Sermon-Sunday-July 1, 2007
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
So how do you stand up in light of everything that takes place in our Gospel text this morning? I mean in this lesson what you have is a set of events that show that Jesus would not allow anything to get in the way of His journey to the cross. They go to a Samaritan village and the villagers do not receive Jesus because His face was set to Jerusalem.
James and John wanted to command fire from heaven that would consume the villagers. After all they had rejected Jesus, the Son of God. Who do they think they are? They had rejected the gospel that led these disciples to walking away from their homes and families so they could follow Jesus. And yet Jesus does not rebuke the Samaritans who rejected Him but the disciples who wanted to seek revenge on the villagers.
How would you have done? How do you feel when you see the faith that you confess mocked and belittled? When you hear people refer to the Bible as a "book of fairytales" as some call it, are you able to simply ignore that and move forward like Jesus, or do you get angry like James and John?
Then you have a man who says that he would follow Jesus wherever He goes. Jesus responds by telling the man that the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. In other words Jesus makes it clear that pleasure would not be a part of His travels, and so thus neither would it be for His followers. After all Jesus was headed to the cross. He was clearly not overly concerned about His creature comforts. We don’t really know how this man responded, but would there have been any hesitation if he knew where Jesus was going, if he knew that Jesus was essentially walking straight on into His death?
So how do you stack up?? Would you have gone? Would you have been willing to follow Jesus wherever He went even if it meant not having a place to rest your head? When you leave to go on a trip, be it on a plane, a train, or a car, do you take a pillow with you? Could you give up your car or your cellphone or your television, or coffee for a month? Would you be willing to live without the certainty of a roof over your head for a month?
Finally Jesus sees two men, one to whom Jesus actually says, "Follow me" and another who says that he will follow Jesus. The first man responds to Jesus’ call by simply asking Jesus if he could go and bury his father. The second man puts a condition on his following Jesus when he says that he would like to say farewell to those at his home.
Jesus denies the request of the man who wanted to bury his father when He tells the man to let the dead bury their own dead, and that he should be concerned about proclaiming the kingdom of God. But what is so wrong with what this man asked to do? I mean he just wanted to go bury his father. One could make an argument that he was simply showing due obedience to the commandment to honor your father and mother. And yet, here is Jesus telling him to leave that behind, to let the dead bury their own.
But that is the radical nature of the call of discipleship. The claim that Christ Jesus makes on you takes priority over not just the worst of human relationships, but also those that we would consider to be the best. Jesus doesn’t even allow the other man who simply wanted to go say farewell to his family to do that. How would you have done? Would you have been able to leave it all behind to follow Jesus? Your family, your friends, your occupation.
Jesus essentially says at the end of today’s gospel lesson, that anyone who looks back instead of always looking forward is not fit for the Kingdom of God. The call to follow Jesus is a call to prioritize our faithfulness to Jesus over anything and everything that might get in the way of that. We are called to place our discipleship to Jesus as more important than family, professional and social obligations, anything.
Truth be told, we all fail to make the cut. Jesus says that no one who looks back on the past is fit for the Kingdom of God. Well that’s us. We are not fit for the kingdom of God, and we show it when we dwell on mistakes of the past or hold grudges or when we look back with probably delusional fondness at "the good old days." We frequently place our desires for luxury and creature comforts over our call to discipleship and thus show that we are unfit for the kingdom of God.
But praise be to God, in the midst of all that was distracting the disciples and the would-be disciples, Jesus kept His focus. He continued forward without looking back. He kept His face set toward Jerusalem, and the cross, where He bore the penalty for your sin.
When Jesus tells you not to look to the past, He is not speaking merely of the events of your past but of who you once were. In the third chapter of Philippians Paul writes of how none of us should have any confidence in the works of the flesh. And he says that if anyone has any reason to be confident in works of the flesh, it’s him; Paul. Looking back on his days as a Pharisee, he describes himself as being a Hebrew of Hebrews and faultless when it came to legalistic righteousness.
But he now considers all of that loss for the sake of Christ Jesus. He considers every aspect of his past life of seeking righteousness through the law as rubbish when compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord for whom Paul has lost all things. He seeks a righteousness that comes not of his own which comes from the law, but an imputed righteousness that comes purely through faith in Christ.
See it’s not just a matter of being called to not look to the past events of your life, but it’s a matter of having been freed from bondage to the past of who you once were. The past is bondage and death in the law and the flesh, the present and the future is liberty and life in Christ.
