Jesus’ disciples, such as you, are in the world, but not simply in the world—SENT into the world. And in this world you need protection, because you do not belong in the world.
The earliest monasteries were set up when Christians, overwhelmed by the sins of society, left the cities and went out into the desert to pray, to reflect and to be alone. Eventually, these solo Christians got together in groups and lived in monastic communities with one another. It was a way to focus on their faith together without being affected as much by the outside world.
Many young adults, growing up in small churches across the United States, overwhelmed by the sins and hypocrisy of their friends and family, leave their small hometowns and go off into the city to party, seek education and find their own way. Eventually, these Christians get together with a group of people surrounding common interests or ideals, hang out on weekends and drink coffee together. It’s a way to focus on life in the world and become accepted without being affected too much by their faith.
Jesus’ disciples, such as you, are in the world, but not simply in the world—SENT into the world. And in this world you need protection, because you do not belong in the world.
A community of faith, such as this one at Saint Peters, is NOT built around this church building. This church is not, finally, what we have in common. It is a place where we gather, but, as a building, it does not protect us from the world and it cannot be a world of its own. In some small towns, the church is its own world, where people come to escape the trials and tribulations of the day and get wrapped up in a new kind of place where there are always programs to be a part of, a choir to sing with and mission trips to go on.
In other places, the church is truly a sanctuary, where people go to find protection in afterschool programs to keep kids off the streets, out of gangs and out of the reach of drug dealers. In some countries, the church building is the only place to freely express one’s faith without the fear of death or persecution ensuing. But the community of faith Jesus speaks about is different than all of this.
A community of faith, such as this one at Saint Peters, is NOT built around our church building. While we have many people from Cornwall, a great many of you are not. Therefore, our church probably won’t ever simply a hometown congregation, the town won’t revolve around what we do and when we do it. If that is our goal, we’ll find that, for many, this is not their home. If we try to force being accepted in this way, it won’t work out very well.
A community of faith, such as Saint Peters, will also find it difficult to be a sanctuary. Our sanctuaries are our homes, tucked away from the hustle and bustle of city life, out in nature. If we need to find something to do, we find afterschool programs somewhere else, through sports teams or activities in other cities. So, if we get tempted to fill this church only with programs and special events, they might just feel like extra things that we have to do. And if WE feel that way, many other people in this area might feel the same way too. They don’t need another place to call home and they don’t need a sanctuary. So, is there anything left?
Everything is left. At least everything that Jesus Christ spoke about in the prayer we heard today. Jesus disciples, such as you, are in the world, but not simply in the world—SENT into the world. And in this world you need protection, because you do not belong in the world. Churches in our society have often been sanctuaries for Christians, a place where they could feel comfortable believing in Jesus Christ, to remind them that they did not belong to a world that was going to pot, but that they had a different citizenship, a heavenly one. However, people in sanctuaries, like the desert monks, have a tendency to forget an important piece of Jesus’ prayer: while not being in the world, while needing protection from the world, disciples are sent INTO the world. And when we spend all of our free time at church, it’s tough to meet new people and share the news of Jesus Christ to people who have not heard.
There are also some unfortunate side effects of being the “hometown” church, even though, for many, it seems like the best of all worlds. Often, in a hometown church, new town members, especially the doctors, lawyers, principals, feel like they need to become a member of the church or else people might begin to wonder about them. They need to make connections. The hometown church often becomes part of the world. It “belongs” to the world in more ways than one. It can become very political and very hypocritical. People in hometown churches, like so many Christians in society, have a tendency to forget another important piece of Jesus’ prayer: you are in the world, but you do not belong to this world. Jesus explained that the world would hate his disciples because of what they believed and how that affected how they acted, but it is easy to just want everyone to like you. It’s easier to focus on becoming part of the world than to focus on your faith.
But Jesus’ disciples, such as you, are in the world, but not simply in the world—SENT into the world. And in this world you need protection, because you do not belong in the world and you are hated for this.
A community of faith, such as this one at Saint Peters, is NOT built around this church building. Why do you come? Is it to feel accepted? Is it is feel safe? Is it to look at the pretty building? If so, you probably don’t like Saint Peters that much. It might be good enough for you, but you won’t want anyone else to come. You’ll be embarrassed that you’ve spent so much time and trouble on something that doesn’t really mean much of anything.
Jesus prayed, “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one.” Jesus prayed that his disciples might have faith. That they would have a relationship to God. So that even in the world that hated them, they would be protected by God and be one with him. Not one with each other, as if our own agreement or our own community was the most important thing, but so that you might be one with God. Just as Jesus and his Father are one, Jesus prays that those whom God has given to him would be one with God as well. Jesus isn’t trying to make a church—he’s trying to give faith.
God gives his name and his words to Jesus. Jesus then gives God’s name and his words to his disciples. These words make the disciples hated by the world and, yet, protected in the world. Jesus’ disciples find their home in God and in his love for them. Jesus’ disciples find their sanctuary in God and in his words for them. “In the world you face persecution,” Jesus says, “But take courage; I have conquered the world!” This community must be built on Jesus or we are lost.
It is God’s name that makes you a community of faith and that community stretches out so much farther than this building. You wouldn’t be here if God hadn’t called you. At your baptism, God named you his child, once and for all. You can either hide that name by hanging out with others with the same name to the exclusion of all else, or you can hide that name while you are with others in order to try to protect yourself from them. But God will continue to call you by name until you hear the truth. A building can’t protect you. Hiding the truth from your friends can’t protect you. God himself is your only protection in this world. He gives you all that you have: a good name, true friends and neighbors, a devoted family and, finally, eternal life. This community of faith must be built on Jesus or we are lost.
A community of faith gives God’s word in good times and bad. When one of you is acting badly, a community of faith doesn’t turn a blind eye, but they talk with that person about their decisions. Loving doesn’t always mean tolerating each other; sometimes it means protecting one another from bad choices or calling someone out for bad behavior with the hope of repentance. If you don’t trust in God’s words, in his name, then it doesn’t matter how well you get along with one another, or how good you look to the outside world, you aren’t a community of faith.
