Sermon 052409
Every now and then, you hear about someone who makes a lasting tribute to a loved one. Jack Benny comes to mind. He made arrangements that upon his death, flowers would be sent to his wife every day for the rest of her life. Makes the rest of us look bad, I know! Sometimes however, memorial messages aren’t so intentional. I love the story of the man who sent his wife a text message after checking into his Florida hotel on a business trip. She was going to meet him there the next day, but he died shortly after checking in so she never went. As it happens with text messages, every now and then one will get lost in the system and show up days, or even months later. His showed up the day after his funeral. It was short and to the point: “Honey, it’s been a long journey, and I am finally all checked in here. I am so excited that you will be joining me soon; I can’t wait to see you. P.S. – It’s really hot here.” Not the message he would have sent if he had known the circumstances!
In John 17, we find a message from Jesus in a powerful prayer he prays to God the Father. First off Jesus prays for himself, then for the disciples, and then continues on to pray for all those whom the Gospel will reach (you and I are in there!). And unlike the text message from Florida, Jesus knows his circumstances. He knows what’s coming very shortly. In fact, John tells us that immediately after this prayer Jesus crosses the Kidron Valley with the disciples, and goes to the olive grove where he is arrested. So we can’t miss the impact of this prayer. Not only is it Jesus prayer for you, it is his prayer that the disciples and those who follow will carry on His mission of Salvation after he ascends into heaven.
This is our prayer too for our time today: That we would be encouraged in our faith that the midst of a harsh and hostile world, we too would carry out Christ’s mission of salvation as we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. I hate to use those words, harsh and hostile, but there isn’t really any way to make it softer. Jesus himself uses plain language in telling us what life on this spinning globe is like for Christians: the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Jesus was about to experience the full hatred of the world in less than 48 hours as he was going to die on the cross for the sins of the world. He paid sin’s full and horrible penalty for us, but it seems there is still plenty of hatred to go around.
You know it, you read about it all the time, you see it on TV; you listen to it on the radio. Much of the world is full of hatred. And much of this hatred is directed at God and those who follow him. It’s fun to try and humiliate Christians. It’s cool to try and poke holes in faith. I know people who are afraid to share their faith at work because they will be treated differently. There are atheist groups who take out ads attacking faith. They have even started calling themselves the “Brights,” as to imply that those of us who believe in God are the “Not-so-brights.” It’s pretty clear that the life of a Christian isn’t supposed to be easy in the short term. Jesus knew hatred, his disciples knew hatred, and frankly all those who follow Jesus will come to know it as well. In our country we actually have it pretty easy in this regard, but it’s there all the same.
So what’s the answer? A few years ago, I realize that my mom gave me a gift. A gift I didn’t want, namely a kind of claustrophobia mixed with a dash of agoraphobia. It means that if I’m in a big crowd and things get a little tight, I start to shut down and look for an exit. I know what you are thinking, “what a great quality for a pastor to have!” I almost made it all the way through my 20’s without suffering from it, but then Anne and I went to a Greek festival in Texas. It was fine at first. I was standing next to Anne and our friends casually talking and then suddenly a Greek band began to play and some Greek dances ran out and began twirling around and around. The crowd lurched forward and here I was being squeezed in from the back and in front people I didn’t know spinning, and spinning, and spinning in front of me. I couldn’t take it. I looked at Anne and said, I am going to go sit down outside, you stay here with everyone as long as you like. Anne found me sitting on a curb breathing in deeply the humid summer air. I told her I was fine. And I truly was, it felt wonderful just to sit and be out of the crowd, and relax.
I mention this because sometimes I find that I would like a way out of the struggles of living out my faith. When Jesus says that the world will hate Christians, my first thought is, “OK then, get us out of here!” I mean wouldn’t that be great? If we could just go and sit out on the curb instead of being in the midst of the fight! But according to Christ, that isn’t the game plan for you at all. In fact, it’s just the opposite: As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. Sitting on the sidelines isn’t what Christ prayed for concerning the disciples, or you and me for that matter: I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. God won’t have us sit this one out. He makes no promise that things will go easy for us. But he does promise to protect us from the evil one. So we are forgiven, given hope in the resurrection, and we are wrapped up in God’s love in the Holy Spirit. And we are called to get up off the curb!
