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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Good morning, St. Paul Lutheran Church. It's June 28th, year of our Lord 2026, fourth Sunday after Trinity. I'm Pastor Wolfmuller. This is the Sunday Drive to Church podcast. Here we go. Let's pray the collect and then we'll get into it. Oh Lord, grant that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by your governance that your church may joyfully serve you in all godly quietness through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
[00:00:33] We are, and you can probably feel it this morning. Excuse my voice, by the way.
[00:00:39] It is what's great. Radio voice. Maybe I got some kind of allergy cold thing that has to happen.
[00:00:48] You know how it goes. Anyway, you can tell from the readings that we're working our way into the summer.
[00:00:56] And what do I mean by that? We have the festive half of the church here that really starts in Advent, and you can feel it getting ready for that in like Reformation and All Saints and even St. Michael's Day. You can feel that festive half of the church here starting up in the fall, really getting going right around the 1st of December, going all the way through adventure, Christmas, epiphany, pre Lent, Lent, Holy Week, Easter season, Ascension, Pentecost, all these festivals, all these great events to consider.
[00:01:33] And then after Trinity Sunday, it kind of settles down into the summer season where we're, we're covering the basics. Some people have said that the first half of the church year, the festive season, is about the life of Christ.
[00:01:48] The second half is about the life of the Christian, but it's all about Christ. I mean, our Christian life is about Christ.
[00:01:59] So it doesn't do any good to think, oh, well, it's Christ or the Christian. I mean, it's always about Jesus. And this is going to be true this morning as we hear the preaching of Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount. But he is preaching about what does our Christian life look like. In fact, he says, be merciful as your father in heaven is merciful.
[00:02:20] He gives us four things. One, two, three, four way. Four ways of describing the mercifulness of the Christian life.
[00:02:29] Well, okay, we'll get to that. We'll get there in due time. But let's start at the beginning with the Psalm 138.
[00:02:35] It's one of these great Psalms of David. We'll sing the whole thing, all eight verses. It has a few beautiful lines in there. Now, I just opened my Bible, not my hymnal, so I'm looking at the new King James. It'll be a little bit different when we sing it out of the hymnal. But look at this. Verse two, your loving kindness. That's the chesed.
[00:02:57] Your.
[00:02:58] Oh, how does ESV say it? Loving kindness is everlasting mercy or something like that.
[00:03:04] And your truth, for you have magnified your word above all, your name.
[00:03:11] So the Lord's name is his word, but it's like a specific part of his word. So it's like you've exalted your word, and above everything in your word, you've exalted your name. That's a beautiful text. We need to think about how important the name of the Lord is.
[00:03:27] Hallowed be thy name. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The creed is an unfolding of the name of God. We baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
[00:03:37] And then verse six.
[00:03:41] Let me see if this is. Yeah, this is the one. Though the Lord is on high, yet he regards the lowly.
[00:03:50] But the proud he knows from afar.
[00:03:54] So we. So the Lord is with those who are humble and lowly, and those who are those who are proud, who lift themselves up.
[00:04:04] The Lord doesn't know. We normally would think, like, who's going to climb up into heaven to be with God? We got to push ourselves up there. If we can be good and holy, then we can be with the Lord.
[00:04:15] But it doesn't work that way. The Lord is. Is down here.
[00:04:20] Luther has this great line, oh, when is this? It's at Christmas time. He says, imagine how strange it was for the angels when they want to see Jesus. Instead of looking up, they have to look down.
[00:04:34] He's down there in the manger.
[00:04:37] He's down there in Capernaum. He's down there on the cross.
[00:04:42] And this is how it is. The Lord is down there.
[00:04:44] He comes to us humble and lowly.
[00:04:48] And then listen to this. It says, this is the next verse. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me.
[00:04:57] You will stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies.
[00:05:01] Your right hand will save me.
[00:05:06] Remember, the Psalms assume all the time that we have enemies.
[00:05:12] The Psalms don't make any sense unless there are a lot of people who are fighting against us.
[00:05:18] And we know that we have the world and the flesh and the devil to start. And we might have extra enemies too, but that's just the baseline of the enemies that we have as Christians, and they're fighting against us.
[00:05:32] And so the Psalms are prayers from the Battlefield. They're cries for help in the midst of all sorts of distress.
[00:05:38] Again, I remember thinking this one time, if I don't know that I have enemies, then none of the Psalms make any sense.
[00:05:46] I started doing this. I think I might have mentioned this a few weeks back on the Sunday Drive to Church podcast that I've got these four questions now that I use the Psalms. I used to have six and then three, and now four. The questions. What's the structure? These are the questions I asked of each of the Psalms. What's the structure? In other words, are there repeated verses? Is it stanzas and verses?