A community of faith gives God’s word in the bad times as well. God’s word doesn’t just mean telling people off; it means struggling through sins with people, holding them close when all others would turn away until finally, through love and prayer, repentance happens. Whether that takes one conversation or years of praying. And it is here, where a faith community is at its best: when God gives the word of forgiveness. When God speaks the final word, “By God’s authority, your sins are forgiven.” That’s what this community of faith is based on: Forgiveness. God’s words. God’s name. Not one building. Not one town. Not one event. One faith in Jesus Christ.
Jesus disciples, such as you, are in the world, but not simply in the world—SENT into the world. And in this world you need protection, because you do not belong in the world. This protection cannot be found anywhere other than in God’s word and in God’s name. Some of you have tried to escape the world you were sent into because it threatens you and your faith. Others have become so much a part of this world that you have compromised your faith and forgotten your first love. Take hold of Jesus and his promise and trust in his word alone, “In the world you face persecution,” Jesus says. It can be a threatening place “But take courage; I have conquered the world!” Trust in Jesus Christ alone. Amen.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Sermon for May 17th
I don’t know if you’ve noticed recently how ridiculous you have become. Not only that, but many of you are also very unevolved. Your faith makes no sense. You’re wasting your time. You have the freedom to let it all go, change your mind and live in the real world, but you just won’t. You’ve lived your life on crutches, being held up by the church and the Bible. And some of the most popular authors, speakers and professors have done their best to open up your cage and they’ve whispered in your ear: You are free! Fly away! Fly away from this religious poppycock.
The movie, Into the Wild, is a true story about a young man who leaves his family, his identity and his life behind to find freedom in Alaska. It takes him a few years to get there walking by foot, kayaking downriver, riding trains or hitching rides with people, but eventually he finds his way. When he does find the freedom he was seeking, he discovers that he has become trapped on the other side of a raging river that had only been a stream when he had first crossed it. Eventually, he dies by accidentally poisoning himself on what he thought were wild potatoes. As he lies, dying, trapped in his freedom, he writes the words, “Happiness is Shared”. He never knew true freedom, until he found out that he wasn’t really free.
A reading from Acts, chapter 10, ”While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.” That might sound pretty cool to us, but at the time, it was truly horrifying. Do you know who these people were? The people who were touched by the Holy Spirit? They were Gentiles. Barbarians. Dirty and uncircumcised soldiers! Who knew nothing, absolutely nothing, about God! It was almost unbearable.
But we are hearing the end of the story. Peter meets these Gentile sinners awhile earlier. He had just gone through a crash course in Diversity Training in a dream he had had the night before where God had lowered down a bunch of unclean animals and told him to “Kill and Eat” and explained that, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” And so, suddenly, Peter wasn’t a religious racist anymore! He now had lots of dirty Gentile friends. He’d even talked to a few and so, he was wondering what more they might want him to do so that he might show them what a tolerant fellow he could be! He says, “You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. Now may I ask why you sent for me?” The preacher who will baptize 5000 people, can’t imagine what he’s going to do with a few Gentiles. It doesn’t even occur to him.
The leader of these dirty uncircumcised soldiers, Cornelious was his name, said he had a dream as well about meeting one of those stuck up Jewish Christians named Peter and that God had told him, to listen to all that the Lord had commanded Peter to say. So, Peter, being the dutiful follower of God that he was, starting telling these barbarians all about Jesus and the great gift of salvation that had been brought to the Jews. And then, something amazing happened!
“While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.” On those dirty, barbaric and uncircumcised people! Ewww. The passage tells us, “The circumcised believers, the Jews, who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God!”
You’d a thunk that they would’ve known better! Not Peter mind you, he had just gone through diversity training so what could you expect him to do. But these Gentiles should have known better than to get sucked into such a thing such as this. They didn’t have any proof that Jesus had REALLY risen from the dead did they? Peter said that he and his people were witnesses of the risen Jesus, but maybe they were lying or hallucinating. Didn’t these Gentiles realize that they were about to become part of a church that would be criticized in two of Dan Brown’s novels and in two full-length feature films thousands of years later! How ridiculous were they, right! To fall for Jesus right then and there!
These sinners are your descendents, the Gentiles. Even today, as a Gentile, you have no right to call upon God as your Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You don’t deserve this grace of God. While the Jews were God’s chosen people, the Gentiles were not. But while they didn’t have God, they had their freedom, right? The freedom to eat and drink and believe whatever they wanted. You’d think they would have tried to run as fast they could from crazy people like Peter. And you know what? I bet they did. But before they could reach the door, something spectacular happened. “While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.” And for Cornelious and his merry band of Gentile companions, they would be forever forward called children of God, “Peter said, ‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.”
About once a week I hear or read or am told about how faith in Jesus Christ makes me ridiculous. Most of the time, no one comes right out and says it. But it’s pretty obvious what they think. When you talk to your friends and coworkers, you might feel like your values seem unevolved or judgmental compared to the opinions surrounding you. When you hang out with your friends on Saturday night, you might feel like a dope when you have to go home before midnight so that you can wake up to go to church the next morning. You have the freedom to let it all go, change your mind and live in the real world. Many popular authors, speakers and professors are saying that you are free! That you could fly away!
But it is already too late for you. For as many of you who were baptized in Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. You were buried therefore, by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised by the glory of the Father, you too might walk in newness of life. You are hearing the words of Jesus Christ, the promise is given and we will see what happens. We’ll let the Holy Spirit fly and fall and do its thing; working faith in your heart as it will. Just when you think you can fly away, the Holy Spirit tackles you and buries you with Jesus. Even in the face of your doubts. Even in the face of unanswered prayers. Even though you know you are unclean and don’t deserve it. The Holy Spirit falls where and when it pleases. Even on you. Your faith comes on the wings of the word and hunts you down like a hawk after a mouse.
You might have come inside the church doors this morning, expecting contemplation and conversation, sure and certain that you had everything figured out, but I pray that you leave here this morning sure of only one thing, that you have received forgiveness. For only in forgiveness is there true freedom. You might have come in here a free thinking spiritualist, but I pray that you will leave here bound to Jesus Christ alone, for only in him is there true freedom. Freedom to love. Freedom to serve. Freedom from death Freedom for life. .
