Sermon, Sunday Feb 8 2009
Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
OK, you are really going to want to listen to me this morning. I mean, I always want you to listen to me, especially when I am preaching the Good news, but today I have something to tell you that very likely you have been wondering about for a long time. Maybe you have been taking different classes, reading different books, or just hoping that one day soon, maybe just maybe you would be able to figure this out. Well, worry no more, for today, through the words of my mouth, you are going to hear your purpose. You are going to hear the very reason why you are here in this old world.
Now, to do this of course we will go to God's Word. We will look to our Lord Jesus and see how things unfold in this morning's Gospel lesson, and in this, Christ Jesus will come to you once again and He will reveal to you, your purpose. And so we go to this morning’s lesson, and we see Jesus and the disciples, right on the heels of Jesus rescuing a man from an unclean spirit, which we read about in last week's Gospel lesson.
And now they enter into the home of Simon's mother-in-law who is in bed with a fever. Jesus takes her by the hand and the fever leaves her and upon receiving this good and miraculous gift of healing from Christ Jesus, she could do no other than to serve Jesus and the disciples.
And what we read next is very interesting, for it says that evening they brought to Jesus all who were sick or possessed with demons. The whole city was gathered around the door. He cured many diseases, cast our many demons, would not allow the demons to speak, because the demons knew His name, and Jesus knew that they would try to misuse His name just as the unclean spirit in the synagogue from last week's lesson tried to do.
And then it says in the morning Jesus leaves. Now what's interesting about that is that Jesus appears to have been doing these healings and casting out of demons all night. These people are brought to Him at sundown and we don't read about Him doing anything other than healing and casting out demons until morning, when He goes to a deserted place and prays. And then Jesus leaves even though He is told by Simon and the other disciples that everyone was searching for Him. These people are looking for Jesus, but He leaves.
He leaves so that He can go to the neighboring towns so that He can proclaim His message there also, for that is what He came to do. He had not come merely to heal the sick. He had not come merely to cast out demons. He came to proclaim His message. And how radical this message must have been for it to have taken precedence over healing the sick and casting away demons.
The disciples would have been just fine with sticking around town and continuing to blow people’s minds with the healings and the casting out of demons. For these were things that they could see. These were moments that they could touch. They could see and touch Simon’s mother-in-law after she had been healed. They could see and touch all those who had demons that had been cast out of them.
And the short-sightedness of the disciples is reflected and even continues today in your own short-sightedness. You are much more comfortable holding on to a temporary solution to a temporary problem that only has meaning in this temporary, broken and sin-filled world, than you are trusting an eternal promise that comes to you through a Word proclaimed to you that you hear through the proclamation of the Holy Spirit coming to you through the words of a sinful preacher.
Jesus’ promised return in glory sounds good, but you want something now, that you can see, taste touch and feel. And so you look to Jesus to give you your best life right now. But this is not what it means to be in Christ.
For this One who came healing and casting out demons, left because He has much bigger things in mind for His people. Christ Jesus does not come merely to renew your life or even merely to transform your life. He comes to give you new life. And it is new life that comes not through a new law or through better and improved moral precepts. It does not come through good advice. It comes through death.
For as surely as, in baptism you have been buried with Christ in a death like His, when He laid down His life for you, bearing all of your sin and death and weakness, you will be raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so that you too will walk in the newness of life. And it’s a newness of life that comes to you today, not by sight but by faith; by faith delivered to you through the preaching of God’s Word and the receiving of the sacraments.
And so your purpose, is simply this, to be free. For freedom, Christ has set you free. He has set you free from finding hope in things of this world. He has set you free from the bondage of having to live by sight, and freed you to live by faith. He has freed you to know that it is not in earthly power, wealth and splendor that His strength is revealed. No, quite to the contrary, His strength is made perfect in weakness. Paul tells us in 2nd Corinthians, no matter what the world throws at you, His grace is sufficient for you.
Your best efforts at adhering to the law do nothing to add to what Christ Jesus has already done for you. Christ Jesus has borne the burden of the law for you and any attempt to take that burden upon yourself is nothing other than attempting to reject the freedom which Christ Jesus has already won for you.
