not institute Bible class like He did the task of preaching, or taking Communion, but He did teach His disciples all of the time, all throughout the week, and not just on Sunday’s. He went up on mountains and opened the Scriptures. He stood in boats and proclaimed the Gospel. He walked and talked with His disciples through the streets of towns and villages, constantly walking them through the Word.

You can’t always get everything done in a 20-minute sermon. That’s why we have Bible class. It gives us the opportunity to ask questions and to dive even deeper into the life-giving Word of God. Do you know why Sunday School was originally started? I was just looking this up this week. It wasn’t started for the kids who belonged to the church. It was started for the kids who didn’t have a church to go to.  But what does that say about us if we won’t even go?

I’m not going to be legalistic and say that its automatically a sin not to got to Bible class, or send your kids to Sunday School, but if we don’t, we should ask ourselves, why not? What’s the real reason? Maybe there is a good one, and that’s fine, but by guess is that for most of us there probably isn’t. I would say the most common reason people would give is it’s a time thing? Well, go home after church this morning and look at your weekly screen time average on your phone. Add up how many hours a week you spend watching television? We can’t find an extra hour there? I don’t buy it. Whatever age level you’re at there is something for you to do in this church. We have weekly classes for men, women, confirmation age kids, and high schoolers. Some of those are in the middle of the work week, I know, but there’s always Sunday morning. Anyone can come downstairs after the service for an extra 45 minutes. I promise that no one is going to starve if lunch takes a little bit longer to get on the table. It’ll be worth it to take in more of the good portion that endures to eternal life, which cannot be taken away from you.

And third, seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness in your daily life, definitely needs to include some sort of home devotions. I’ve made this point a lot as of late, but when the Word of God is just something that we hear on Sunday mornings at church, we can begin to think, or even worse, give the impression to our kids, that the Word of God only belongs in Church. It starts to look like our Christian identity is just one other identity in a big long list of them. But that isn’t true. Our life in Christ is supposed to permeate every facet of our life. The Word of God applies in every situation that we live in. So, we need to be in the Word every day. And that means reading it with each other, and parents, especially dads, talking about it with their kids.

Listen to this passage from Deuteronomy chapter 6. Moses writes, “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” That’s the proof passage for home devotions. You have to do something. And not because the mere act of doing it, and going through the motions, earns you credit by itself, but again, because that’s how we get credited with the righteousness of Jesus. That’s how God builds up our faith. He does it through the Word.

If you don’t know where to start with some kind of home devotions, just pick up a Bible and start reading it. Finish dinner and set a timer for five minutes. You’d be amazed how much of the Scriptures you can get through in just five minutes a day over the course of a year. Here’s some more advice. Get a catechism and leave it on the table too. Don’t get up without at least reciting some of it. See if you can get the six chief parts memorized again, or see if you still know them. If we don’t know the 10 commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, what Baptism and Communion are, we’re are in big trouble. Let those Word, which are life giving Words, become so familiar to you and your family that you know them better than your own phone number. Even if it’s hard at first. Even if you have days that you miss, or times that you don’t feel like it. Keep going. Start over. Don’t stop. Tell your sinful nature to “shut-up,” because Jesus is the Lord of your life, and no one else. There are things that only Jesus can give you. And He attaches His most important promises only to His Word.

That’s the last thing I want to talk about today and the most comforting. Yes, Jesus tells us to “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” That means putting the Word of God first in our lives and doing the things that build us up in our faith instead of making us fall away from the faith: Going to church, coming to Bible class, doing home devotions. Stuff like that.

But we don’t just do that stuff because of Christ’s command, we do it above all because of His promise. First, like I’ve said a bunch of times in this sermon, this is how God promises to give us the righteousness of Jesus that saves us. It’s only a burden for someone to come to church and read their Bible if they don’t know what they’re getting out of it, or if they don’t think they really need it. But if you know that you’re a sinner, with no righteousness of your own, and that you should be dammed and lost because of it, but that Jesus gives you forgivness through the gospel for free, that changes everything. That changes the command of “go to church” into the sweet invitation of “you’re invited.” You’re invited to the feast. You get a place at the table. You get the righteousness of Jesus.

And that’s not all that you get. What else does Jesus tell us in our text. He says, “and all these things will be added to you.” Not just the things that you need for eternal life, but even the things that you need for this life too. If you have the most important thing that there is, if you have faith in Christ, and the righteousness that comes from it, you’ll also know that you have everything else that you need too. If God can take care of you in the big ways, like saving you from hell He will take care of you in the small ways too. You’ll have food on table, until you get to the heavenly banquet that has no end. You’ll have shelter over your head, all the way up till when you enter your heavenly mansion. Your body will be as healthy as it needs to be, even if you get sick and die, all the way up to when Christ raises your body from the dead on the last day. 

When you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness you get everything. You even get all the things that the Gentiles seek after too. You get them, because through faith, you get eyes to see that you already have them. You have everything that you need in Jesus. No matter what, you know that He is working all things together for the good of those who love Him. No matter what you know that He’s still sitting on His throne, and your place is right beside Him. What God wants is what you want, because you know what He’s does for you in Jesus. 