When you think of freedom, you might think of a way of life that knows no boundaries. No one telling you what to do, or how to act or how to live. But the freedom that comes through the gospel is not freedom from the law, freedom from accountability or freedom from relationships. True freedom does not mean freedom from a relationship with Jesus. That kind of freedom is a trap. Religious freedom sounds great, but freedom apart from Jesus Christ is nothing less than a jail cell. Leaving you alone to die as much as it did the man in the movie who found himself imprisoned in his search to be free. “Happiness is shared” the man wrote. True freedom is a relationship with Jesus Christ. The freedom to be bound to him and to his word. To love and be loved.
Faith is love. The book of James tells us, that faith without love is dead. But faith and love both appear quite ridiculous in our world. Love is unevolved and makes you act kinda crazy. One professor I know refers to couples getting ready for a wedding as “legally insane” and he is more right than he is wrong. Love makes no sense, just like faith often does not. Sometimes you just can’t understand why you have faith at all, but then you realize that you never made the choice in the first place. You just fell into it. Just like the Holy Spirit fell on a bunch of undeserving Gentiles long ago. Just like a mother falls in love at the first sight of her child.
For those of you who have ever been in love, love is often a very ridiculous looking thing. And as silly as it may seem, Jesus has fallen for you. You’ve had a life only Jesus could love, but he only has eyes for you. And so, my advice to you, when you are challenged to prove your faith or defend yourself in the eyes of others, is just to admit the facts. Yes, I’m ridiculous. I’m in love. I tried to run away, but I couldn’t. I thought I found freedom, but it wasn’t apart from my beloved, apart from my Savior. I love Jesus, what else can I do? He has told me that I am his and he is mine and that we will be together forever.” Why do I read the Bible? Why do I believe it? Because it is full of his love letters to me.
Fly away from this love if you can. But no where else will find rest for your soul. Freedom for your mind. And peace for your heart. Only in God’s love is there true freedom; the freedom to love others and serve them unconditionally, not because it’s the smartest thing to do, but because you are truly free to do it. And when people ask you why? Tell them the love story, Jesus’ love story and, perhaps, the holy spirit just might fall on them when they hear the word. Amen.
The movie, Into the Wild, is a true story about a young man who leaves his family, his identity and his life behind to find freedom in Alaska. It takes him a few years to get there walking by foot, kayaking downriver, riding trains or hitching rides with people, but eventually he finds his way. When he does find the freedom he was seeking, he discovers that he has become trapped on the other side of a raging river that had only been a stream when he had first crossed it. Eventually, he dies by accidentally poisoning himself on what he thought were wild potatoes. As he lies, dying, trapped in his freedom, he writes the words, “Happiness is Shared”. He never knew true freedom, until he found out that he wasn’t really free.
A reading from Acts, chapter 10, ”While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.” That might sound pretty cool to us, but at the time, it was truly horrifying. Do you know who these people were? The people who were touched by the Holy Spirit? They were Gentiles. Barbarians. Dirty and uncircumcised soldiers! Who knew nothing, absolutely nothing, about God! It was almost unbearable.
But we are hearing the end of the story. Peter meets these Gentile sinners awhile earlier. He had just gone through a crash course in Diversity Training in a dream he had had the night before where God had lowered down a bunch of unclean animals and told him to “Kill and Eat” and explained that, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” And so, suddenly, Peter wasn’t a religious racist anymore! He now had lots of dirty Gentile friends. He’d even talked to a few and so, he was wondering what more they might want him to do so that he might show them what a tolerant fellow he could be! He says, “You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. Now may I ask why you sent for me?” The preacher who will baptize 5000 people, can’t imagine what he’s going to do with a few Gentiles. It doesn’t even occur to him.
The leader of these dirty uncircumcised soldiers, Cornelious was his name, said he had a dream as well about meeting one of those stuck up Jewish Christians named Peter and that God had told him, to listen to all that the Lord had commanded Peter to say. So, Peter, being the dutiful follower of God that he was, starting telling these barbarians all about Jesus and the great gift of salvation that had been brought to the Jews. And then, something amazing happened!
“While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.” On those dirty, barbaric and uncircumcised people! Ewww. The passage tells us, “The circumcised believers, the Jews, who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God!”
You’d a thunk that they would’ve known better! Not Peter mind you, he had just gone through diversity training so what could you expect him to do. But these Gentiles should have known better than to get sucked into such a thing such as this. They didn’t have any proof that Jesus had REALLY risen from the dead did they? Peter said that he and his people were witnesses of the risen Jesus, but maybe they were lying or hallucinating. Didn’t these Gentiles realize that they were about to become part of a church that would be criticized in two of Dan Brown’s novels and in two full-length feature films thousands of years later! How ridiculous were they, right! To fall for Jesus right then and there!
These sinners are your descendents, the Gentiles. Even today, as a Gentile, you have no right to call upon God as your Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You don’t deserve this grace of God. While the Jews were God’s chosen people, the Gentiles were not. But while they didn’t have God, they had their freedom, right? The freedom to eat and drink and believe whatever they wanted. You’d think they would have tried to run as fast they could from crazy people like Peter. And you know what? I bet they did. But before they could reach the door, something spectacular happened. “While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.” And for Cornelious and his merry band of Gentile companions, they would be forever forward called children of God, “Peter said, ‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.”
About once a week I hear or read or am told about how faith in Jesus Christ makes me ridiculous. Most of the time, no one comes right out and says it. But it’s pretty obvious what they think. When you talk to your friends and coworkers, you might feel like your values seem unevolved or judgmental compared to the opinions surrounding you. When you hang out with your friends on Saturday night, you might feel like a dope when you have to go home before midnight so that you can wake up to go to church the next morning. You have the freedom to let it all go, change your mind and live in the real world. Many popular authors, speakers and professors are saying that you are free! That you could fly away!