Which leads to the next question, how are we to respond to all this hatred around us? The answer is that we are to fight back, and to fight hard! But our weapon isn’t more hatred, our weapon is love. That’s right, love. Jesus is pretty explicit in telling us the harsh truth that the world hates him. The world wants nothing to do with God, or the idea that there is a truth out there, that there is a judge out there, that there is a God who demands accountability. So we see it time and time again, it’s nothing new, there is rebellion, and insult, and rejection of the Creator of the Universe. And how does God answer all this? We read about it in that famous verse John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son.” To a world dead set against him, God sent his own Son to die. To a world that forsakes him, Christ dies to win forgiveness of sins. To a world that rejects him, God never stops calling, “come unto me and I will give you life.” God responds to hatred with love.
And before we jump into saying how much they out there don’t deserve it, we have to start with the person we see in the mirror every morning. For as obvious as it is that the world out there needs to change, it is every bit as clear that each of us needs to change as well. We don’t have to look past our own hearts to find rebellion against God, we don’t have to look beyond our own lips to hear hateful words, we don’t have to look past our own lives to find sin! It’s so much easier when all this is someone else’s problem. But it isn’t just someone else’s problem. It’s your problem and my problem.
Jesus says in his prayer: They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. But too often I find in my own life, I act like I am of the world. There are times when if I were to be convicted of being a Christian, it would be hard to find the evidence needed to make the conviction stick. I am sure you can think of countless examples of the same in your life. So how is it that God expects us to go out into the world and make a difference? The answer is the same now as it was when Jesus first spoke this prayer. God does not send us out alone, or under only our own power. Jesus prays these words which we need to have seared in our minds: Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
What is Jesus asking when he asks that we would be sanctified? It means that we would be set apart by God for a purpose. That God would make us holy for a holy mission. And we are. God makes us Holy through the Holy Spirit’s activity in our life in Word and Sacrament. The Holy Spirit points us to the truth, that Christ died for our sins, that He rose from the dead, and that he is always present and active in our lives. Us being ready to share the love of Christ isn’t about us or what we can do. It’s all about God, and what He can do through you!
Christ changes you, and who you are, and how your story will end. And he then uses you, SANCTIFIES you, to be his agent of change to the world around you. Our mission is to continue on in the work that Jesus started. (Oh is that all!). I know it sounds like a huge task, and it is. It sounds like too much for us, and it is. But it’s not too big for God. It’s not too big for the cross. It’s not too big for the empty tomb. It’s not too big for those who have been redeemed in Christ’s blood. Often times, this fighting hatred with love takes some very simple forms. We fight with love in the little gestures of concern we share with our friends and co-workers. We fight this battle in love when we listen to those who are hurting, when we share our faith, when we serve others. We are God’s and he will use and continues to use us.
He uses us to be light in the midst of a dark world. He uses us to be the call of love in a world drowning in hatred. He uses us to be the truth of His grace in a world which knows no hope. As we celebrate this Memorial Day weekend, we are reminded of just how hellish this world can be. I thank God for the men and women of our armed forces, and I also look forward to the coming of the Lord, the day when we no longer need a military, or weapons, or warfare. And yet, even as men and women are sent into the worst of what this world has to offer, we see the love of Christ shining through.
There is a picture in your bulletin insert that I want you to take a look at (http://www.snopes.com/photos/military/gebhardt.asp). A friend of mine sent me this picture earlier this week and I found myself going back to look at it over and over again. The man in the picture is Air Force Chief Master Sgt. John Gebhardt, superintendent of the 22nd Wing Medical Group in Iraq. He had seen the horrors of war first hand, and this little girl that he is holding was no exception. Her parents were brutally murdered by insurgents as were many of her siblings. She was shot in the head and left for dead until she was rushed to surgery by American Military Personnel.
She made it through the surgery, but left with no family and with terrible pain; she would cry out in pain and could not sleep. John had the magic touch though. And so he would work his full day and then come to the hospital at night and sleep that chair holding her so she would get the rest she needed to heal. And thankfully she is healing well. John said he thought of his own children when he held her, and he prays for the Iraqi children.
I included this picture because it serves as a great reminder of how Christians answer the call to live out their faith even in the midst of the horror of life in a sinful and fallen world. But there is another message for us in this picture as well. I know how often I have failed in my life, how often I have sinned, how often I have fallen short of my high calling to be a follower of Christ. So often I am not the strong helper in the picture, but I am like that little Girl. Sick, and weak, and helpless. And in this picture I also see how my Heavenly Father holds me, and heals me. I see the love of God who knows my weakness and yet still dies for my sins, and rises from the dead to give me eternal hope. I see the love of my God who will never let go of me, even in the darkest moments of my life.
It is God who loves us even at our worst. And it is this grace of God that strengthens us to do the best of things at the worst of times. Because of the cross we are not of the world, but while we are in it, we have a job to do. To be the picture of the love of God that shines above the hatred of the world. It’s what Jesus meant when he said:
As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
AMEN