[00:06:06] What's going on there? And then who's talking to whom? And then, big one, what's the picture?
[00:06:12] And the fourth question is the versus question.
[00:06:17] Who versus what?
[00:06:19] Who versus who? Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys in the psalm?
[00:06:23] And it's always enemies that are there. It's always people that are set up against me. But you know who's before me? You draw this column. The good guys and the bad guys, and the Lord is always the good guys, and then there's always the bad guys. And the question is, what side of this am I going to be on? Am I going to be on the Lord's side?
[00:06:43] That's a way to understand Proverbs, too. Here's good, here's bad. What side of the world are you going to be on anyway? Here we're on the side that the Lord is protecting us and keeping us in. Psalm 138. Absolutely beautiful. Okay, the Old Testament, last chapter of Genesis, chapter 50, verses 15 to 21. This is the tail end of this beautiful story. I'm still trying to figure out what I want to preach on. I've got notes on all three of these texts, and they don't fit. You know, sometimes I can kind of preach on all three of them. They don't quite fit together yet. So I don't know how much to give away in the Sunday drive to church, because I don't want to make you bored when listening. The problem is, if I do preach on this, you got to hear the backstory. If I don't, you got to hear the backstory. All right, so I'll give you a thumbnail sketch, and then I'll try. If we preach on it, we'll do more. It's the end of the Joseph story. Remember? His brothers sold him as a slave into Egypt. Ha ha ha. They thought they got away with it, although their conscience must have been troubling them. And then the Lord orchestrates it that after 20 years in prison, Joseph's in charge of all of Egypt and he's, he's managing all their affairs because the Lord has arranged the seven years of plenty and then seven years of famine. And during the plenty years, Joseph has filled all these barns with grain. So Egypt is like the only place in the world that has any food. So Joseph's family, his dad sends his brothers. In fact, it's really funny. He says, why are you just sitting around looking at each other? I heard there's bread down in Egypt. Go and get some grain.
[00:08:23] So these 10 brothers, Benjamin stays home. The 10 brothers go down to Egypt and they've. They're face to face with Joseph, but they don't know it.
[00:08:33] And Joseph kind of roughs them up because he loves them and he wants them to repent of their. Of their crime. And it goes back and forth. Remember, he hides the. He says, I'll give you grain unless. But you got to bring your brother. And he holds who, Judah in prison. And then Benjamin comes down and then they put the, the, the. The cup in there and they frame him as thieves. And then finally Joseph shows himself. He's playing with him.
[00:09:01] We're studying this in the Worldwide Bible class and oh boy, Luther loves this text because how Joseph plays with his brothers, Luther says, is an example of how God plays with us. It's rough, but he does it because he's merciful, because he loves us, because he wants to cleanse us of our sins, because he wants to show us repentance.
[00:09:25] So Joseph is doing all these things not because he hates his brothers, but because he loves them. And finally he shows his face to them and he falls on them. He weeps and they're afraid and he says, don't be afraid.
[00:09:38] It's all good. Go get dad. Come on down here. I'm in charge. But I'm going to give you some land. And they come down to Goshen and they're living there in Goshen, and all's well until Jacob dies.
[00:09:50] And then when Jacob dies, the revenge of the brother's conscience comes about.
[00:09:58] They are now afraid.
[00:10:01] They think that Joseph was only loving them and caring for them because their dad was alive. And now that he's dead, he's going to be angry again and going to destroy them.
[00:10:14] So they come up with this plot and that's what this passage is about. They come up with a little plan to lie to try to not get killed.
[00:10:24] And they bring it to Joseph, who sees immediately sees through it and weeps.
[00:10:32] It goes like this. When Joseph's brother saw that their father was dead, they said, it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him. So they sent a message to Joseph saying, your father gave this command before he died. Say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin because they did evil to you. Now please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.
[00:11:00] So they said, would you forgive us? And the result is Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
[00:11:09] Now that weeping of Joseph, there's a lot going on there.
[00:11:13] Partially his dad died and he's weeping because of that.
[00:11:18] But I think the. The real source of Joseph's tears is the fact that his brothers are asking for his forgiveness that he's already given.
[00:11:35] In other words, his brothers don't think that he was really merciful to him, that he was really kind, that he was treating him rightly, but because he had to, because dad was alive. And now that Dad's gone, he's going to treat him like he wants to and destroy them and wipe them out.
[00:11:55] They don't think that Joseph really loves them and that just crushes Joseph and makes him so sad.
