2nd Sunday after
Pentecost /
Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28;
Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-28, Matthew 7:21-29
Rev. Gayle M. Highness
Choices
of the
Well! What a big day this is for you
five Confirmands! You made it! You met the requirements and now here you are,
ready to publicly confess your faith and affirm your Baptism. And once you’ve
accomplished that, well, I guess you’re in!
You’re going to heaven for sure!
Is that what this is about? I don’t think so!
Just listen to what Jesus said at the
end of his Sermon on the Mount, in the portion of the gospel of Matthew we just
heard: “Not everyone who says to me,
‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”
So I guess that standing here and
professing your faith in the Lord according to some ritual of the church isn’t
enough. It sounds like you have to do more. You have to do the Father’s will.
Well, what is that? What is the
Father’s will? Is it the Ten Commandments? It said in the first reading that
God would give a blessing if you obey the commandments and a curse if you
don’t.
So … you know the Ten Commandments
-- no other gods, not taking the Lord’s name in vain, keeping the Sabbath,
honoring mother and father, not killing or committing adultery or stealing or lying
or coveting. So … if you keep all those, you’ll be good enough to go to heaven
I guess.
But, of course, it’s pretty hard to
do that. What if you got mad at your
parents one day and smarted off to them? What if your friend got a new bike that
was really cool and you felt jealous? What if you skipped church one day when
you were just too tired to get up? How good and obedient do you really have to
be to earn God’s blessing or enter God’s kingdom?
You see the dilemma? It is impossible to keep God’s law perfectly.
At some point, no matter how hard you try, you are going to mess up! No matter
if you appear to do all the right things, go to church, get confirmed, call God
‘Lord, Lord’, you’re still NEVER going to do everything right and not sin.
Well, “Praise the Lord,” that’s NOT
how it works. The passage from Romans that we heard today includes this verse: “Since all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by
his blood, effective through faith.”
THAT’S the good news! That’s the gospel that Paul says he is not
ashamed of – the gospel that is the POWER of GOD for everyone who has faith.
The BAD news is that we are sinners
separated from God. The good news is that God has made a way for us to come
back to Him where we belong. It doesn’t depend on being good enough – it
doesn’t depend on keeping the commandments or going to church or being confirmed
or even being baptized. The work of salvation has ALREADY been done for you.
God declares us innocent even though
we’re guilty because Jesus paid the price. The question is: Do you believe
that? Do you want it? Do you accept it? Can you admit that your own efforts to
get to heaven are futile, and accept the free pass God has given you in Christ?
By your actions today, you are
saying, “Yes. I do believe. I do accept.” The ironic thing is, it’s not the act
of standing here and saying so that GETS you in. It’s the act of Jesus on the
cross that does it. That good news – that Jesus died for your salvation – is
being placed before you on a silver platter. It becomes effective in you when
you believe it’s true.
A lot of times people will ask questions
like, “What about the ones who never HEAR the gospel? What about people who do
hear the good news and are even Baptized but don’t really believe it? What
about people who never go to church, but who are the best people you could ever
meet? What about people who never
Those questions are all irrelevant
to your salvation. The only question
that matters for you is, do YOU believe? And you are saying that you do. And so
I am telling you, your sins are forgiven and you are made right with God by
your faith in God’s promise.
That promise of God that you are forgiven
and made whole in Jesus is solid – absolutely unshakable. It is and always will
be true. That WORD of God – that good news – is the solid rock which becomes
the foundation for our lives.
So what does that mean for the way
you live here and now? A lot of times
people will ask questions like this: “Was I really saved when I was baptized?
And if I was, do I really have to do all this other stuff? If I’m saved, why do I have to go to church
and be good?”
Well, just because you’re saved by
God’s grace through faith doesn’t take away the hundreds of choices you have to
make every minute of every day in this earthly life. You have to make choices
about how to spend your time and your money and your energy, and how to use
your abilities and the resources God has put at your disposal.
When you KNOW that you are a child
of God, loved and forgiven, and when you RECEIVE God’s gracious love, you enter
into a RELATIONSHIP with God. And when you are in a relationship with God, it
flows from there that you would want to make the choices that would please God
and keep you within the light of God’s holy presence.
It is within our power to turn from
that path – to ignore our relationship with God. It is within our power to choose to make ourselves the center of our universe or
to make someone or something else the center. In fact, as flesh and blood human
beings, it is in our nature to turn away from God.
It is only by God’s grace and the
Holy Spirit that we are able to turn TOWARD God. God
has given us means to receive the Holy Spirit. Those means are Baptism, the
Word of God, the Lord’s Supper and the fellowship of other believers who share
in God’s life.
We NEED these things in order to nurture
the life of God within us – to stay connected with God so that we are acting
and responding and living from our life in Christ and not being driven by the
desires of our flesh.
This is why it’s so important and
necessary to OBEY God’s commands, which is the same thing as saying, to ACT on
God’s word – to live as the children of God that we are.
God’s promise to forgive and restore
us is unconditional – rock solid. But if we live our lives without any regard
for God’s will in our daily choices, we are building on sand and we will fall.
Our Spirits will hunger and thirst and wither within us, and we will know that
something is wrong. God will be tugging
at our heartstrings, by the Holy Spirit, sending us the Word that reminds us that
God is waiting to welcome us back with open arms.
On the other hand, when we are
turned TOWARD God, God fills us with His Holy Spirit and our lives DO reflect
Christ. When we live in Christ there
will be evidence. It will show. It will not be your works that are saving you, it will be the you who is already saved, living
joyfully in the knowledge and certainty of that salvation – living a
grace-filled life abounding in the fruits of the Spirit.
This is why you need to keep coming
back here – or if not here, SOMEWHERE where you will hear the Gospel, which is
the power of God for salvation. You need to hear again and again that God loves
you and forgives you.
In fact, let me tell you again right
now. God loves you so much, Dane, that he gave his only son FOR YOU, Kathi, so
that believing in him, Chris, you may not perish, Brianne, but have eternal
life, Jacob. It has all been done for
each one of you, and for me, and for all of you here.
Choose that life. Live in that
certainty. Receive God’s blessing. Rejoice in the gift of God’s grace.
And may the peace of God which
passes all understanding, KEEP your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus all your
days. Amen.