Pentecost 2, Year B, 6/14/09
1 Sam. 15:34-16:13; Ps. 20; 2 Cor. 5:6-17; Mark
4:26-34
I listened to
He talked about being born
again…in the Nicodemus kind of way.
New birth, rebirth,
regeneration.
It’s a theme that we’re
hearing again this week.
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation:
everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
This is a beautiful passage
from Paul’s second letter to the church in
One that we could talk about
all day.
Because it has in it some
basic points of belief and understanding that can be hard for us to hold
together.
In the first part, Paul talks
about the reality that all of us must
appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense
for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.
Somehow we will be judged for
what we do.
On the other hand the love of Christ urges us on, because we
are convinced that one has died for all…
On the one hand Jesus has
died for us, for all.
And on the other hand all of
us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
Are we saved by faith because
of God’s love for us that is lived out in the life, death, and resurrection of
Jesus?
Or should we be keep a tally
sheet of the good and bad things we’ve done in hopes that the good outweighs
the bad in the end?
And let’s not forget that
Paul used that “fear of the Lord” phrase.
Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to
persuade others…
It’s no wonder that God can
seem unappealing sometimes.
Should we be frightened?
Should we be constantly
worried about the state of our salvation?
Even worse…should we be
worrying about our family and friend’s and neighbor’s salvation?
Now we’re getting into deep
water.
As we all know, we live in a
multi-cultural, multi-faith world.
One of the big questions that
is brought up to people who profess to be Christians has to do with Jesus
being, or not being, the only path to God and salvation.
It’s a Catch 22 kind of
question.
If you answer that there are
many paths to salvation not just Jesus it can raise a lot of questions about
what you actually believe is going on with the whole Jesus thing.
On the other hand if you
answer that Jesus is the only path to God and salvation you get the “well, what
kind of a loving God would send good people to hell just because they have
another belief”
It’s “why bother being a
Christian” versus “who would want to be a Christian”.
Aren’t you all glad I brought
this whole thing up?
Well, I’ll tell you why I am
bringing it up even though it seems a little risky.
I’m in a stage of life where
I’m thinking a lot about living a life that matters.
I’m trying to figure out and
rethink how to live a life that is gentler, sweeter, more loving, more full of
Jesus in a way that is lasting.
Like most of us, I get caught
up in the tyranny of the urgent.
All the things that have to
get done…or, I don’t know what will happen.
We won’t have an agenda for a
meeting, we’ll be wearing dirty underwear, we’ll go hungry?
I find myself pushing to the
bottom of the list over and over again things that I say matter to me.
When I’m in a really bad
spell of that it just doesn’t feel like I’m a new creation.
It doesn’t feel like
everything old has passed away.
It feels kind of exhausting
and broken.
It feel like I’m a crummy
Christian.
It is Bible passages like
this one from Paul today that I find encouragement from.
That may seem surprising
after all of the questions I just raised about judgment and the fear of the
Lord and Jesus being the way to God and salvation.
Let me start with the last
part.
Jesus is the way that I know
God.
Jesus is the only way to God
that I have to offer.
Am I the final authority on
what God is up to with all the people who have ever lived on this planet?
We can all be thankful that I
am not.
On the other hand I am not
apologetic that I am a Christian and that I have experienced the love of God
profoundly in my experience of Jesus.
I hope that I am always
respectful and kind to people of all beliefs.
And I will always offer Jesus
to anyone who asks why I believe in God.
Which brings us to that
phrase “the fear of the Lord”.
Not fear like frightened of a
scary, mean God.
Fear like awe and wonder and
a sense of accountability to a loving, merciful, and just God.
So I’ll paraphrase.
Therefore, knowing this awe of the Lord, we try to
persuade others, knowing that the Lord knows us and knows our hearts.
Having experienced a
powerful, transforming love…I am compelled to try to be persuasive about the
love of God in Christ.
Am I thumping a Bible on a
street corner or telling people they’re going to hell if they don’t believe
just like me?
Not so much.
But knowing that it matters
somehow, some way how I live my life…
I hear Paul telling us that
we must always be thinking about that.
There is a nuance in this
passage that points to us receiving judgment that is not proportional to our
good and evil deeds.
That nuance is fleshed out in
Paul’s idea of the love of Christ urging us on.
For the love of Christ urges us on…and he died for
all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him
who died and was raised for them.
We know that we aren’t
perfect.
But we are required as
Christians to ask ourselves…
How has our faith shaped and
transformed our everyday lives, our works if you will?
We know that we aren’t saved
by our works.
But we also hear that living
faith will be visible to others in our daily lives.
We are a new creation not
because of our goodness and will power.
We are a new creation because
Jesus lived out the love of God for all of us.
The more we can experience
that, the more we will find our choices grounded in the love of Jesus.
We are a new creation because
of Jesus.
We are becoming that new creation
as we let the awe and wonder of God’s love take us over.
That encourages me.
That helps me to get past
being frozen up with guilt.
That helps me to let go of
focusing on my own efforts.
Because what Jesus is really
after is for us to surrender to the new creation in us that is simply a gift of
love from God.
As we surrender that love
generates love.
And as we live no longer for
ourselves, but for Jesus, that is when our lives become persuasive to others.
One of the books I read on
vacation was from a favorite series of mine…The
#1 Ladies Detective Agency.
The latest book…Tea Time for the Traditionally Built…
has a little conversation in it between the main character, Precious, and her
Anglican priest.
She has been worrying about
whether or not, and when, the sun might swallow up the earth and end
everything.
The priest answers her by
saying that it probably was not going to happen in the near future and not to
worry about it.
Precious remembers the
conversation vividly because of what he said next.
Think about what is happening
right now, he said.
There is plenty of work for love to do.
She was quite taken by that
thought and so am I.
It reminded me so strongly of
the trap of getting caught up in the worry, and the urgency, of things that we
cannot control.
Which is pretty much
everything when you really think about it.
So instead of worrying or
feeling guilty about not being even close to perfect.
This is something to think on
instead…there is plenty of work for love to do.
Gentle, small, everyday
things that are persuasive to others.
Love has saved us.
And love has made us a new
creation.
That love inside of us is
like the seed, like the mustard seed.
The seed is planted and
grows, not by our effort, but because seeds that God plants grow.
And, Jesus, tells us, the
smallest of all seeds can mysteriously and miraculously grow into the biggest
of plants.
A home for the birds and a
place of shade and protection.
If we want our lives to
matter we must surrender to the love planted in us, to the new creation Jesus has
made of us.
To shed the illusion of
control, to say no the tyranny of the urgent.
Life lived for Jesus can be
gentler, sweeter…it is life that matters.
For the love of Christ urges us on…he died for all, so
that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died
and was raised for them.
This is our reminder…
There is plenty of work for
love to do.
And that is life that
matters.