[00:12:08] I think there's a lesson here, a really profound lesson for us here that, that we can. We can be like that with God. We can think that, well, he forgives us because he has to, he's merciful because he has to. But it really the heart of God is anger and wrath toward us.
[00:12:31] And we can beg the Lord for forgiveness. And then again, and then again, and he weeps because we think that he hasn't forgiven us already.
[00:12:44] We think that his mercy is just a show, that his kindness and his love is just an act.
[00:12:51] It's not really who God is.
[00:12:54] Look at what Jesus says in the lesson, though. He says, be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful. It's who God is. He is mercy. He is love for you. He is loving kindness.
[00:13:11] And then Joseph said, so here's how the story goes. Joseph said to them, don't fear. Am I in the place of God?
[00:13:18] As for you, you meant it evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So don't fear.
[00:13:30] I'll provide for you and your little ones.
[00:13:33] And he comforted them and he spoke kindly to them. Boy, this is what the Lord is trying to impress upon us week after week after week.
[00:13:46] That's why we got to come and hear the sermon. That's why I have to come and hear the sermon week after week after week. Is the Lord is saying, look, I really am merciful. I really am forgiving. I really am kind.
[00:14:01] I really do love you and put away your sin and welcome you into my kingdom.
[00:14:09] Poor.
[00:14:14] It doesn't diminish our sins. In fact, I think the more spiritually mature we become, the more we realize how much it costs the Lord to be merciful.
[00:14:27] It's not just a. Like a choice that he makes, hey, okay, I'll forgive you. There's a price that has to be paid for our forgiveness. There's a price that has to be paid for our salvation.
[00:14:38] It's the blood of God.
[00:14:40] It's the suffering and death of, of Jesus on the cross. That, that, that's a. The true price for our sins. But he pays it willingly. He pays it. It's amazing.
[00:14:54] The Epistle lesson takes us to Romans 8, the. The mountaintop of the Bible.
[00:15:04] Romans 8. If you're ever down and out or just wrestling with things or whatever, and you're looking for a place to go in the Bible that will fill you with life and spirit and joy, Romans 8 is always a good bet.
[00:15:22] It's beautiful.
[00:15:26] Almost every verse in Romans 8 could be a confirmation verse.
[00:15:30] There it starts. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. It ends. What will separate us from the love of God?
[00:15:37] Oh, man.
[00:15:39] Romans 8 is where Hugh does not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How shall he also not give us all things?
[00:15:48] Those whom he called, he predestined, or those whom he predestined he called.
[00:15:53] And those whom he called, he justified. Those whom he justified, he glorified. That's there.
[00:15:58] Who will condemn us that God is for us.
[00:16:01] If God who will be against us. All those verses are in there beautiful. I'm convinced that all things work together for the good of those who are who love God.
[00:16:11] I mean, it's an amazing text.
[00:16:15] We should all remember. Now that I'm thinking about it, we should all memorize Romans chapter 8. Here's verses 18 to 23 right in the middle.
[00:16:22] I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
[00:16:32] For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
[00:16:38] For the creation was subjected to futility not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its Bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
[00:16:55] For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
[00:17:01] And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
[00:17:15] What a text. This is the text that I go to, by the way, when people ask, hey, why do the animals have to die? They didn't sin.
[00:17:23] Well, all of creation was subjected to futility. And that futility shows up in the suns, in the stars that are exploding, in the things that are degrading, rusting, decaying, falling apart.
[00:17:40] It shows up in plants and organic life as death. It shows up in animals also as death.
[00:17:49] It shows up in people as death and everything that leads to it. Pain, suffering, animals, pain, I guess. So we have, on the base level, the material level, we have decay, and then we have, on the organic level, death, and then we have on the soul, on the animal level, on the moving level, we have pain, and then we have, at the top level, at the spiritual level, we have suffering.
[00:18:17] It's all the same phenomenon of sin. And it could be that as far as I can see, that because the Lord gave dominion to Adam and Eve over all of the creation, that when they fell, all of creation was subjected to bondage. Not willingly, not because it sinned or wanted this bondage, but because of him who subjected it in hope so that. So that all of the world was handed over to sin in the hope of the resurrection.
[00:18:49] And that's what it's talking about there. It says, we await eagerly for the adoptions as son, the redemption of our bodies.
[00:19:00] That's the resurrection that happens on the last day when our.
[00:19:04] When our bodies and souls are freed from the corruption of sin and made totally new, to be able to stand before the Lord in glory.