And so, in spite of your short-sightedness and your attempts to run from the purpose of freedom that you have been given, Christ Jesus continues to come to you bringing to you the same radical message, the same hope that He brought to those neighboring towns that He had set out for. And it is nothing other than the announcement of the arrival of His kingdom; the Kingdom that comes to you today not in anything of this world that you can see, for Christ Himself says that His kingdom is not of this broken, sinful world.
No, He brings you His Kingdom through a word and a promise that you hear and through which the Holy Spirit brings you faith. He brings you this faith, and nurtures and sustains this faith in you. And this is the kind of faith that frees you to look forward with real hope to a real future with real promise in a real Messiah and real Savior.
Hear the words of Isaiah from the first lesson, this One who frees you gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless. For it is not those who live in the burden of sight trying to find a Savior on their own terms that they can see and touch, but rather you who live in the freedom of faith, listening and hearing a word of promise and waiting for the Lord who renews your strength and who shall mount up with wings like eagles and run and not be weary and shall walk and not faint.
And so now, that you know that your purpose is to be free from the burden of sin, death, the devil and the law, what are you to do with your freedom? Well if we take Paul at his word in this weeks 2nd lesson then, in our freedom we are to make ourselves slaves to all, so that we might win more of them. But we also must remember what Paul says at the beginning of this week’s lesson “That if we proclaim the Gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the Gospel!”
In other words we have been freed to be slaves to the Gospel. We have been freed to go forth and continue to proclaim the radical message that Jesus set out to bring to those neighboring towns; the announcement of the coming near of His Kingdom, the announcement of the forgiveness of sin through Christ Jesus laying down His life for us, and the announcement of our salvation through His resurrection. And in this also, we live by faith and not by sight. Having been grasped by the Gospel and given saving faith in the Gospel through the Holy Spirit, you have been freed to go forth proclaiming the radical message of the Gospel, looking forward to the hope that lies in the future, not looking for visible signs but trusting the Word, trusting the Holy Spirit to create, nurture and sustain faith, and continue to free people for the very purpose of their freedom in the Gospel, the freedom for which Christ has set them free.
Amen
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
OK, you are really going to want to listen to me this morning. I mean, I always want you to listen to me, especially when I am preaching the Good news, but today I have something to tell you that very likely you have been wondering about for a long time. Maybe you have been taking different classes, reading different books, or just hoping that one day soon, maybe just maybe you would be able to figure this out. Well, worry no more, for today, through the words of my mouth, you are going to hear your purpose. You are going to hear the very reason why you are here in this old world.
Now, to do this of course we will go to God's Word. We will look to our Lord Jesus and see how things unfold in this morning's Gospel lesson, and in this, Christ Jesus will come to you once again and He will reveal to you, your purpose. And so we go to this morning’s lesson, and we see Jesus and the disciples, right on the heels of Jesus rescuing a man from an unclean spirit, which we read about in last week's Gospel lesson.
And now they enter into the home of Simon's mother-in-law who is in bed with a fever. Jesus takes her by the hand and the fever leaves her and upon receiving this good and miraculous gift of healing from Christ Jesus, she could do no other than to serve Jesus and the disciples.
And what we read next is very interesting, for it says that evening they brought to Jesus all who were sick or possessed with demons. The whole city was gathered around the door. He cured many diseases, cast our many demons, would not allow the demons to speak, because the demons knew His name, and Jesus knew that they would try to misuse His name just as the unclean spirit in the synagogue from last week's lesson tried to do.
And then it says in the morning Jesus leaves. Now what's interesting about that is that Jesus appears to have been doing these healings and casting out of demons all night. These people are brought to Him at sundown and we don't read about Him doing anything other than healing and casting out demons until morning, when He goes to a deserted place and prays. And then Jesus leaves even though He is told by Simon and the other disciples that everyone was searching for Him. These people are looking for Jesus, but He leaves.
He leaves so that He can go to the neighboring towns so that He can proclaim His message there also, for that is what He came to do. He had not come merely to heal the sick. He had not come merely to cast out demons. He came to proclaim His message. And how radical this message must have been for it to have taken precedence over healing the sick and casting away demons.
