Services will be sent on diskette or CD or as email attachments for your editing as desired and your printing -- formatted to your Word Processor and to fit on the four sides of a folded 8.5x14 sheet of paper.
Services will be sent on diskette or CD or as email attachments for your editing as desired and your printing -- formatted to your Word Processor and to fit on the four sides of a folded 8.5x14 sheet of paper.
Wounds
That Heal US . . .
Sermons for Midweek Lenten Devotions
By Dr. Roy Schoppa, Pastor of Faith Lutheran Church, Riverside, CA
3. . . . By Strengthening Us to Act
Responsibly. 2 Timothy 1:7
With so much negativity in the world, and so much negative
thought running loose in the church, we are sometimes inclined to think even of
our Christian discipleship as a negative thing. Christ has redeemed us from sin, death, and the power of the
devil, we declare – and when we say that we are Biblically correct. But that is not the end of our
declaration. In his explanation of the
Second Article of The Apostles’ Creed,
Martin Luther put it this way: “He has redeemed me so that I may be his own,
and live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness,
innocence, and blessedness, just as he is risen from the dead, lives and reigns
to all eternity.”
It comes across to me that both Paul, in the words of this
text written to young Timothy, and Luther in the explanation of the Second Article
of The Apostles Creed, are declaring
that our Lord Jesus has saved us not only from something, but also for
something. By his wounds we are
redeemed and saved to live eternally with him.
But also, in what might be called “the meanwhile”, while we are still on
this earth, we are called and empowered to live and act responsibly as
disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Long before it occurred, Isaiah caught the meaning
of that in the prophetic picture around which our Lenten Series is being
developed: “He was wounded for our transgression, he was bruised for our
iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his
stripes we are healed.”
Under the theme, “WOUNDS THAT HEAL”, we observed a week
ago that Jesus demonstrated in his own life that some aspects of healing come
when we accept that which we cannot change.
It’s not that he was encouraging a passive resignation to reality. He was encouraging us to commit ourselves
and those situations in life that cannot be changed to his care and
keeping -- knowing that “in all things God works for the good of
those who love him.” This evening we see that the saving healing
process that comes to us from his wounds empowers us to learn to take
functional responsibly for the living of our lives.
Christianity is a “responsible” religion. Jesus encourages his followers to
demonstrate a deep quality of trust in him, but he also calls us to a life of
personal responsibility. In the prayer
Jesus taught us we are to say, “Give us
this day our daily bread.” Yet none
of us understands that to mean that we are freed from all personal
responsibility for getting our daily bread.
We know that God works through our working at our jobs and
vocations to place that bread on our tables.
Yet, the fine art of ducking responsibility runs rampant
in our society, often also in our homes, and even in our churches. The practice of acting with something other
than a responsible attitude goes back to our first father, Adam. It was shortly after his fall into sin that
he vainly attempted to shift the responsibility for the whole mess away from
himself, ultimately onto, of all persons, God.
As a matter of fact, Adam had it all quite cleverly figured out. The rationale went something like this: “It was Eve,
my wife, who invited me to eat the fruit of which you said I should not eat, and
it was at
her suggestion that I ate it. So, I suppose,
she is really responsible for my fall into sin. But then, when you really get right down to it, she wouldn’t be
around except for the fact that you arranged for her to be here ---- So, God,
what do you have to say about that?”
With that Adam may have set the pattern, but we have been
polishing and refining the process ever since, and we have become rather good at
it. We are, any number of us, past
masters at the dubious art of being emotional leaners – that is, we shift
responsibility from ourselves to others.
No matter what it is that is broken, we blame someone else and look to
someone else to fix it.
This whole process begins early in us. It seems to happen quite naturally and, at
times, even grows out of what appears to be a necessity. As very young children we
naturally bring our skinned knees and elbows to our parents with the full and
reasonable expectation that they will respond by patching us up. We do the same with our broken toys and our
fractured hearts. So, early on, we
discover a way that works, a way that eases our distress and heals our hurts. For young children it is an acceptable way –
the only way in fact. The problem is,
some never seem to grow out of this mode of behavior. They remain emotional leaners all their lives, always in
desperate search of a “parent” to take care of them. That may be why some people get married. And it may be why they hang on to other
relationships. And that may well even
be why some people join a church. There
is something inside that can cause us to act out a type of dependency that robs
us of the freedom to function as whole, mature, responsible persons.
Having heard all of this, some may be quick to remind us
that before we talk too much against dependency and emotional leaning, we had
better recall that Jesus did in fact say, “Unless
you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of
heaven.” On the surface it does seem that Jesus was
encouraging a kind of childish dependency.
But when he said “You must become
like little children” he was trying to straighten out the thinking of his
disciples, who had engaged in a hot debate as to which one among them was the
greatest. It was to expose their
obvious immature, self-centered behavior that Jesus singled out a child. Jesus was calling attention to what
children, at their best, demonstrate so naturally, so joyfully, so
spontaneously: the capacity and
willingness to trust and to love.
Surely, by this time, if we have learned anything at all
in our walk of faith, it is that it takes strength to love; it takes mature
determination to love. And it takes a
great deal of effort to endure in love.
If we ever doubt that, all we need to do is walk with Jesus on his way
to the cross. Far from suggesting that
his disciples “keep on behaving childishly”, Jesus put that little child in
their midst to show them love and trust personified. “You want to talk about
greatness?” he said, in effect, “Then take a good look at this little child
with all of his attributes of trust, willingness to learn, eagerness to show
love. This is an example of greatness
in my kingdom!”
In no way did Jesus encourage his disciples to be
childish. That they knew
how to do already. He was aiming at
helping them grow up. He wanted them to
mature. He wanted to strengthen them to
live and serve responsibly. In words
spoken later by the Apostle Paul to young Timothy, Jesus wanted his disciples
to be able “to teach others and endure
hardship, like a good soldier.”
And this is what he wants from us, too. He wants to strengthen us so that we may
live and serve responsibly. That’s what
he did as our Suffering Servant. That’s
what he did in the Garden of Gethsemane, in the judgment hall, and on Calvary. He lived and served responsibly in
fulfilling the purpose for which he was born in Bethlehem. When the “living and serving” became
difficult to the point of his sweat being as drops of blood, he did not back
away from his commitment to acting responsibly, but prayed to his Father, “Not my will but Thine be done.”
Tonight, through the wounds of his nail-pierced hands and
feet, he comes to set us free from our sinful selves so that, by the power of
the Holy Spirit, we may experience renewal through his forgiveness and may
finally abandon our own will and way and put ourselves into his blessed
custody. That’s what saving faith moves
us to do. Instead of frantically
clinging to our old wills and habits; instead of frantically clinging to places
and people, as though these were the source of our survival; instead of
shirking our responsibilities as parents and spouses and children, we are
empowered by him who “was obedient even
to death on the cross … to endure hardship and self-discipline as good soldiers
of Jesus Christ.”
Jesus was wounded on Calvary as our Suffering Savior to
free you from sin, death, and the power of the Devil. Through his death and resurrection he gives you
the sure and certain hope of life eternal as by faith you come to him as your
one and only Savior and Lord. But
please know that this same Lord who is giving you "life in all of its abundance” has included in that giving
his empowering that lets you act responsibly in your daily living.
Far from being a negative religion that is just for a nebulous future, our faith in Christ offers us everything we need also for the here and now. Paul’s words to young Timothy apply also to you and me: “God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” By his wounds we truly have been healed!
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