Trinity 5, 2024
Rev. Thomas Van Hemert
St. Luke 5:1-11
Trinity 5
June 30, 2024
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The call of St. Peter to follow Jesus and the miraculous, great catch of fish illustrates for us some things about the Church and really, what we call the Church Militant—that is, the Church here on earth fighting the good fight of faith, that are often overlooked. Our Lutheran forefathers taught and confessed that the Church will remain forever. The Church is the congregation of saints in which the Gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments are correctly administered.
In speaking of who is included in the Church, again, our Lutheran forefathers taught and confessed that strictly speaking, the Church is the congregation of saints and true believers. At the same time, however, mixed in and living among the true believers on earth are many hypocrites and evil people. Just as bad fish are mixed in the net with the good fish—the fish the fishermen intended to catch, so also this truth is highlighted in the parable of the wheat and the tares. In that parable, Jesus says that the tares grow up alongside the wheat and it is only on the Last Day that the angels will separate them, lest they unintentionally throw the wheat into the fire.
Included in the Church, broadly speaking then, are both true believers and hypocrites. A hypocrite is someone who outwardly acts a certain way or confesses something, but inwardly believes the opposite of the show he is putting on in front of others. So, in the case of the Church, a hypocrite would be someone who confesses with his mouth what appears to be the Christian faith, does all the right things, acts the right way, and the like, but inwardly despises the Gospel and the Sacraments because he believes that he doesn’t need them. For example, someone who would say something as silly and preposterous as “Church takes up too much of my time; Sunday is the only day I have to sleep in; I have more important things to do; and, home devotions are good enough for me” or even something as hypocritical as, “I don’t need or what the Sacrament of the Altar often, but I don’t want others to wonder about me, so I’ll just put on a show and go up anyway, even though it’s useless to me.” Repent. There are both believers and hypocrites in the Church.
The Church is like a net, which forcefully pulls us away and out of the world. This is difficult for us because our sinful flesh loves the sinful world. We love our sins and it’s difficult for us to let them go. Through Baptism, we are sundered from the unbelieving world and brought into the Church. Just as there are two types of people in the Church on earth—believers and hypocrites—so also are there two types of the one Church. We call these “The Church Militant,” which again, is the Church that is still on earth and “The Church Triumphant,” which includes only believers who have been sealed forever in their faith because they have died in their faith. But because they died in the faith, they live. The saints in heaven rest forever at Abraham’s bosom, always and forever receiving comfort from the Holy Trinity.
They are there in heaven and we are here, living out the life of faith. So it is that life in the net, life in the Church Militant is sometimes difficult. It is not all sunshine and daisies all the time. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ and anyone who has more than one child or anyone who has at least one other sibling knows that brothers and sisters fight. Sometimes vehemently. So don’t tell me that you don’t understand what’s going on in the Church and why there are so many problems in the Church or in the Synod because we’re all supposed to be nice to each other all the time. While that’s true, we live on this side of glory where we struggle against sin, the devil, and our fallen flesh, even within the Church.
And yet, at the same time, even though there is fighting, bickering, and reviling, because we are in the Church, sundered from the number of the unbelieving, we do have periods of time where we do experience mountain highs and what it truly means to live the good life here on earth. St. Peter writes about it in his first epistle. He starts off by saying, “All of you [that is Christians] be of one mind, having compassion for one another, love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.” Then he quotes Psalm 34, painting a picture of the “good life,” “He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
Living the “good life” does not mean that we get to indulge in our pet sins or that we have so much money that we don’t know what to do with it all or that we don’t have any problems, never get sick, and the like. Living the “good life” means that we live according to what God’s will is for us, that we all are of one mind; that despite our shortcomings, we have compassion on each other, love each other, are tenderhearted, courteous, that we bless one another and live in harmony for the sake of the Gospel, and that we truly come to know what it means to be brothers and sisters in Christ, living together in the Church, supporting one another, bearing one another’s burdens.
What St. Peter says in his epistle are commands. But these commands, this prescription on how we live as redeemed sinners in the Church, are commands that come from God and these commands are good. God’s first word to us out of all the commandments, out of all His instructions is, “I am the Lord your God.” Then, He gives us commands, instructions on how to live as His people. He shows us what is sinful so that we would turn away from our sins back to Him. And He does this, He gives us the strength to know and do this by the power of the Holy Spirit because He Himself has joined us in the net. He became one of us. He took His creation into Himself. Having died and been raised from the dead, He now leads us, as a man as He reigns forever at the right hand of the Father.
We are the Church Militant, still fighting the good fight of faith. Jesus still leads us. We have been brought into His Church, captured in His net, sundered from the number of the unbelieving. Not only are we literally in a church building, but we are believers who make up the Church. The Church is not a social club where you come and go as you please. But the Church is where the Gospel is preached and the Sacraments are rightly administered for the eternal benefit of all believers. We hear Christ’s command; we hear His call. We take His example for our guide.
Though none of us are Apostles who have forsook all and followed Jesus, to some degree, we have made sacrifices. We abide in His way. We deny ourselves and forsake the world. We hear Christ’s call to bear our own crosses, which are easier to bear when we do so alongside each other in the Church. Because even now, if we suffer for righteousness sake, if we are reviled and hated by the world for separating ourselves from all the sin that inhabits it, we are blessed. Therefore, St. Peter says because of this, “Do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled,” because Christ has joined us in the net and soon, He will bring us from the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant.
In +Jesus’ name.
