Sermon preached on July 15, 2018, at St. Philip Lutheran Church, Raleigh, NC
Readings: Amos 7:7-15, Psalm 85:8-13, Ephesians 1:3-14, Mark 6:14-29
The beautiful passage from Ephesians that we heard earlier is sandwiched between a poignant Word of the Lord from the prophet Amos and the detailed account of the beheading of John, the baptizer.
Both passages reveal the enormity of human brokenness and its consequences. We need to look at them before we can fully grasp the powerful good news that comes to us in Paul’s letter.
The prophet Amos is given three visions from God about the judgment that God is about to enact against the Northern Kingdom of Israel. He travels from his home in the Southern Kingdom to Bethel and meets the king’s court prophet Amaziah. Amos shares that in the 3rdvision, which we heard today, God sets a religious and ethical plumb line amid the kingdom of Israel as a reference point to determine their faithfulness. The plumb line revealed that the people were not upright, that they failed to measure up. Amidst all the prosperity in the Kingdom, the people have forgotten God’s command to care for the poor, the defenseless, and the little ones of the world. Amos says that the law courts only serve the rich. Wealthy merchants are concerned only with their profit and so they exploit the poor, all of this, and more showed the lack of faithfulness across the kingdom and this lack of faithfulness led to God’s judgment and ultimately the destruction of the Northern Kingdom at the hands of the Assyrians.
The account of the beheading of John, known to us as John the Baptist, he is the prophet who pointed to Jesus, is nothing but disturbing. Religion and politics meet when John, citing Levitical law, spoke against King Herod’s wedding to his brother’s wife Herodias. We’re told that Herod was intrigued by the preaching of John but Herodius was angered and demanded that John is arrested. At Herod’s birthday dinner, Herod and his guests enjoy drinks and a dance by the daughter of Herodias. Herod was so pleased that he promised her anything she wanted, up to half of his kingdom. After consulting with her mother, she asks for John’s head on a platter and Herod complies.
Herod could have made a different choice, but power, prestige, and self-importance had replaced God in his life. Though he liked to listen to John and considered him to be a righteous and holy man, he would not risk his reputation and the respect of the people to spare John’s life.
Both the prophet Amos and the prophet John confronted the leaders of their day about their lack of faithfulness, they named the ways that the leaders failed to love God and love their neighbors, they held the leaders responsible for the ways that they led their people away from God’s command of compassion and justice. They called them to return to the Lord.
And they were rejected, Amos was sent away and John was killed.
We know that Jesus faced the same challenges. He followed in the footsteps of the prophets before him and spoke truth to the powerful. He confronted the leaders of his day about their lack of faithfulness and called them to return to the Lord. And, like Amos and John, he was sent away, rejected, arrested, sentenced to death, and then crucified.
Oh my.
I suspect that by now, you’re ready for some good news. I certainly am!
Thank goodness that between these difficult readings, we get the glorious celebration of God’s gracious love in Paul’s letter.
After being confronted by the brokenness of humanity which leads to a lack of faithfulness, leads to separation from God and from each other, we need to form the of the enormous love that God has for us.
Love that doesn’t depend on us, love that doesn’t depend on our faithfulness!
The 11 verses of Ephesians are one long sentence, of over 200 words, in the original Greek. In these 11 verses Paul takes us from eternity to eternity, to reveal what God is up to in the past, present and future, Paul helps us see the cosmic dimensions of God’s work of salvation.
Paul begins this letter by praising God, praising God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ because “in Christ” we have received every spiritual blessing.
Blessings that are not dependent on us, blessings that are not determined by our faithfulness. Rather these are blessings that are the result of God’s love made known to us in Christ, through Christ.
- In Christ God chose us…
- In Christ God loved us…
- In Christ God saved us…
- In Christ God adopted us…
Chosen, loved, saved, adopted – these four words name the spiritual blessings of God and describe how God interacts with us, both when our hearts and wills are aligned with God’s, when our spiritual practices shape our lives, and when we forget who we are and whose we are, when we lose our way and pursue our own wants, when we try really hard to live faithfully but stumble and fall instead. In these times and in every time, God chooses us, God chooses to love us and save us and adopt us as God’s own.
God chose us at the beginning of time, before the world was created, before God created one wave of light and one drop of water, God chose us.