The disciples would have been just fine with sticking around town and continuing to blow people’s minds with the healings and the casting out of demons. For these were things that they could see. These were moments that they could touch. They could see and touch Simon’s mother-in-law after she had been healed. They could see and touch all those who had demons that had been cast out of them.
And the short-sightedness of the disciples is reflected and even continues today in your own short-sightedness. You are much more comfortable holding on to a temporary solution to a temporary problem that only has meaning in this temporary, broken and sin-filled world, than you are trusting an eternal promise that comes to you through a Word proclaimed to you that you hear through the proclamation of the Holy Spirit coming to you through the words of a sinful preacher.
Jesus’ promised return in glory sounds good, but you want something now, that you can see, taste touch and feel. And so you look to Jesus to give you your best life right now. But this is not what it means to be in Christ.
For this One who came healing and casting out demons, left because He has much bigger things in mind for His people. Christ Jesus does not come merely to renew your life or even merely to transform your life. He comes to give you new life. And it is new life that comes not through a new law or through better and improved moral precepts. It does not come through good advice. It comes through death.
For as surely as, in baptism you have been buried with Christ in a death like His, when He laid down His life for you, bearing all of your sin and death and weakness, you will be raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so that you too will walk in the newness of life. And it’s a newness of life that comes to you today, not by sight but by faith; by faith delivered to you through the preaching of God’s Word and the receiving of the sacraments.
And so your purpose, is simply this, to be free. For freedom, Christ has set you free. He has set you free from finding hope in things of this world. He has set you free from the bondage of having to live by sight, and freed you to live by faith. He has freed you to know that it is not in earthly power, wealth and splendor that His strength is revealed. No, quite to the contrary, His strength is made perfect in weakness. Paul tells us in 2nd Corinthians, no matter what the world throws at you, His grace is sufficient for you.
Your best efforts at adhering to the law do nothing to add to what Christ Jesus has already done for you. Christ Jesus has borne the burden of the law for you and any attempt to take that burden upon yourself is nothing other than attempting to reject the freedom which Christ Jesus has already won for you.
And so, in spite of your short-sightedness and your attempts to run from the purpose of freedom that you have been given, Christ Jesus continues to come to you bringing to you the same radical message, the same hope that He brought to those neighboring towns that He had set out for. And it is nothing other than the announcement of the arrival of His kingdom; the Kingdom that comes to you today not in anything of this world that you can see, for Christ Himself says that His kingdom is not of this broken, sinful world.
No, He brings you His Kingdom through a word and a promise that you hear and through which the Holy Spirit brings you faith. He brings you this faith, and nurtures and sustains this faith in you. And this is the kind of faith that frees you to look forward with real hope to a real future with real promise in a real Messiah and real Savior.
Hear the words of Isaiah from the first lesson, this One who frees you gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless. For it is not those who live in the burden of sight trying to find a Savior on their own terms that they can see and touch, but rather you who live in the freedom of faith, listening and hearing a word of promise and waiting for the Lord who renews your strength and who shall mount up with wings like eagles and run and not be weary and shall walk and not faint.
And so now, that you know that your purpose is to be free from the burden of sin, death, the devil and the law, what are you to do with your freedom? Well if we take Paul at his word in this weeks 2nd lesson then, in our freedom we are to make ourselves slaves to all, so that we might win more of them. But we also must remember what Paul says at the beginning of this week’s lesson “That if we proclaim the Gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the Gospel!”
In other words we have been freed to be slaves to the Gospel. We have been freed to go forth and continue to proclaim the radical message that Jesus set out to bring to those neighboring towns; the announcement of the coming near of His Kingdom, the announcement of the forgiveness of sin through Christ Jesus laying down His life for us, and the announcement of our salvation through His resurrection. And in this also, we live by faith and not by sight. Having been grasped by the Gospel and given saving faith in the Gospel through the Holy Spirit, you have been freed to go forth proclaiming the radical message of the Gospel, looking forward to the hope that lies in the future, not looking for visible signs but trusting the Word, trusting the Holy Spirit to create, nurture and sustain faith, and continue to free people for the very purpose of their freedom in the Gospel, the freedom for which Christ has set them free.
Amen
posted by Steve at 5:20 PM
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