8-23-2026

 “MERCY GIVEN LIFE”

Text: Romans 11:33 -12:8 – Pentecost 13

Sunday August 23, 2026

Trinity – Creston

       Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

       Our text for this 13th Sunday after Pentecost is the Epistle lesson from Romans 11-12 that was just proclaimed.

Let Us Pray:  Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to remind us that you chose us and all to be recipients of your grace.  Remind us not think that your grace is not exclusively just for some but you desire that all repent and receive that knowledge of the truth.  As you have shown us mercy, we show mercy to others.

Amen.

Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:

The outcome of Jesus’ encounter with the woman caught in adultery (Jn 8:1–11) is stunning to us. Jesus bids the accusers who have no sin to throw the first stone at her.

When he looks up, they have all gone away. Even the woman’s judges were finally forced to realize that they, too, needed mercy.

Jesus absolves the woman with these words: “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” Jesus had mercy on her. From this point forward, her life would be shaped by this great deed of mercy.

In our text today, Paul tells us that also we

Christians Have Received Mercy from God

and Thereby Become the Givers of Mercy

to Our Neighbors in the Church and in the World.

I.   By nature, we live law-driven lives.

A.         Law drives everything in the workplace, school, and community.

1.              We are ever to fill quotas, complete tasks, earn grades, and obey laws.

                  2. Otherwise, we suffer the consequences of sin, failure, and inability.

B.         We are tempted to try to control our relationship with God by the Law.

1.              By nature, we think God works and motivates like the world—saves and incorporates us into the Church through our deeds of the Law.

2.              Therefore we must be driven by guilt or fear or desire for self-glorification.

C.         Christians also often think the Law will motivate and drive us into better behavior.

1.              But while God’s good Law does show us our sin and provide a guide for Christian living, it has no power to work good in us.

2.              We can do no good thing without the mercy of God in Christ.

II.  But our lives as Christians are rather characterized by mercy—God’s mercy to us in Christ.

A.         The Father, out of the depth of his riches (11:33), had mercy on us in sending us his Son to die for us (5:6–11).

B.         The Father had mercy on us sinners by justifying us in Christ.

                  1. He declares us righteous by grace alone.

                  2. He baptized us into Christ’s death and resurrection.

                  3. He sends out the ministry of preaching and the Sacraments (10:14–17).

C.         His purpose is to have mercy on all (11:32).

III. Therefore we live “mercy-given lives” in the Body of Christ: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God . . .” (12:1).

A.         By God’s mercies, with our minds renewed in the Word, our bodies are living sacrifices (12:1–2).

B.         By the mercies of God, he has apportioned gifts to members of the Body of Christ according to his grace. These gifts include offices in the church.

C.         But the gift of mercy, received by all, is to be used toward all with cheerfulness and generosity (12:8), for God has had mercy on us.

Like the woman caught in adultery, like Peter confessing the Christ in today’s Gospel, like David and Paul and the centurion at the cross, we have received salvation through the mercies of God.

We all know Zacchaeus as the “wee little man” who climbed up the sycamore tree to get a good view of Jesus (Lk 19:1–10).

Zacchaeus is not the sort of person about whom you’d normally make up songs to teach to your little children. He was a chief tax collector, a despised man, an outcast, and a sinner. No respectable person associated with such a man.

But as you know, Zacchaeus had heard the rumors about Jesus and was filled with curiosity, so he climbed a tree to see him. Jesus singled him out for attention, invited himself to dinner, and went to eat at his house.

By these merciful actions toward Zacchaeus, Jesus covered his scandalous and offensive life with his own righteousness and reputation. He bestowed on Zacchaeus the dignity he had long forfeited. His merciful kindness granted forgiveness to this poor sinner.

You may remember that at his dinner, Zacchaeus stood up and offered to give half of his goods to feed the poor, and promised to give fourfold restitution to those he had cheated.

Jesus declared him to be a son of Abraham, a child of mercy. Zacchaeus was justified by Christ through faith. But what strikes us in particular is that Zacchaeus spontaneously offered to do what the Law requires: to do mercy and justice to his neighbors.

By the gift of Christ’s mercy to him (Rom 12:1), Zacchaeus learned to be merciful to others and to live the mercy-given life.

       Our lives are lived in that mercy in the Church, in our families, and among our neighbors in the world, as we carry out our vocations with mercy to all. Amen.

Amen.

Now may the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior...Amen.