But it is already too late for you. For as many of you who were baptized in Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. You were buried therefore, by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised by the glory of the Father, you too might walk in newness of life. You are hearing the words of Jesus Christ, the promise is given and we will see what happens. We’ll let the Holy Spirit fly and fall and do its thing; working faith in your heart as it will. Just when you think you can fly away, the Holy Spirit tackles you and buries you with Jesus. Even in the face of your doubts. Even in the face of unanswered prayers. Even though you know you are unclean and don’t deserve it. The Holy Spirit falls where and when it pleases. Even on you. Your faith comes on the wings of the word and hunts you down like a hawk after a mouse.
You might have come inside the church doors this morning, expecting contemplation and conversation, sure and certain that you had everything figured out, but I pray that you leave here this morning sure of only one thing, that you have received forgiveness. For only in forgiveness is there true freedom. You might have come in here a free thinking spiritualist, but I pray that you will leave here bound to Jesus Christ alone, for only in him is there true freedom. Freedom to love. Freedom to serve. Freedom from death Freedom for life. .
When you think of freedom, you might think of a way of life that knows no boundaries. No one telling you what to do, or how to act or how to live. But the freedom that comes through the gospel is not freedom from the law, freedom from accountability or freedom from relationships. True freedom does not mean freedom from a relationship with Jesus. That kind of freedom is a trap. Religious freedom sounds great, but freedom apart from Jesus Christ is nothing less than a jail cell. Leaving you alone to die as much as it did the man in the movie who found himself imprisoned in his search to be free. “Happiness is shared” the man wrote. True freedom is a relationship with Jesus Christ. The freedom to be bound to him and to his word. To love and be loved.
Faith is love. The book of James tells us, that faith without love is dead. But faith and love both appear quite ridiculous in our world. Love is unevolved and makes you act kinda crazy. One professor I know refers to couples getting ready for a wedding as “legally insane” and he is more right than he is wrong. Love makes no sense, just like faith often does not. Sometimes you just can’t understand why you have faith at all, but then you realize that you never made the choice in the first place. You just fell into it. Just like the Holy Spirit fell on a bunch of undeserving Gentiles long ago. Just like a mother falls in love at the first sight of her child.
For those of you who have ever been in love, love is often a very ridiculous looking thing. And as silly as it may seem, Jesus has fallen for you. You’ve had a life only Jesus could love, but he only has eyes for you. And so, my advice to you, when you are challenged to prove your faith or defend yourself in the eyes of others, is just to admit the facts. Yes, I’m ridiculous. I’m in love. I tried to run away, but I couldn’t. I thought I found freedom, but it wasn’t apart from my beloved, apart from my Savior. I love Jesus, what else can I do? He has told me that I am his and he is mine and that we will be together forever.” Why do I read the Bible? Why do I believe it? Because it is full of his love letters to me.
Fly away from this love if you can. But no where else will find rest for your soul. Freedom for your mind. And peace for your heart. Only in God’s love is there true freedom; the freedom to love others and serve them unconditionally, not because it’s the smartest thing to do, but because you are truly free to do it. And when people ask you why? Tell them the love story, Jesus’ love story and, perhaps, the holy spirit just might fall on them when they hear the word. Amen.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Sermon for May 10th
I have a woodstove at home. It keeps us a little too hot in the Fall and Spring and not quite warm enough in the winter, but I still really like it. Every three or four hours, I have to get another load of wood into the stove in order to keep it going. If I don’t, for instance if I oversleep, I awake to find the coals not quite hot enough to get another fire going quickly and that means I have to put out a lot more effort and . . . use many more little sticks and branches.
Where I do I find these little sticks and branches? Well, mostly, my family finds them for me. They search the ground for little sticks that have fallen off trees and pile them up for me in the wheelbarrow or in a bucket or in a box so that, when the time comes, I can throw them into the fire and get it started again. Because, you see, that’s all those little sticks are good for, really, besides breaking my lawnmower or maybe for playing pretend games with outside. Those little sticks have fallen off the tree they once belonged to. They won’t produce leaves anymore. They can’t grow anymore. So, in my opinion, they are mostly good for one thing—to be burned.
Jesus compares himself not to a tree, but to a vine. He was probably referring to a grapevine. And he compares his disciples to the branches on that vine that would produce fruit. Jesus says that any one of his disciples that do not bear fruit are about as good as a branch lying on the ground. Not good for much other than burning. You also are about as worthless as this box of sticks if you do not continue and remain connected to Jesus Christ, the true vine. Jesus says that if you do not produce fruit—if you do not follow his commandments and actively love others—you’d be worth more burned up than just sitting around where you are. “I am the true vine,” Jesus proclaims. “Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.”
Jesus talks in a very organic way about faith and life. A branch on a grapevine doesn’t just “decide” one day to create a grape. It is nourished from the vine it is attached to, it abides in the vine, as Jesus puts it, resting securely, receiving everything through the vine until, after a period of time, fruit finally bursts forth. Jesus says he receives everything from his Father and gives it to us. And over time, after being nourished day by day by none other than Jesus himself, the fruits of the Spirit happen in your life. According to Paul’s letter to the Galatians, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Important stuff. Stuff worth waiting for.
As a branch on the true vine of Jesus Christ, your “nourishment” comes in two forms. Jesus gives you commandments and Jesus gives you love. “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Jesus gives you love. That love flows into you throughout your entire life. God gave you life at birth. God provides you with food. God provides you family and friends. God sent Jesus to die for your sins. The love keeps flowing and flowing into you. But if you are removed from that relationship, well, two things happen. First, that love cannot find its way into fruit. In order to get your neighbor loved, God needs you. If you do not abide in Jesus, your friends, your family and your coworkers cannot know God’s love. Second, if you did not continue receiving life or love from Jesus, you would not have love or life. One moment you would be a living branch on the true vine. The next moment you would be a dead branch, fit for the fire.
Jesus also gives you commandments. Jesus tells you what to do by giving you his words that you must fulfill. These commandments flow into you throughout your life. You are told to love God above anything else. You are told to pray to God for everything that you need. You are told not to murder. You are told to love one another. You see, sometimes we do things because we want to, we love our children and so we change their dirty diapers. But sometimes we do things, not necessarily because we want to, but because we are told to. Nurses or aides in a hospital or nursing home might rather not change a resident’s dirty diaper, if the decision were based purely on love, they might just choose not to. But they are commanded to by their bosses or else they might be fired.
