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THE NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITYOctober 6, 2024Pastor Tom SteersChrist the Saviour Lutheran Church, TorontoOur guest preacher this Sunday was Martin Luther.Read his sermon below given some 500 years ago on today's Gospel text.Divine Service Setting III (Pages 184 – 202)Lutheran Service Book OPENING HYMN: 606 “I Lay My Sins on Jesus” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IjgwTfBSYI THE CONFESSION & ABSOLUTION Page 184-185THE INTROIT –Psalm 78:1-3,4b; antiphon Ps. 35: 3b; 34:17a, 6b; 48:14aSay to my soul, “I am your salvation!” When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears. [The Lord] saved him out of all his troubles; this is God, our God forever and ever. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;incline your ears to the words of my mouth!I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known,that our fathers have told us. We will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. Say to my soul, “I am your salvation!” When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears. [The Lord] saved him out of all his troubles; this is God, our God forever and ever. THE KYRIE (Lord Have Mercy)Congregation:Lord have mercy upon us.Christ have mercy upon us.Lord have mercy upon us.Gloria in Excelsis (Glory to God in the Highest) Page 187The Salutation:Pastor: The Lord be with you. Congregation: And with thy spirit.OUR COLLECT PRAYER: Almighty and merciful God, of Your boundless goodness keep from us all things that may hurt us that we, being ready in body and soul, may cheerfully accomplish whatever You would have us do; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.OUR BIBLE READINGS –First Reading – Genesis 28:10-17Psalm 84; antiphon: v.8 Epistle Reading – Ephesians 4:17-28Gospel Reading – Matthew 9:1-8 THE APOSTLES’ CREED Page 192HYMN OF THE DAY: 708 “Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zg_nDRFMjgTHE SERMON –The fact of the matter is, without God and His Word of forgiveness, we are all spiritual paralytics. There is no ‘good work’ we can do that will last, and get us out of this world alive to achieve eternal life. Without Christ’s forgiveness, spiritual paralysis is the best we can expect, and hell is the just reward for sin despite the best of human endeavors.Yet, there is a lasting blessing that overcomes this disease – God’s forgiveness and spiritual healing through Jesus.This is the heart of our Gospel reading this morning.Almost 500 years ago, Martin Luther, the Reformer of the Christian Church, preached a sermon on this Sunday’s verses from Matthew.I offer you that sermon, and pray it will reassure and guide you in the faith.“From today's Gospel we learn about the wondrously gracious ministry of the Word which God has given to mankind on earth, a Word we can speak to one another, namely, "Your sins are forgiven!" It truly is a mighty power, as valid as if God were saying to you, "Your sins are forgiven."When the Pastor or another Christian declares to you, "God is not angry with you," you should believe this pledge with all your might. Better to be torn apart rather than doubt it! For if you doubt and do not believe, the absolution is of no benefit, even if God with all His angels were to speak it with His own mouth over you.For when we refuse to believe, we disdain God as a deceiver, as though the things He declares to us were not true. May God graciously keep us from such unbelief and sin. But the devil is an extraordinary master at getting us to call God a liar and refuse to believe His promise.A believing heart honours God with the highest possible honour due Him, for it regards Him as trustworthy, incapable of lying, One who certainly fulfills what He promises. That is why Christ is very pleased with these people who brought the man sick with palsy to Him, because they showed their confidence in His ability to help this individual. Tenderly He addresses him, in effect saying: ‘My son, you are ill; the devil has afflicted you with crippling palsy, and God has permitted it to happen to you, a sinful human being. As a result, your conscience is troubled and you think -- God is angry with me; what can I do? It is natural that we fear when we perceive God's judgment.’But Jesus is saying, ‘Don't let such thoughts sink too deeply into your heart. Do not think: What does God care about me? Who knows whether He will be gracious to me, or not? What, after all, am I to God? Do not look at your illness, but listen to Me when I say, your sins are forgiven you. Therefore, say instead, 'palsy - so what? My sins are forgiven, and I will not let palsy or any other illness divert me from this faith.'God's grace has given this Word to us purely, and unadulterated. But we, at times, do not believe and trust firmly. This is the devil's doing, the result of original sin, that causes us to be drawn away from the Word and the truth, toward believing the lie instead. It is the devil's fraud and our flesh's deception because our natures are so corrupted by original sin. It’s only with great difficulty that we fight off unbelief. That’s because our flesh and reason want to have nothing to do with the Word; they are willing to believe only what they want to believe.What Christ says here to this stricken man, He is saying to you and me every day in Baptism, in Absolution, in public preaching. That should cause us to stand on our heads with joy. It should make everything sweet as sugar, pure as gold – sheer everlasting life. The fact that this joy doesn’t happen for us proves the old Adam and the devil are constantly working to drag us away from faith, and God’s Word.Therefore, we are to learn from today's Gospel that we must possess the Word, and firmly believe that by divine power we have forgiveness of sin and salvation, here and now.This power to forgive sins is a power God has given to mankind, as stated in the Gospel. If I am to have forgiveness of sins, I must not sit in some corner and