So, do what Jesus says, and seek His Kingdom first. Seek it for yourself, and show your loved ones how to seek it too. Don’t skip church unless you’re barfing. Come to Bible class and learn as much about God’s Word as you can. Read the Scriptures in your home and don’t go a day without talking about the Bible. I can’t promise you that it will always be easy, but I can promise you that you will be blessed. You’ll be blessed because Jesus says so. You’ll be blessed because that’s what He promises. As He says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” In Jesus’ Name. Amen. 

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

It is not uncommon for us Lutherans to speak of ourselves as being simultaneously saints and sinners. If you want to get real fancy with it, the old Latin phrase for this doctrine used to be called simul justus et peccator, which literally translates to, “at the same time justified and a sinner.” While it might sound paradoxical to say that you can be two different things at the same time, that’s what the Bible tells us, so that what we Christians confess.

We have been declared righteous before God in heaven on account of Jesus who made atonement for our sins on the cross. That’s an objective truth. Furthermore, in Holy Baptism, the Bible says also that, we’ve put on Christ, and received the gift of the Holy Spirit, along with new and godly desires. And yet, while the guilt of our sin has been forgiven, and the righteousness of Jesus credited to us through faith, still, our sinful nature remains. Even though we’ve been truly regenerated and made new by the washing of water and the Word, this work has only been begun, not completed, and our Old Adam continues to cling to us. Case in point, we do not always live a morally perfect life. We don’t not always fulfill those holy desires, which have been given to us by the Holy Spirit. At times we give into temptation. At times we stumble into sin. At times we do the very things that we don’t want to.

This is the reality that Saint Paul describes for us in our Epistle lesson today from Galatians chapter 5. As he writes, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” So, believers have the Holy Spirit, and they have a sinful flesh. We’re saints and sinners at the same time.

Now, like all of the teaching of God’s Word, ultimately this doctrine is supposed to give us comfort. When used correctly, it’s supposed to encourage us, especially when we are fighting against our sin and it’s not going that well. But like every teaching of the Bible, and certainly one as fundamental as this, that means it’s going to be subject to abuse. Because it’s paradoxical, and stands against our reason to say that you can be two different things at the same time, people are constantly getting it wrong by not letting the tension stand and trying to resolve it. 

First, there are those who try to resolve the paradox of simul justus et peccator by getting rid of the sinner part and saying that real Christians are only saints. We call that the heresy of perfectionism. It’s the idea that by discipling yourself and studying God’s Word enough, eventually it’s possible to reach a point in your life where you never sin anymore. Worse than that, though, people who advocate for perfectionism also tend to give the impression those who haven’t reached that state yet, probably aren’t even really Christians yet, and more than likely they won’t be saved. 

But not only does this false doctrine turn people into hypocrites and liars, worst of all, it completely overlooks the cross, and our ongoing need for Jesus and the forgiveness of our sins. As Saint John clearly tells us in 1 John chapter 1, something that we said at the beginning of our service today, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” The Bible never tells us that we Christians can reach a point in this life where never struggle with sin anymore. In fact, it states the exact opposite. Another obvious defense of this truth can be found in words of the Lord’s Prayer. There Christ teaches us that one of the things that we should pray for daily as the people of God is that He would “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Now, why would Jesus tell us to ask for our trespasses to be forgiven, if we didn’t have any trespasses that needed forgiving at all? That doesn’t make any sense. Or what about the Lord’s Supper? On the night that Jesus was betrayed He told His disciples that we should do this often “in remembrance of Me.” The “do this” that Jesus was talking about was eating and drinking His Body and Blood for the forgivness of our sins. So, again, why would we even keep on having Communion in Church if we didn’t think we had any sins that needed to be forgiven?  

Perfectionism is wrong not only because its unbiblical, and denies the struggle between the flesh and the Spirit that wages war within us, but also because it attacks the very Gospel itself. But being a Christian doesn’t mean that someone is without sin. It means that we’re sorry for our sins and we trust in Jesus to forgive them. 

The other way that people try and resolve the tension of the saint and sinner paradox is by getting rid of the saint part. We call that the heresy of antinomianism or lawlessness. It’s the idea that true Christians remain the exact same way that they were before, prior to their conversion, and that they still sin deliberately and on purpose. They still do sinful things without remorse and without repentance. I’ve talked a lot about the heresy of antinomianism as of late because I’m conceived that this is the most common error of our time. You don’t meet a lot of people in our circles who don’t think that they sin anymore, but you do meet a lot of people that are living in sin and acting as if it is no big deal. All the time, even in the Church, you encounter those who have totally embraced something the Bible calls sinful, but claim that they’re no different than anyone else, because doesn’t everybody else sin too?