These commandments of God, while not always being something we like or like to do, are extremely important in our world. Without them, diapers would sometimes not be changed. People would think they could do whatever they wanted without any consequences even if they hurt others. God’s commandments flow through Jesus into our ears and into our actions day after day, but if that relationship is cut off two things happen. First, your neighbors are no longer protected and may not be loved as they were before. Second, if you do not continue receiving commands from Jesus, you have no boundaries on your behavior. You are unprotected from others and from yourself. One moment you are a living branch on the true vine. The next moment you are a dead branch, fit for the fire.
And somehow these two things are connected. In fact, the purpose of God’s commandments is to get you to love, love is the completion of God’s commandments. But when Jesus talks about love, he is not simply talking about it like WE like to talk about it in our world. Everyone is “for” love, if you haven’t noticed. Very few religions don’t like love, right? Atheists like “love” too! Everybody likes love! But Jesus is not just talking about love the way the world works. This is a different kind of a love. A love described by none other than Jesus himself, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” Love is about service. It is an active love that doesn’t aim at death or martyrdom, but, through the act of service, is willing to die for the sake of the neighbor just as Jesus did.
When you watch TV and movies, love is often described or connected somehow to sex and sexual relationships. Relationships between adults and youth often see the act of sex as a requirement for love: “If you really love me, you’d sleep with me.” That’s the general idea at least. Sex is even used to “fix” relationships or to “make up” after big fights. Some communes in the sixties were based on the idea that anyone could “make love” with anyone else without any jealously or so called “property rights” (at least that was the idea anyway). If you’ve ever read the book Stranger in a Strange Land you might recognize that concept of love.
The other description of “love” that is so popular today makes love equal to tolerance. Now, tolerance is a Christian ideal in many respects. We are all sinners and, as Jesus points out “judge not lest ye be judged”. However, the thing is, we are all judged by God, his words and his commandments, and so is everyone else. So while we are called to be tolerant of others and their choices in society, this doesn’t mean that people are not still punished for their bad choices. We don’t tolerate some things like murder or stealing. In the church, we must be tolerant of different ways of life, cultures and traditions, but when we break God’s laws, we aren’t called to tolerate bad behavior, we are called to forgive, just as we have been forgiven. We learn love from Jesus’ death on the cross for us, not from TV or movies. Jesus didn’t just tolerate your sins, he died to forgive you and save you from being punished for your sins.
Jesus’s statement about love in John’s gospel is different than sex and more than tolerance. In fact, it is different than any other statement that you can find in the other three gospels. John isn’t saying that you should “love our neighbor as yourself” and he isn’t talking about the “golden rule” or how to increase your pleasure in the world; instead, as the Father loves him, and as Jesus loves you, that is love. “No greater love is there than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” That doesn’t mean that everyone must die, it is not death seeking martyrdom, but all love is measured based on that gift of Jesus’. A soldier in the armed forces doesn’t serve with the intention of dying; however, they are willing to serve even if it means that they must die for the sake of loving their country and the people within it, for their protection and their freedom.
What did Jesus’ death do for you? It gives you life, forgiveness and peace. Love is life-giving, not simply pleasure seeking either for the person receiving or giving. Love is about forgiving, not simply tolerating, but forgiving specific wrongs that are being committed against people and against God. This is the love that fulfills God’s commandments. This is the love that God calls you to abide in.
Yet, even while abiding in Jesus Christ and bearing the fruit of the Spirit, sin still clings to you, for you are both a saint and a sinner. John says, “Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.” The word that John uses for “prunes” is the same as he uses for “cleanse” in the very next sentence, “You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.”. God continues to cleanse and prune you through the words of Jesus Christ so that you will continue to bear fruit. So, while you are receiving love and commandments from Jesus Christ, the true vine, you can still expect to need forgiveness along the way.
In fact, that’s how God loves you. Growing on the vine that is Jesus Christ, you are free to sprout off in whatever direction you need to for the sake of loving or serving someone else. You’ll make mistakes, no doubt about that. You’ll do the wrong thing sometimes and need forgiveness, or pruning as Jesus puts it. But that’s what God’s love is like—not only accepting you as you are, but creating you into a NEW creation. Because the goal isn’t simply to make you feel good about yourself or to help everyone get along. The goal is to serve the world, and through that, glorifying God and his Son, your Savior, the true vine, Jesus Christ—who died for you and intends to serve the world through you.
Where I do I find these little sticks and branches? Well, mostly, my family finds them for me. They search the ground for little sticks that have fallen off trees and pile them up for me in the wheelbarrow or in a bucket or in a box so that, when the time comes, I can throw them into the fire and get it started again. Because, you see, that’s all those little sticks are good for, really, besides breaking my lawnmower or maybe for playing pretend games with outside. Those little sticks have fallen off the tree they once belonged to. They won’t produce leaves anymore. They can’t grow anymore. So, in my opinion, they are mostly good for one thing—to be burned.
Jesus compares himself not to a tree, but to a vine. He was probably referring to a grapevine. And he compares his disciples to the branches on that vine that would produce fruit. Jesus says that any one of his disciples that do not bear fruit are about as good as a branch lying on the ground. Not good for much other than burning. You also are about as worthless as this box of sticks if you do not continue and remain connected to Jesus Christ, the true vine. Jesus says that if you do not produce fruit—if you do not follow his commandments and actively love others—you’d be worth more burned up than just sitting around where you are. “I am the true vine,” Jesus proclaims. “Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.”
Jesus talks in a very organic way about faith and life. A branch on a grapevine doesn’t just “decide” one day to create a grape. It is nourished from the vine it is attached to, it abides in the vine, as Jesus puts it, resting securely, receiving everything through the vine until, after a period of time, fruit finally bursts forth. Jesus says he receives everything from his Father and gives it to us. And over time, after being nourished day by day by none other than Jesus himself, the fruits of the Spirit happen in your life. According to Paul’s letter to the Galatians, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Important stuff. Stuff worth waiting for.