[00:19:16] And. And Paul says, look, if you have this in mind, if you have the resurrection in mind, then you can realize that the suffering of this present time are not even worth being compared to the glory that's on the way.
[00:19:34] Now, I. I'll confess to you that I think there's a whole world of comfort here that I have not. I do not know how to express. It's almost like, has this happened? Has someone sent you something in the mail or you ordered something in the mail and you left it in the box and you haven't opened it, and it just kind of. You knew what it was, but you haven't opened it and sort of Sat there for a little while. This verse is one of the. It's. It's sitting there and I just haven't opened it up. And so I don't exactly know how to think about it, but maybe just.
[00:20:07] And so I'll hand it over to you to open.
[00:20:10] But here's the basic idea is the fact of the resurrection that's on the way.
[00:20:17] The fact that we're going to be raised from the dead, never to die again.
[00:20:22] And that we're going to stand before the Lord who's going to wipe away every tear from our eye. And. And there's going to be no more sorrow, no more suffering, no more sickness, no more death.
[00:20:32] And that's on the way.
[00:20:34] Soon when the Lord comes back, that's the reality that he's going to bring with him for you and for me.
[00:20:41] So that we're going to be in the new heaven and the new earth forever.
[00:20:44] And that.
[00:20:46] That sure hope changes the way that we think about this life.
[00:20:53] It lifts us up, it buoys us, it puts things in perspective.
[00:20:59] If all that we had was this life, then it would just be suffering, it would just be affliction, it would just be trouble with little moments of relief and joy, but still surrounded by all this trouble.
[00:21:16] But our life is hidden. This is how Paul says it in, I think, Galatians. Our life is hidden with God in Christ.
[00:21:24] In Galatians 2, he says, I've been crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I do live in the flesh, I live for the Son of God.
[00:21:37] So that our life is hidden with God in Christ. He's the first fruits of the resurrection. And that's on the way for us.
[00:21:48] Some people who said this, that Christians have their head in the clouds. They're thinking about heaven.
[00:21:57] They're so.
[00:21:58] How did this phrase go? They're so heavenly minded that they're no earthly good.
[00:22:04] But I think that's not right. I think the more heavenly minded we are, the more earthly good we do, the more ironically, you would think that if you just had this life, then you'd be pretty invested in making it work. But here's the problem is that it just doesn't work out that way. The more our imagination is captivated by the Resurrection, the more we are set free to live in this world. Now that's what Paul's working with there.
[00:22:41] Okay, now we get to the Luke, chapter six. This is the sermon on the plain. Remember, there's two similar sermons that Jesus preaches In Matthew and in Luke. They're different, though, and they have different locations. And I think that's probably the best way to think about them. Different occasions, different crowds, same themes.
[00:23:01] Jesus is repeating a lot of the stuff.
[00:23:05] And Matthew gives us that sermon on the Mount. Luke gives us the sermon on the plain. And he starts with this command, be merciful even as your Father is merciful.
[00:23:18] Now, here's an interesting thing that I never thought about till yesterday.
[00:23:23] I'm recording this Sunday morning. Hopefully you guys aren't driving yet. It's early enough. You shouldn't be.
[00:23:31] I was thinking about it yesterday that when I. If I was trying to motivate people to be something, I would say, be good, your Father is holy, or be righteous, your Father's angry, or be good, your Father is severe, or something like this. In other words, to come along with the threat of punishment.
[00:23:57] But that's the opposite of what happens here.
[00:24:00] Be merciful because your Father is merciful.
[00:24:03] So that we're driven by.
[00:24:06] We're driven to be like God by the attribute of mercy, not severity.
[00:24:15] I mean, there's sometimes that the Bible will motivate us out of fear. The Lord is coming in judgment, so do the right thing. You don't want to be on the being judged side of God, so do the right thing. But there's something. There's something very different, the very opposite happening here. Be merciful because your Father's merciful. And what does that look like? Jesus is going to describe with four commands, two negative, two positive, what it looks like to be merciful. Judge not, you won't be judged. Condemn not, you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, put into your lap.
[00:24:58] For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. So that we're to be. Not judging, not condemning, forgiving and giving, which is what God does.
[00:25:07] Jesus says, I didn't come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through me.
[00:25:13] So that we're to live this life, not.
[00:25:21] Hoarding things to ourself, fighting for ourselves, but living lives of generosity.
[00:25:31] We're not to be going around condemning and judging people.
[00:25:36] Now, this text is one of the favorites of the Talarati, you know, the tall Roddy, who say that the main thing, their main theological thing is that we have to be tolerant for one another. Tolerance, tolerance, tolerance, which is a horrible thing. I mean, what a terrible thing to be committed to. Tolerance.