But that’s not the full story. Something is missing there. Listen again to the words of Saint Paul from our Epistle lesson. First, he tells us to “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” What he means is that those who are truly led by the Holy Spirit, as in, those who are true believers, will not seek to live a sinful life on purpose. They won’t try and gratify their sinful desires. They’ll try and fight against them. And even if they sometimes fail, which we Christians often do, they won’t make excuses for their sins and continue in them, they’ll quickly repent, and take up the battle once more. As Paul also says, “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” So, everyone who is joined to Jesus by a true living faith, wants to do what Jesus says. And those who don’t want to do what Jesus says, and won’t repent of something He tells them not to do, are not disciples of Jesus, no matter what they say.

All too often we hear it said that people who are living in open unrepentance and willful disobedience to God’s Word can still have faith and be saved. But that is not what the Bible actually teaches. It does not teach us that you can still have faith even if you’re not sorry for your sins and don’t want to stop doing them. Just keep reading on in Galatians chapter 5. Saint Paul gives a whole list of different kinds of unrepentant sins that no true Christian can embrace without it destroying their faith. “Now the works of the flesh are evident,” he writes, “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” How could the Word of God be any more clear? You can’t live in those sins and still go to heaven. It’s right there in the Bible.

For example, Saint Paul says that those who embrace sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God. It is the very first thing on the list. He doesn’t mean that everyone who has ever committed a sexual sin before is automatically going to hell, but he does mean that those who choose to live in those sins and refuse to put them away absolutely will.

This passage from Galatians 5 is always one of the ones that I go to when I’m trying get couples who have moved in together before marriage and are fornicating with each other to quit. The problem is not that they’ve done something sinful, which we all have, it’s that they’re refusing to recognize it and make it right. They aren’t repentant over their sin. They’re letting their sin rule over them. But if we let our sin rule over us, then the Holy Spirit isn’t. For He does not remain in the hearts of those who don’t want Him there and stubbornly refuses to listen to Him. That’s why we pray in Church those famous words from the Psalmist, “Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.” It’s because we don’t want that to happen.

And no, that doesn’t just happen because of unrepentant sins against the sixth commandment. It can happen through any sin that we’re not sorry for and refuse to give up. Paul mentions drunkenness. That’s a very common one. It’s one thing to accidently drink a little bit past your limit because you weren’t paying attention. It’s another thing entirely to plan to get drunk or high every day and never do anything to stop it. You can’t live that way. Drunkards won’t inherit the kingdom of God. I don’t mean people who are fighting alcoholism and trying to get clean. I mean people who have no desire to change at all and think that doing those things is no big deal. The Spirit isn’t leading them, the flesh is. Or what about some of the other stuff on that list like fits of anger, dissensions, and divisions. What does that stuff mean? Well, it means you can’t be a jerk who refuses to forgive people, and never takes accountability for your actions, and still be a Christian. Christians forgive as Christ has forgiven them. Christians confess their sins and seek reconciliation. When they get angry and say mean stuff, they say sorry. When they aren’t getting along with someone they seek to do their part to make it right. 

Our calling as the people of God is never to embrace our sin and act as if its no big deal. It’s to quit our sin and look to Christ for mercy. That’s not a one-time thing, by the way. That’s something that we need to do every day of our lives. We never stop fighting against our sinful nature and putting it to death by daily contrition and repentance. We never stop turning away from our sin and looking to the One who gives us healing. 

There is only one reason why you should be here in church today. You don’t go to church just to get a false sense of security because you like your sins too much to give them up. You go to get real forgiveness. You go to have Christ, the Lamb of God, take away from you that which you could never take away from yourself, so you can learn fight that corrupted part of yourself even more. That’s why you go to church, and that’s what it actually looks like to be a saint and sinner at the same time.

You can’t resolve the paradox of simul justus et peccator. Whenever someone tries to do that, they always get it wrong. When you teach that Christians can reach a state of total perfection where they never sin anymore in this life you take away the need for Christ and the comfort that comes from the Gospel. And when you teach that Christians can live in willful sin and do sinful things on purpose without any intention of stopping, you undermine the need for Jesus too. You make a mockery of what He did on the cross, and turn His atoning sacrifice into that which gives instead of that which takes your sin away. It’s only through confessing both of these realities, the saint and sinner part, that we Christians stay on the narrow path that leads to salvation. 

So don’t try and be something different than the Bible says you are. Live in the tension of being a saint and sinner at the same time, and use that teaching in the way God intended. Don’t be terrified that you are not yet morally perfect and you can’t stop sinning. But don’t stop fighting against your sin either. Be a walking paradox, who walks by the Spirit. Trust in Christ, who is your life and salvation. Receive His forgiveness through His Word and Sacraments. And put your Old Adam to death by daily contrition and repentance. Do that every day of your life, and at the end of your life you won’t have to do it ever again. Someday Jesus will make good on His promise, complete the work He started in your Baptism, and you won’t be a saint and sinner anymore at all. You’ll only be a saint. Clothed in the white robe of Christ’s righteousness, finally free from everything that your Savior has already forgiven. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.