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spent2002
"On Falling Away from the Faith"
vas 5052 siemens
Text: Matthew 21:33-43
Date: The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost 
10/6/02
Is it possible? Is it possible in the grand
scheme of things, after all the preceding history of Israel to whom
"belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the
law, the worship, the promises…the patriarchs" [Romans 9:4-5 (ESV)],
is it possible that, at the last minute, when the long-awaited Messiah
finally arrived they could blow it by rejecting him? It is possible?
Is it possible in our lives that, after endless hours of faithfully
attending worship and Sunday school and catechism and Bible class;
is it possible, maybe coming from a long family line of Lutherans,
and maybe even having gone into part-time or full-time church work;
is it possible that, given all that history, one could still fall
away from the faith?
True story: I remember my early childhood years
in a Lutheran church on the campus of the University of Minnesota.
Only later as I studied the art and craft of playing the pipe organ
did I realize that the little old man who played the organ in my
childhood church was none other than the world-renown, Lutheran
organist Heinrich Fleischer! During my college years I had heard
that Dr. Fleischer had, curiously, switched his membership to a
Unitarian church. I happened to run into him once, and asked him
if that was true. I'll never forget his shocking response to me
when I asked him why. He said, "I just can't believe all that Jesus
Christ business anymore." As we recall at the rite of confirmation,
Jesus said, "everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will
acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies
me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven"
[Matthew 10:32-33 (ESV)]. So I ask again, is it possible for you
and me that we should fall away from the faith?
Near the end of his earthly ministry, the chief
priests and the elders of the people heard Jesus' warning, "the
kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people
producing its fruits." How could that be? The parable of the vineyard
was our Lord's most powerful, last-ditch effort to reach out to
those who considered themselves his enemies in order to wake them
up and to save them. In fact, it almost worked!
To those of us who know the rest of the story
it is obvious how literally the story of this parable would be fulfilled.
The vineyard of God's planting was the house of Israel. God's care
and provision and guiding and protecting and delivering hand is
obvious through their long history. From the vine of his planting
God expected the fruits of faith, obedience and worship. Time and
again, however, God's people proved faithless, disobedient and idolatrous.
As in the parable, every time God sent a prophet to proclaim his
Word, his people would "beat one, kill another, and stone another."
"Finally he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my
son.' But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves,
'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.'
And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him."
The parable almost "worked." For, when Jesus
asked what they thought the owner of the vineyard should do to the
evil tenants, they answered aright, saying, "He will put those wretches
to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who
will give him the fruits in their seasons." But in case they didn't
"get it," Jesus told them straight out: you are those wicked tenants!
"Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from
you and given to a people producing its fruits."
The Jerusalem temple is no more, being utterly
destroyed in 70 A.D. There will always be those who consider themselves
Jews according to their heritage and ancestry. But, as the Apostle
Paul said, "not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel"
[Romans 9:6 (ESV)]. For the true Israel are only those who believe
and confess that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God,
our Savior. And now that true Israel, those "people producing its
fruits," include all-even Gentiles-who by faith in Jesus have been
grafted into the Vine which is Christ.
Now the warning comes also to us as in the
words of the Apostle Paul, "do not become proud, but stand in awe.
For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare
you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward
those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue
in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off" [Romans 11:20b-22
(ESV)].
The Kingdom of God is given to a people that
produces the fruits of the kingdom. On the surface that sounds like
work-righteousness; that is, that if you produce the fruits then
you will have earned the Kingdom. The reality, of course, is just
the opposite. The Kingdom of God, God's rule of grace is pure gift-the
unearned and undeserved gift of the forgiveness of sins, life and
salvation for the sake of Christ. The fruits of the kingdom are
not the cause but the evidence that a person has received that gift.
What are those fruits? They are, first of all,
daily repentance and faith-things worked in us only by the Holy
Spirit working through the Word of God. How many people who call
themselves Christian, especially in our society, believe they have
not fallen away or despised God's Word but are just taking a little
vacation from it? Or how about those who have convinced themselves,
saying, "I don't have to go to church to be a Christian." They just
don't get it, for they view the church as a merely human institution.
But Christ baptizes and brings people into his kingdom through his
Church. The Word of God is preached and heard and believed through
his Church. The idea, "I don't have to go to church to be a Christian"
is, patently, false and a deception.
The fruits of the kingdom are the evidence
of a living, lively faith. Where those fruits are absent faith has
either grown weak or even died. The fruits are demonstrated in the
normal life and activities of the Christian, namely, regular worship,
frequent communion, continued Bible study, regular, proportionate,
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