As a branch on the true vine of Jesus Christ, your “nourishment” comes in two forms. Jesus gives you commandments and Jesus gives you love. “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Jesus gives you love. That love flows into you throughout your entire life. God gave you life at birth. God provides you with food. God provides you family and friends. God sent Jesus to die for your sins. The love keeps flowing and flowing into you. But if you are removed from that relationship, well, two things happen. First, that love cannot find its way into fruit. In order to get your neighbor loved, God needs you. If you do not abide in Jesus, your friends, your family and your coworkers cannot know God’s love. Second, if you did not continue receiving life or love from Jesus, you would not have love or life. One moment you would be a living branch on the true vine. The next moment you would be a dead branch, fit for the fire.
Jesus also gives you commandments. Jesus tells you what to do by giving you his words that you must fulfill. These commandments flow into you throughout your life. You are told to love God above anything else. You are told to pray to God for everything that you need. You are told not to murder. You are told to love one another. You see, sometimes we do things because we want to, we love our children and so we change their dirty diapers. But sometimes we do things, not necessarily because we want to, but because we are told to. Nurses or aides in a hospital or nursing home might rather not change a resident’s dirty diaper, if the decision were based purely on love, they might just choose not to. But they are commanded to by their bosses or else they might be fired.
These commandments of God, while not always being something we like or like to do, are extremely important in our world. Without them, diapers would sometimes not be changed. People would think they could do whatever they wanted without any consequences even if they hurt others. God’s commandments flow through Jesus into our ears and into our actions day after day, but if that relationship is cut off two things happen. First, your neighbors are no longer protected and may not be loved as they were before. Second, if you do not continue receiving commands from Jesus, you have no boundaries on your behavior. You are unprotected from others and from yourself. One moment you are a living branch on the true vine. The next moment you are a dead branch, fit for the fire.
And somehow these two things are connected. In fact, the purpose of God’s commandments is to get you to love, love is the completion of God’s commandments. But when Jesus talks about love, he is not simply talking about it like WE like to talk about it in our world. Everyone is “for” love, if you haven’t noticed. Very few religions don’t like love, right? Atheists like “love” too! Everybody likes love! But Jesus is not just talking about love the way the world works. This is a different kind of a love. A love described by none other than Jesus himself, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” Love is about service. It is an active love that doesn’t aim at death or martyrdom, but, through the act of service, is willing to die for the sake of the neighbor just as Jesus did.
When you watch TV and movies, love is often described or connected somehow to sex and sexual relationships. Relationships between adults and youth often see the act of sex as a requirement for love: “If you really love me, you’d sleep with me.” That’s the general idea at least. Sex is even used to “fix” relationships or to “make up” after big fights. Some communes in the sixties were based on the idea that anyone could “make love” with anyone else without any jealously or so called “property rights” (at least that was the idea anyway). If you’ve ever read the book Stranger in a Strange Land you might recognize that concept of love.
The other description of “love” that is so popular today makes love equal to tolerance. Now, tolerance is a Christian ideal in many respects. We are all sinners and, as Jesus points out “judge not lest ye be judged”. However, the thing is, we are all judged by God, his words and his commandments, and so is everyone else. So while we are called to be tolerant of others and their choices in society, this doesn’t mean that people are not still punished for their bad choices. We don’t tolerate some things like murder or stealing. In the church, we must be tolerant of different ways of life, cultures and traditions, but when we break God’s laws, we aren’t called to tolerate bad behavior, we are called to forgive, just as we have been forgiven. We learn love from Jesus’ death on the cross for us, not from TV or movies. Jesus didn’t just tolerate your sins, he died to forgive you and save you from being punished for your sins.
Jesus’s statement about love in John’s gospel is different than sex and more than tolerance. In fact, it is different than any other statement that you can find in the other three gospels. John isn’t saying that you should “love our neighbor as yourself” and he isn’t talking about the “golden rule” or how to increase your pleasure in the world; instead, as the Father loves him, and as Jesus loves you, that is love. “No greater love is there than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” That doesn’t mean that everyone must die, it is not death seeking martyrdom, but all love is measured based on that gift of Jesus’. A soldier in the armed forces doesn’t serve with the intention of dying; however, they are willing to serve even if it means that they must die for the sake of loving their country and the people within it, for their protection and their freedom.
What did Jesus’ death do for you? It gives you life, forgiveness and peace. Love is life-giving, not simply pleasure seeking either for the person receiving or giving. Love is about forgiving, not simply tolerating, but forgiving specific wrongs that are being committed against people and against God. This is the love that fulfills God’s commandments. This is the love that God calls you to abide in.
Yet, even while abiding in Jesus Christ and bearing the fruit of the Spirit, sin still clings to you, for you are both a saint and a sinner. John says, “Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.” The word that John uses for “prunes” is the same as he uses for “cleanse” in the very next sentence, “You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.”. God continues to cleanse and prune you through the words of Jesus Christ so that you will continue to bear fruit. So, while you are receiving love and commandments from Jesus Christ, the true vine, you can still expect to need forgiveness along the way.
In fact, that’s how God loves you. Growing on the vine that is Jesus Christ, you are free to sprout off in whatever direction you need to for the sake of loving or serving someone else. You’ll make mistakes, no doubt about that. You’ll do the wrong thing sometimes and need forgiveness, or pruning as Jesus puts it. But that’s what God’s love is like—not only accepting you as you are, but creating you into a NEW creation. Because the goal isn’t simply to make you feel good about yourself or to help everyone get along. The goal is to serve the world, and through that, glorifying God and his Son, your Savior, the true vine, Jesus Christ—who died for you and intends to serve the world through you.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Sermon for May 3rd
The first letter of John can be a very difficult letter to read because there often seems to be a disconnect between what he is saying about Christians and what we see and experience in our lives as Christians. When we translate John’s letter into English from the original Greek language, the statements can seem so cut and dried that we are either driven to pride or despair. I’m going to read a few verses to help explain this point and I want you to consider how they make you feel, “No one who abides in Jesus sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.” “Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil”; “Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God.” According to these descriptions, it might be very easy for you or I to fall into despair for, we sin, no doubt about it.