As Paul writes in our second lesson for today, it is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Later this week we will celebrate Independence Day and the freedom that we have as Americans, but the freedom that Paul speaks of here is much different and much more meaningful. Martin Luther says of the freedom we have in Christ Jesus that it frees us not from earthly bondage or tyranny but from God’s everlasting wrath. Luther refers to this as inestimable liberty and says that in comparison to this, civil and carnal liberty are both like a drop of water compared to the whole sea.
Paul writes in our second lesson that we are called to use our freedom in Christ not as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another and that the law is summed up in a single commandment; love your neighbor as yourself.
When we go after our own self-indulgent desires then we are not truly living in the freedom that has been given to us in Christ but rather, in the words of Martin Luther, we become "bondslaves of the devil." But when we take the focus off of ourselves and put it on our neighbor, proclaiming to them the good news of Christ Jesus in word and deed, then we live by the Spirit, and the Spirit gives life.
And how do we know if we are living by the Spirit? Again, Luther makes it simple. When we cleave unto Christ we are led by the Spirit and free from the law. As you do battle with the flesh and the law, you find victory not in your own efforts, but only through faith in the promise of forgiveness and redemption in Christ Jesus. Clinging to that promise, the law can not terrify, or accuse you or drive you to desperation. You are freed from God’s wrath. You no longer need to look back. You have been freed to keep looking forward and toward your neighbor whom you are called to love as yourself and be about the business of proclaiming the Kingdom of God with.
Amen.
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
So how do you stand up in light of everything that takes place in our Gospel text this morning? I mean in this lesson what you have is a set of events that show that Jesus would not allow anything to get in the way of His journey to the cross. They go to a Samaritan village and the villagers do not receive Jesus because His face was set to Jerusalem.
James and John wanted to command fire from heaven that would consume the villagers. After all they had rejected Jesus, the Son of God. Who do they think they are? They had rejected the gospel that led these disciples to walking away from their homes and families so they could follow Jesus. And yet Jesus does not rebuke the Samaritans who rejected Him but the disciples who wanted to seek revenge on the villagers.
How would you have done? How do you feel when you see the faith that you confess mocked and belittled? When you hear people refer to the Bible as a "book of fairytales" as some call it, are you able to simply ignore that and move forward like Jesus, or do you get angry like James and John?
Then you have a man who says that he would follow Jesus wherever He goes. Jesus responds by telling the man that the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. In other words Jesus makes it clear that pleasure would not be a part of His travels, and so thus neither would it be for His followers. After all Jesus was headed to the cross. He was clearly not overly concerned about His creature comforts. We don’t really know how this man responded, but would there have been any hesitation if he knew where Jesus was going, if he knew that Jesus was essentially walking straight on into His death?
So how do you stack up?? Would you have gone? Would you have been willing to follow Jesus wherever He went even if it meant not having a place to rest your head? When you leave to go on a trip, be it on a plane, a train, or a car, do you take a pillow with you? Could you give up your car or your cellphone or your television, or coffee for a month? Would you be willing to live without the certainty of a roof over your head for a month?
Finally Jesus sees two men, one to whom Jesus actually says, "Follow me" and another who says that he will follow Jesus. The first man responds to Jesus’ call by simply asking Jesus if he could go and bury his father. The second man puts a condition on his following Jesus when he says that he would like to say farewell to those at his home.
Jesus denies the request of the man who wanted to bury his father when He tells the man to let the dead bury their own dead, and that he should be concerned about proclaiming the kingdom of God. But what is so wrong with what this man asked to do? I mean he just wanted to go bury his father. One could make an argument that he was simply showing due obedience to the commandment to honor your father and mother. And yet, here is Jesus telling him to leave that behind, to let the dead bury their own.
But that is the radical nature of the call of discipleship. The claim that Christ Jesus makes on you takes priority over not just the worst of human relationships, but also those that we would consider to be the best. Jesus doesn’t even allow the other man who simply wanted to go say farewell to his family to do that. How would you have done? Would you have been able to leave it all behind to follow Jesus? Your family, your friends, your occupation.
Jesus essentially says at the end of today’s gospel lesson, that anyone who looks back instead of always looking forward is not fit for the Kingdom of God. The call to follow Jesus is a call to prioritize our faithfulness to Jesus over anything and everything that might get in the way of that. We are called to place our discipleship to Jesus as more important than family, professional and social obligations, anything.