say, "My God, forgive me my sin," and then as it were, wait for an angel from heaven to come, to say to me, "Your sins are forgiven." But God draws near to me by ordaining Holy Baptism and His Word.When you go to your Pastor, or in his absence some other Christian, asking that he comfort you and absolve you from your sin, you may be certain that through the external word your sins are really and truly forgiven. For the Word does not lie to you.If you want to have forgiveness of sin, do not try to climb up to heaven, but remember the promise God has made to you in your Baptism, and ask that the Absolution be declared to you in Jesus' name. Believe the Word, receive the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, so that you may be sure that such priceless treasure is meant for you to have, and enjoy.We must not despise Baptism, Absolution, preaching, and the Sacrament, but seek and receive forgiveness of sins in this way. That is why God has ordained that there be Pastors.That is why He has given us fathers and mothers, and fellow Christians who bring us to Church, and help reassure us of God’s Word.When the Pastor Baptizes a child, think of it this way: God is Baptizing the child. When the Pastor Absolves, it is God speaking, and He has declared this verdict upon me, that I should be free and forgiven of my sin.These are things we must surely learn well, so that when we encounter the shameless, fantastic spirits who cry, "What is water? What is the laying on of hands? Do you think that water and the hands can make you clean from sin?" Then we can answer, "True, water and the hand do not do it of themselves, but the Word of God that is with the water and the Pastor's hand is whereby we can be born again into the kingdom of God and be free from our sin."We are to seek forgiveness in the Word that is spoken by human mouths and the Sacrament, both found in the Church, and nowhere else.Therefore, when on the Last Day people parade their works and merits, Christ will put the question to them, "But where is My Word? Have I not provided My church with Baptism, the Sacrament, Absolution, and preaching, so that men might come to have forgiveness of sins and be assured of My grace? Why did you not hold on to these? They would not have failed you, as your works must and will fail you."You need not scramble here and there for forgiveness, except to the true Christian Church, for it possesses the Word and Sacraments.The fanatics, enthusiasts and Anabaptists perilously sever the forgiveness of sins from the Word. Since they turn away from God's Word, they deprive themselves and others - who let themselves be influenced - of all the blessings, the forgiveness of sins, Baptism, the Lord's Supper, and retain nothing but the mere husks of the Sacraments.So many have lost the pulpit. They despise the Word of God.In our text, the palsied man serves as a picture of all sinners, for it is the nature of this illness that it incapacitates the members of the body; one can no longer flex the foot or hand or draw it upwards to oneself, but these become rigid and stretched out.By nature, we are all palsied. The more we try to draw close to God through our works and actions, the farther from Him we get. When I think I can do very well on my own, I’m actually making things much worse, because I am not acting in faith.We need to look away from our works and trust in Christ who is able to help us wondrously. He says to us, "Be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you." With such words the limbs become strong and sound, capable of helping us carry a load, as happened here with the paralyzed man whom Christ healed physically, having bestowed the forgiveness of sins upon him.The palsied man lay before Him helpless. But at Christ's Word he immediately stood up, sound and healthy. By this wonderful miracle He demonstrated that He had power on earth to forgive sins.Very plainly He says, "on earth," in order that we should not gaze to heaven, or hope for forgiveness of sins through other people's work and merits. He clearly states that power has been given to men on earth to forgive sins, when a person Baptizes, administers the Sacrament, Absolves, and preaches from the pulpit. He declares that whatever is loosed or forgiven on earth is loosed in heaven. Whatever is bound on earth, is bound in heaven.God's glory is not taken from Him through the exercise of this power, as some uninformed people say, for we are simply carrying out this office. If you believe His Word, then you have the power of the Word; reject the Word, and you have nothing. God has bound us together through this office, so that one Christian can comfort another as a concerned friend, and the other by his faith can know that he has the forgiveness of sins in Christ's name, as long as the Word is rightly proclaimed. That is what leading a person to God and the forgiveness of sins means. Whoever dies in such faith, dies well, and will be saved.However, many others are striving to take these blessed doctrines away from us. Therefore, be wary of them and learn that forgiveness of sins exists only where the Word is found, and nowhere else.The Holy Spirit does not want to carry on His work apart from the Word and Sacraments. For this reason, we dare not disdain the Word and Sacraments, but should cherish them as the very best and noblest of treasures.May God grant us His grace to hold fast to this doctrine, now and into life eternal. Amen.”THE PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH SERVICE OF THE SACRAMENT Page 194The Preface Page 194Sanctus Page 195THE LORD’S PRAYER Page 196 THE WORDS OF OUR LORD Page 197 Pax Domini Pastor: The peace of the Lord be with you always. Congregation: Amen. The Agnus Dei Page 198THE DISTRIBUTIONThe Nunc Dimittis Page 199Post Communion Collect (Right-hand column) Page 201 Salutation and Benedicamus Page 201-202 Benediction Page 202CLOSING HYMN: 923 “Almighty Father, Bless the Word”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVArufuXXgI