In Jesus Holy Name May 28, 2006
Text: John 17:11, 14-21 Redeemer
“Power of Attorney-Given by Jesus’”
A few years ago Colleen and I were asked to take care of her aunt. We were given “Power of Attorney” to transact her business for her. When you are preparing your own “Trust” you will have to choose someone to whom you give “Power of Attorney.”
This legal document enables a person, whom you trust, to buy, sell, make investments, and give tithes and donations in your name, according to your instructions. While the hand writing on the check belongs to another, the bank expects you to be responsible to cover the amount.
Think of the level of trust required to invest another person with your assets to carry out your business in your name.
In our text for today Jesus is investing us with Divine Power of Attorney to transact his earthly business. We are to bless, serve, forgive, and tell others about God’s love and his offer of eternal life beyond the grave. We are to tell others about Jesus, his sacrificial death on the cross which establishes peace with God by faith.
This morning we have participated in the Baptism event.
What did we see and hear? We saw two parents bring a child to be baptized. We heard them make a promise to God. We saw water poured. As a community we made them a verbal promise. We promised to support them in the task of parenting.
God created a new human being from the combined genetics of Erik and Julie. This is a new human being, not a reincarnation of another.
Today, God gave Erik and Julie “Power of Attorney” to bless, to serve, and to teach this child right from wrong. They are to teach their child to pray, they and he will learn to practice forgiveness. They are to provide their child with self esteem, and the knowledge of God’s love through Jesus. They will teach their child not to be selfish but to love. They will help their child connect to the one who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, Jesus.
They are to do this in a culture and a world that is different than the one we grew up in. And it is different from the one our parents grew up in. Kids today have never heard of “Blue Laws”, but they have seen the “Blue Men” in Las Vegas.
We live in a culture that “out sources and replaces”. We experience deployment and unemployment, downsizing while others are sizing up. We live in a culture that talks about high fat, and low fat, carbs and low sugar foods and drinks.
They will raise this child in a culture that tries to tell us that “truth” is no longer an absolute, but objective and subjective to the eye of the beholder, “where everyone does what is right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17:6)
We now live in a Post Christian Era. Here’s an example: In 1996 at a Cocktail party in South Carolina the discussion turned to religion. Someone asked what “born again” meant. The response… “Oh, that’s something Jimmy Carter started when he was in the White House.” The lone Christian in the crowd tried to explain, “No, born again was something Jesus started when he said, “You must be born again.” But no one listened.”
When I was a kid in the 1950’s when someone called a city Sodom and Gomorrah you know what it meant. Today you have to program your computer’s spell check in Windows 95 because it does not know the names of the books of the bible, nor recognize biblical names.
The Christian faith was never universal in US America, but there was a broad consensus that our national culture should rest on a Christian world view. Now religious plurality is the dominate feature of life in the US and we have pensioned off from imagination things like hell, Satan, guild and grace.
Science has replaced religion as the basis of social morality, but it lacks ethical guidelines, with no answers for what is right or wrong behavior.
On a “60 Minutes” interview the other night Mike Wallace asked Ophrah: “Do you believe in God? With a big smile she said, “Yes, I pray to her often.”
Pop singer Gloria Estafan says that “organized religion is detrimental to the spirit “and inhibits spirituality. But she prays daily and testifies that “we are all part of God.”
My question… If we are all part of God…to whom is she praying…and does she expect and answer?
We are in “beeper bondage”. We are becoming enslaved to electronic technology, but 26 million veterans just discovered, their personal identity was stolen. Today even the grave is not saving some from identity thieft.
It took 40 years for radio to reach 50 million domestic users. It took 14 years for television to do the same. It took only 4 years for the Internet to reach 50 million users. The Internet was hardly a blip on people’s knowledge radar in 1990, today it is the #1 means of moving information world wide…immediately.
Like it or not…God has chosen us to live in this time, in this culture…. And he prayed; “Father, my prayer is not that you take them out of this world, but that you protect them from the evil one….Your word is truth….as you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world….and the world has hated them because of your word.” (John 17:15,17)
The Post Modern world where we now live does demonstrate hostility to the Christian faith. But people in our world are extremely open to Jesus Christ, and his claims that he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Today if you and I want to witness to our faith and if we begin with the words…”I’m a Christian”, chances are the person leans away from us.
Here’s good advice… When the topic of religion comes up, and it usually does…. Begin your conversation, your witness by saying…”I’m a disciple of Jesus”. Chances are people will lean in and want to hear more.
Let’s try this. I’ll ask you a question and you answer. Are you a Lutheran? _________ Wrong answer.
“I am a disciple of Jesus”. Let’s try another. Are you a Christian? ________ Again wrong answer. Answer it this way. “I am a disciple of Jesus.”
Now think about words…. That people hear. Is there a difference when someone says “I’m a Christian” or “I’m a disciple of Jesus, and I’m learning to practice my discipleship with the people at Redeemer Lutheran Church.
Some of the hostility towards the Christians we have caused ourselves by being “mean spirited” and “uncompassionate.” Mark Twain, announced after spending a lot of time with some “good people” he could understand why Jesus preferred to spend time with tax collectors and sinners.”
The U.S. not the 3rd largest mission field in the world behind China and India. Too few believers have relationships and friendships with non believers.
Into this time in which God has placed us comes the Big Screen movies: “The Passion of the Christ” all in Aramaic with sub titles. Now we have Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code with its message that deconstructs the deity of Jesus, implying that Jesus fathered children with Mary Magdalene.
The Da Vinci Code implies that:
• Christians don’t have the real story of Jesus
• The genuine spiritual facts are guarded by secret societies
• Priceless works of classical art reveal hidden messages for those who have special knowledge to decipher them
• That Jesus isn’t really God in flesh, but his wife Mary Magdalene should be worshiped as a “goddess”.
• And the Church has conspired for 2000 years to suppress the truth.
If that does not concern you, you have not been paying attention.
Jesus has given us “Divine Power of Attorney” by entrusting us with the Word of God. God offers absolute assurance of eternal life beyond the grave in heaven by faith in Jesus. For God chose to restore our lost friendship by covering our sins on the cross of Jesus. For God made Jesus who had not sin to be sin for us so that he could give us the righteousness of Jesus and thus bring “peace to our hearts” which is what the “spiritual search is all about.” (Romans 5:1; Colossians 2:14)
So, how do we engage people in a quest for truth? I hope your friends go see the Da Vinci Code and you and ask them what they thought. When religion comes us this week a work will you say: “I’m a Christian?” or “I’m a disciple of Jesus.”
Our mission statement is correct…as we seek to “connect people to Jesus and to one another.”
God is already at work in your unchurched, non Christian, but God believing friends. Your role is to imitate Jesus. Your role is to serve and care for those in need. Your role is to help them see what God is doing in their lives calling them, and offering answers to their spiritual quest.
As a disciple of Jesus we need to display a distinctive quality of lifestyle and resist pagan ways of living life.
Do you know the motto of the Marriott hotels?
“Every guest leaves satisfied.”
Do you know what the motto should be over every church door? “Every worshiper leaves welcomed.”
Your future is a function of your present choices. Connect yourself to the person of Jesus, experience peace with God and assurance regarding your eternal address.