[00:25:54] Like, I mean, the way to test it is for you who are married just to look at your spouse and say, honey, I tolerate you.
[00:26:06] See how that goes? I mean, for heaven's sakes, no, we're committed to love, not tolerance. It's a big difference. But the toleratia are out there saying, hey, you know, we have to just approve of whatever. And that means you can't. You can't make a judgment about if something is right or wrong, if something is good or bad, if something is evil and wicked or holy and pure.
[00:26:28] Now, okay, but God does he. God gives us a standard. When Jesus says, judge not, he's not saying, throw out the Ten Commandments. Throw out the standard of right and wrong throughout the standard of justice. No longer pursue that. What he's saying is, don't come along to look down on people. It's the, it's the Pharisee, you know, foam finger use of the law. You're using the law to lift yourself up and to.
[00:26:56] And to cast everyone down. No, you also are a sinner. This is the point.
[00:27:02] You also are guilty of breaking the law.
[00:27:05] And, and we are not to lift ourselves up in pride and cast everyone down.
[00:27:10] Now look, your vocation, it doesn't matter what it is, your vocation will require some judgment.
[00:27:20] If you're a child, you have to honor your father and your mother. If you're a parent, especially you, you have to get after the children so that they do the right thing.
[00:27:30] If you're a boss, you have to do performance reviews. There's some form of judgment that you're doing there, but you're not doing that to lift yourself up and to tear the other person down.
[00:27:41] So Jesus gives him two parables. The first is the blind leading the blind. You both fall into a pit, the disciples not above his teacher. And then he says, why do you see the speck in your brother's eye but don't notice the log that's in your own? This is great. This is such a great picture that Jesus gives. You can imagine a guy with a two by four sticking out of his eye. And he says, you're so interested in that, in your neighbor's speck, and you have no concern for your own log.
[00:28:13] How can you say to your brother, brother, let me take the speck that's in your eye, when you yourself do not see that the log is in your own eye.
[00:28:22] You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, then you'll see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's. Eye. We have a tendency to minimize our sin and maximize our neighbor's sin, to think less of our own transgressions and to think more of our neighbors.
[00:28:43] And Jesus says that ought to be the opposite. Our, our concern ought to be for our own sin, for the fact that we have offended God by our own breaking of the commandments. That should be our first thing.
[00:28:55] And then if we know that, if we know that we're sinners, then we come along to serve our neighbor and bless him. Not to judge and condemn him, but to help him take up the fight against sin also.
[00:29:07] It's important.
[00:29:10] All right, that should probably do it. I better see stop and publish this thing.
[00:29:14] This might be the last of the Sunday drive homes for a few weeks.
[00:29:21] We'll see how it goes. I have this dream of being able to send you audio messages from travels. We'll be, we'll be taking our trip to Europe, leaving next Sunday morning and then July 5th. And we'll be there in going to church with the Lutheran Church in Strasbourg on the 12th.
[00:29:44] We'll be back at church on July 19th. But it's going to be kind of crazy getting back and so I'm not 100% sure how that's going to go. And then it's a quick turnaround for me. You can, you know, keep me in your prayers.
[00:29:58] That July 19th is Vicar Dawson's last Sunday Farewell Sunday. So I have a brunch for him or lunch after church for him.
[00:30:07] And then that night I'll fly to Phoenix for the convention for the Synodical Convention. I wasn't planning on going to the convention, but President Harrison a few weeks ago called and asked if I could come. This is really nice. He asked if I would give a couple of presentations to the convention.
[00:30:25] So it's an honor it's hard to say no to. So we'll be back on the 19th for Vicar's Farewell after the deaf church. I'll fly to Phoenix and I'll be there Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, July 20, 21, 22.
[00:30:40] And there's four convention essays.
[00:30:44] I'll miss the one on Sunday, all on the resurrection, first Corinthians, 15.
[00:30:49] And then President Harrison asked if I could give a 10 minute response to each of those essays and he says we want to put a big whiteboard up there so you can draw your pictures like you like to do so.
[00:31:01] So you can pray for that. So anyway, I'll be out a couple of weeks. We'll be back then on the 19th and then most of the Sundays after that, but it's going to be a lot of before and after. So I'm going to try to get little audio things sent to you guys. So check your. Check your emails and check your podcast for this, but it might not be your normal Sunday drive. I might just use it as a chance to update you guys and check in.
[00:31:25] Excuse me. Check in on how things are going. So.
[00:31:28] So hopefully that'll be great.
[00:31:30] Safe travels, God, as you drive to church. We'll see you soon.