But in the original language, John’s statements were a bit more nuanced than they are translated. In the language of Greek, verbs, action words like “to love” or “to sin” or “to abide”, are classified into three basic types of action: a competed action, a onetime snapshot of an action and a repeated or continuing action. In John’s letter, he often uses the kind of verb that means a repeated or continuing action which, by translating it a little differently, might help us understand what he’s getting at much better.
For instance, using the same verse I read before from 1st John chapter 3 see if you can hear the difference, “No one who continues to abide in Jesus sins; no one who sins and sins and keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.” “Everyone who keeps on committing sin is a child of the devil.” Or finally, “Those who have been born of God do not sin and sin and sin, because God’s seed continues abiding and abiding and abiding in them; they cannot continue sinning, because they have been born of God.” In other words, John isn’t saying that Christians don’t sin. In fact, in the first chapter of his letter, he says that, “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and his word is not in us.” However, John is saying that a life lived by faith in Jesus Christ looks different than a life lived apart from Christ, and if it doesn’t, well, maybe you need to hear the message again until it takes hold of you in a new way.
But here we run into another problem many of us have with reading these verses from John’s letter: we read a description and hear it as a commandment. This can become a big misunderstanding. For example, let me describe a bird for you. One characteristic of a bird is that it flies. A bird flies. If you wanted to become a bird, you might try flying. But just because you got in an airplane and flew cross-country doesn’t make you a bird does it?
In today’s reading we hear this, “All who obey God’s commandments abide in him, and he abides in them.” You might start thinking that, if you obeyed all the commandments, you would be saved, you would be a full-fledged Christian. Do enough good works and you will be loved by God. But that would contradict much of what scripture tells us, wouldn’t it? What about the part that says we are saved by faith apart from works? Just because you obey God’s commandments, do the right things, doesn’t prove that you have faith in Jesus.
But John isn’t commanding you to be a Christian, he is describing the Christian life for you, and a Christian obeys commandments, not through their own power but, as he puts it later, because God has given them his Spirit.” John says, “We love because God first loved us.” He’s not giving you a commandment saying that you MUST love because God loved you first. He’s describing the life of a Christian.
The gospel of Matthew puts this in a different way. “A good tree produces good fruit. A bad tree produces bad fruit.” You don’t have to tell a good tree to produce good fruit, it just does it because that how it was made. Sometimes we think about trusting in God as a decision we make with our minds, or with our hearts or by understanding it enough. But that’s not how John talks about it. God takes your old creation, the one that sins and hates and steals and murders, and creates a new you—you are “born again” as so many Christians put it—and this NEW you doesn’t sin because it can’t, not because you are strong enough to fight temptation. God makes you into a good tree. And when you find yourself living in a new way, not because you know you are supposed to, but because you naturally do, John says that this can reassure you can trust that God is truly doing something amazing through you instead of trusting in your own efforts.
But you may ask, then how can it be that I believe in Jesus Christ, something only the Holy Spirit can get you to do, but I still find myself sinning, something only a child of the Devil would do according to John? Because you are both. Because, as Martin Luther put it, you are simul Eustis et peccator, you are simultaneously a sinner and a saint. A sinner, in the eyes of this old world. A saint in the eyes of God. Not fifty-fifty. Not part sinner and part saint. You aren’t split down the middle. You are 100% sinner and 100% saint. For now, when you look in the mirror, you’ll often see only a sinner. But, through the eyes of faith, when you hear the forgiveness of yours sins for example, you might catch a glimpse of the saint you have become. The same picture you will see reflected in the eyes of Jesus Christ when you see him one day face to face.
This last week on NPR, I heard an interview about a man who had written a book called, “Losing my Religion.” It’s about a man who became a born-again Christian after a traumatic part of his life and got involved whole heartedly with his faith and his whole life changed. His job was writing for the Religion section of the LA Times and, in his work and research, he had to cover a lot of pretty distressing stories about Christians. Bogus faith healers, Christian hypocrites, and, if you remember, the big sexual molestation scandal and cover-up involving some Roman Catholic priests several years ago. He kept asking himself, “Why don’t Christians act any more loving than non-Christians?” “Why do they sometimes act worse?” “Why do Christians pray and still get sick or, at least, not get dramatically better every time they ask?” Eventually, he “lost his faith” as the book puts it, left the church and is now an atheist.
This is the danger in hearing the law as the final word, rather than the gospel. As John puts it at the beginning of today’s reading, “We know love by this, that Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” That’s the promise. John continues by saying that “therefore, we ought to lay down our lives for one another.” Yes, we should. But, our act of love is always secondary to Jesus’. Our act of love is never on par with his. Every person on this Earth could follow all the commandments written in the Bible and every law on this Earth and that wouldn’t prove God’s existence. It wouldn’t mean that everyone would be saved. You are not saved because of what you do, but because of what Jesus has done for you.
By faith we believe that we are saints even though all the evidence often points to the contrary. We hear that our sins, though many, are forgiven and, when we believe it, you might notice that you don’t want to go right back to those sins. By faith we believe that whatever we ask from God we will receive, even though, in this life, we may not always see the fruits of those prayers when we want them. An old professor of mine put it this way, “When we pray for healing, we are actually praying against ourselves—we are praying for our own deaths.” For only then will that broken leg be completely healed, will we finally find peace from our anxieties and will a sick child actually live apart from suffering. Even if we pray for healing and it happens right before our eyes, at that very moment, the one that has been healed will need healing again and again and again until they live with the healer himself up in heaven.
Martin Luther once explained that it would be better for us if God never healed us, or eased our suffering, or blessed us so richly so that our hearts and minds and, most importantly, our faith, wouldn’t rest on visions of glory, but would rest on the power of the cross. Yet, in his divine grace, he cannot help but shower us with love and peace and joy and so, we thank him and trust that all the troubles of the world will only finally be ended in heaven once and for all. But, for now, we will live as both sinners and saints. Praying that God would change our lives and our actions through the power of his Holy Spirit so that we might love one another and do what pleases him. Not just with words, but with actions. Not just once in a while, but always. Not because you are being told to, but because that is how God created you. Amen.