Truth be told, we all fail to make the cut. Jesus says that no one who looks back on the past is fit for the Kingdom of God. Well that’s us. We are not fit for the kingdom of God, and we show it when we dwell on mistakes of the past or hold grudges or when we look back with probably delusional fondness at "the good old days." We frequently place our desires for luxury and creature comforts over our call to discipleship and thus show that we are unfit for the kingdom of God.
But praise be to God, in the midst of all that was distracting the disciples and the would-be disciples, Jesus kept His focus. He continued forward without looking back. He kept His face set toward Jerusalem, and the cross, where He bore the penalty for your sin.
When Jesus tells you not to look to the past, He is not speaking merely of the events of your past but of who you once were. In the third chapter of Philippians Paul writes of how none of us should have any confidence in the works of the flesh. And he says that if anyone has any reason to be confident in works of the flesh, it’s him; Paul. Looking back on his days as a Pharisee, he describes himself as being a Hebrew of Hebrews and faultless when it came to legalistic righteousness.
But he now considers all of that loss for the sake of Christ Jesus. He considers every aspect of his past life of seeking righteousness through the law as rubbish when compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord for whom Paul has lost all things. He seeks a righteousness that comes not of his own which comes from the law, but an imputed righteousness that comes purely through faith in Christ.
See it’s not just a matter of being called to not look to the past events of your life, but it’s a matter of having been freed from bondage to the past of who you once were. The past is bondage and death in the law and the flesh, the present and the future is liberty and life in Christ.
As Paul writes in our second lesson for today, it is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Later this week we will celebrate Independence Day and the freedom that we have as Americans, but the freedom that Paul speaks of here is much different and much more meaningful. Martin Luther says of the freedom we have in Christ Jesus that it frees us not from earthly bondage or tyranny but from God’s everlasting wrath. Luther refers to this as inestimable liberty and says that in comparison to this, civil and carnal liberty are both like a drop of water compared to the whole sea.
Paul writes in our second lesson that we are called to use our freedom in Christ not as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another and that the law is summed up in a single commandment; love your neighbor as yourself.
When we go after our own self-indulgent desires then we are not truly living in the freedom that has been given to us in Christ but rather, in the words of Martin Luther, we become "bondslaves of the devil." But when we take the focus off of ourselves and put it on our neighbor, proclaiming to them the good news of Christ Jesus in word and deed, then we live by the Spirit, and the Spirit gives life.
And how do we know if we are living by the Spirit? Again, Luther makes it simple. When we cleave unto Christ we are led by the Spirit and free from the law. As you do battle with the flesh and the law, you find victory not in your own efforts, but only through faith in the promise of forgiveness and redemption in Christ Jesus. Clinging to that promise, the law can not terrify, or accuse you or drive you to desperation. You are freed from God’s wrath. You no longer need to look back. You have been freed to keep looking forward and toward your neighbor whom you are called to love as yourself and be about the business of proclaiming the Kingdom of God with.
Amen.
posted by Steve at 7:09 PM
4 Comments:
I have to be honest, I really didn't like this one. I think you ended up, even though you placed it all in GOd's hands, into a call for discipleship on their part-that they have to do something, give up something, to follow Jesus.
Maybe I missed the point, but from reading it the first time, that's what I got from it.
Sorry
I think you're right. I think you missed the point. I tried to make it clear that this wasn't a call to works when I said this.
And how do we know if we are living by the Spirit? Again, Luther makes it simple. When we cleave unto Christ we are led by the Spirit and free from the law. As you do battle with the flesh and the law, you find victory not in your own efforts, but only through faith in the promise of forgiveness and redemption in Christ Jesus. Clinging to that promise, the law can not terrify, or accuse you or drive you to desperation. You are freed from God’s wrath.
Maybe it wasn't clear enough.
What I was responding to is that upon first reading, all I heard was law-you must, even with God's help. It's the same as if I was hearing it for the first time-that is all I could hear
I want you to look at the use of your language in the sermon. Yes, you give God glory and credit, but you still have a sense of "our part"-even if it is given power by God's grace. That is the essence of semi-Pelgaianism-that even though God does most of the work, even giving us the grace to turn to Him, God doesn't hinder our free will to do the final turning.
That is what I see in this sermon-underneath it, there is still a bit of free-will being called into play here. I know you did not intend it to be that may-but it is easy to fall into that.
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