What Are You Left With?

You walk into a restaurant.

You’re seated. The manager comes out and starts telling you how awesome this restaurant is that you so often frequent. He tells you that the kids not only enjoy the food but have a hand in making it. He brags on the fact that the portions are so large–not only are you fed but that they give food to people who don’t have any. And, not only is there so much food, he tells you, but the food is of a quality beyond comparison with everyone else’s. You are doing yourselves right just by coming here. He goes on to talk about the food itself, how it will satisfy you, how it will build you up and make you strong, and how you are going to enjoy it. Finishing his speech, he announces the service is concluded.

Something's missing.

You’re left with the bill.

Needless to say, we wouldn’t tolerate this behavior from any restaurant.

Yet we will from a church.

We hear how wonderful the church is. We learn that the kids that we send off to church camp or mission trips increase their faith by writing their own confessions and making their own skits. We hear how the church delivers the word of God and temporal gifts to shut-ins. We hear how the Gospel changes lives, how the Gospel makes you strong, how it makes you happy. Our church is a good place to be because we do so much to spread the Gospel.

All this is done without delivering the Law and Gospel itself.

You’re left with the stewardship emphasis.

But, we’re not really hungry, right? We know the Law already, right? We’ve had the Ten Commandments and their meanings drilled into us from childhood. Some of us have the Table of Duties from Luther’s Small Catechism memorized. We know we need to be baptized and take the Lord’s Supper frequently. And that Gospel thing: How many times do we need to hear Christ crucified preached for sinners? How often do we need to be reminded that we have love for our neighbor because Christ loved us, died for us, gave himself for us, and washed us with water and the Word? That we await the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come? If the preacher fails to mention it for a week or two, it’s okay, because we still remember all that and can fill in the blanks. No problem, right?

Who hears about food without wanting to eat it?

Yet we hear about the Gospel without wanting to hear the Gospel.

Good thing we have the liturgy, but some of us no longer have even that.

A sermon about your church or about the Gospel doesn’t feed your soul. A sermon like this, written on John 1 by Martin Luther, does:

This is an extraordinarily free and comforting sermon on Christ, our Savior. Neither our thoughts nor our words can do the subject full justice, but in the life beyond it will redound to our eternal joy and bless that the Son of God abased Himself so and burdened Himself with my sins. Yes, He assumes not only my sins but also those of the whole world, from Adam down to the very last mortal. These sins He takes upon Himself; for these He is willing to suffer and die that our sins may be expunged and we may attain eternal life and blessedness…Anyone who wishes to be saved must know that all his sins have been placed on the back of this Lamb! Therefore John points this Lamb out to his disciples, saying: “Do you want to know where the sins of the world are placed for forgiveness?…[I]f you really want to find a place where the sins of the world are exterminated and deleted, then cast your gaze upon the cross. The Lord placed our sins on the back of this Lamb.”

The Gospel never sends the faith away hungry, and the only thing you exchange for it is your sin.

You’re left with the assurance of forgiveness and the liberty that makes it possible to serve your neighbor.

Desire the Gospel.