But in the original language, John’s statements were a bit more nuanced than they are translated. In the language of Greek, verbs, action words like “to love” or “to sin” or “to abide”, are classified into three basic types of action: a competed action, a onetime snapshot of an action and a repeated or continuing action. In John’s letter, he often uses the kind of verb that means a repeated or continuing action which, by translating it a little differently, might help us understand what he’s getting at much better.
For instance, using the same verse I read before from 1st John chapter 3 see if you can hear the difference, “No one who continues to abide in Jesus sins; no one who sins and sins and keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.” “Everyone who keeps on committing sin is a child of the devil.” Or finally, “Those who have been born of God do not sin and sin and sin, because God’s seed continues abiding and abiding and abiding in them; they cannot continue sinning, because they have been born of God.” In other words, John isn’t saying that Christians don’t sin. In fact, in the first chapter of his letter, he says that, “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and his word is not in us.” However, John is saying that a life lived by faith in Jesus Christ looks different than a life lived apart from Christ, and if it doesn’t, well, maybe you need to hear the message again until it takes hold of you in a new way.
But here we run into another problem many of us have with reading these verses from John’s letter: we read a description and hear it as a commandment. This can become a big misunderstanding. For example, let me describe a bird for you. One characteristic of a bird is that it flies. A bird flies. If you wanted to become a bird, you might try flying. But just because you got in an airplane and flew cross-country doesn’t make you a bird does it?
In today’s reading we hear this, “All who obey God’s commandments abide in him, and he abides in them.” You might start thinking that, if you obeyed all the commandments, you would be saved, you would be a full-fledged Christian. Do enough good works and you will be loved by God. But that would contradict much of what scripture tells us, wouldn’t it? What about the part that says we are saved by faith apart from works? Just because you obey God’s commandments, do the right things, doesn’t prove that you have faith in Jesus.
But John isn’t commanding you to be a Christian, he is describing the Christian life for you, and a Christian obeys commandments, not through their own power but, as he puts it later, because God has given them his Spirit.” John says, “We love because God first loved us.” He’s not giving you a commandment saying that you MUST love because God loved you first. He’s describing the life of a Christian.
The gospel of Matthew puts this in a different way. “A good tree produces good fruit. A bad tree produces bad fruit.” You don’t have to tell a good tree to produce good fruit, it just does it because that how it was made. Sometimes we think about trusting in God as a decision we make with our minds, or with our hearts or by understanding it enough. But that’s not how John talks about it. God takes your old creation, the one that sins and hates and steals and murders, and creates a new you—you are “born again” as so many Christians put it—and this NEW you doesn’t sin because it can’t, not because you are strong enough to fight temptation. God makes you into a good tree. And when you find yourself living in a new way, not because you know you are supposed to, but because you naturally do, John says that this can reassure you can trust that God is truly doing something amazing through you instead of trusting in your own efforts.
But you may ask, then how can it be that I believe in Jesus Christ, something only the Holy Spirit can get you to do, but I still find myself sinning, something only a child of the Devil would do according to John? Because you are both. Because, as Martin Luther put it, you are simul Eustis et peccator, you are simultaneously a sinner and a saint. A sinner, in the eyes of this old world. A saint in the eyes of God. Not fifty-fifty. Not part sinner and part saint. You aren’t split down the middle. You are 100% sinner and 100% saint. For now, when you look in the mirror, you’ll often see only a sinner. But, through the eyes of faith, when you hear the forgiveness of yours sins for example, you might catch a glimpse of the saint you have become. The same picture you will see reflected in the eyes of Jesus Christ when you see him one day face to face.
This last week on NPR, I heard an interview about a man who had written a book called, “Losing my Religion.” It’s about a man who became a born-again Christian after a traumatic part of his life and got involved whole heartedly with his faith and his whole life changed. His job was writing for the Religion section of the LA Times and, in his work and research, he had to cover a lot of pretty distressing stories about Christians. Bogus faith healers, Christian hypocrites, and, if you remember, the big sexual molestation scandal and cover-up involving some Roman Catholic priests several years ago. He kept asking himself, “Why don’t Christians act any more loving than non-Christians?” “Why do they sometimes act worse?” “Why do Christians pray and still get sick or, at least, not get dramatically better every time they ask?” Eventually, he “lost his faith” as the book puts it, left the church and is now an atheist.
This is the danger in hearing the law as the final word, rather than the gospel. As John puts it at the beginning of today’s reading, “We know love by this, that Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” That’s the promise. John continues by saying that “therefore, we ought to lay down our lives for one another.” Yes, we should. But, our act of love is always secondary to Jesus’. Our act of love is never on par with his. Every person on this Earth could follow all the commandments written in the Bible and every law on this Earth and that wouldn’t prove God’s existence. It wouldn’t mean that everyone would be saved. You are not saved because of what you do, but because of what Jesus has done for you.
By faith we believe that we are saints even though all the evidence often points to the contrary. We hear that our sins, though many, are forgiven and, when we believe it, you might notice that you don’t want to go right back to those sins. By faith we believe that whatever we ask from God we will receive, even though, in this life, we may not always see the fruits of those prayers when we want them. An old professor of mine put it this way, “When we pray for healing, we are actually praying against ourselves—we are praying for our own deaths.” For only then will that broken leg be completely healed, will we finally find peace from our anxieties and will a sick child actually live apart from suffering. Even if we pray for healing and it happens right before our eyes, at that very moment, the one that has been healed will need healing again and again and again until they live with the healer himself up in heaven.
Martin Luther once explained that it would be better for us if God never healed us, or eased our suffering, or blessed us so richly so that our hearts and minds and, most importantly, our faith, wouldn’t rest on visions of glory, but would rest on the power of the cross. Yet, in his divine grace, he cannot help but shower us with love and peace and joy and so, we thank him and trust that all the troubles of the world will only finally be ended in heaven once and for all. But, for now, we will live as both sinners and saints. Praying that God would change our lives and our actions through the power of his Holy Spirit so that we might love one another and do what pleases him. Not just with words, but with actions. Not just once in a while, but always. Not because you are being told to, but because that is how God created you. Amen.
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