And because God chose us, our relationship with God doesn’t depend on the strength of our decision, the state of our faithfulness, or the goodness of our lives. God chose us, because, it was, it is, God’s good pleasure and will to be for us, in other words: to love us…
To love us when we simply can’t or won’t live faithfully. To love us when all is going well in our lives and to love us when we can’t seem to get anything right. To love us when we are using our gifts and skills to the fullest of our abilities and to love us when we don’t want to, don’t have time to, or don’t even notice the ways that we can be engaged in the life of the world.
In the times of deep faith and in the times of consuming doubt, and all the times in between, God loves us. God doesn’t wait for us to be holy and blameless before loving us. Instead, God loves us first. and in God’s loving hands, we are shaped into the people God wants us to be.
At the beginning of time, God chose us and in the middle of time God saved us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ, who is God with us, God who comes near to us, who limits himself and gives himself to achieve the choosing, loving, saving and adopting that the Father wants.
In this human being – limited in space and time and even knowledge, a human being who hungers and thirsts, laughs and cries, celebrates and suffers…in this human being God comes near and reveals the heart of God. In this human being God acts to save us:
- To free us from pain and suffering…
- To free us from fear and strife…
- To free us from death…
The love that chose you before the foundation of the world, is the same love who gave his life to save you and is the same love who adopts you as God’s own beloved child for all time; from eternity to eternity.
The notion of God adopting us means so much more to me now that we are grandparents to three adopted children.
Three children who have experienced rejection and separation, three children who are now chosen, loved, and adopted.
God does the same for you and me. Seeped in the brokenness of humanity, we, who were once rejected and separated from God have been chosen, loved, saved, and adopted.
God has claimed you, marked you as God’s own, and given to you, as a spiritual blessing, the gift of the Holy Spirit to be God’s ongoing presence with you.
God, the Holy Spirit comforts, guides, teaches, builds up, equips with gifts and gives strength and power. Always. Again, and again. It is the Holy Spirit who reminds us that, through Christ, in Christ, we belong to the Father.
As an adopted child of God, you belong to God. The future causes you no worries. Death can’t harm you. In Christ, God has taken care of everything.
And in Christ, you have an inheritance that nothing can diminish, an inheritance that won’t be taken away because God, who chose and continues to choose you, who loved and continues to love you, who saved and continues to save you, who adopted and continues to claim you is the same God who meets us here today.
Living in the amazing gift of God’s grace is both life-giving and life- challenging at the same time because we are still broken human beings. Our inner voice and sometimes the outer voice tells us that we’re not good enough, that we don’t deserve it, that we really must do something to guarantee this unconditional love and acceptance of God.
Will we like Amaziah, Jeroboam, and the people of the Northern Kingdom, and like Herod, Herodias, and others at the time of Jesus, will we forget that we are God’s people?
Will we turn to satisfying our own wants, seeking our own way, putting ourselves before others rather than loving the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind; and loving our neighbors as ourselves.
Will we stand up to the powers of this world and say “no”. Will we turn ourselves and those whom we love toward compassion and justice, for the sake of God’s glory? Will we live the faithfulness that God has given to us having been set free from all that encumbers us? Will we live a life free to love, free to come along side those who are suffering, come along side those who are oppressed? Will we stand and be upright, clinging to the one who has chosen, saved, loved, and adopted, and continues to do the same today and always? Will we hold fast to the promises of God by choosing life, choosing grace, choosing God?
The good news my friends, is that God knows our limitations and our frailties, God knows, because it was proven, over and over again, that on our own we simply can’t choose God. As much as we want to and as much as we try, it’s just not within our grasp.
And so, before the world was created, before sin entered the picture, before people, created in the image of the creator, lost their way, God chose us. God chose you and me, and every person before us, with us now, and coming after us, God chose us. And God gives to us every spiritual blessing.
Can we be that blessing in this world? Can we be that blessing who goes forth to proclaim the goodness of God, can we be that blessing who reaches across to tend to the oppressed, to serve and care for the poor, will we be that blessing calling out for justice and peace in all the world, can we be that blessing, my friends?
For in Christ, we are loved and forgiven, in Christ we are saved and redeemed, in Christ, we are adopted and marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit so that we may live, so that we may live, to the praise of God’s glory.
And so, may the peace which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord, who chose, who saves, who loves, who adopts, and who sends us forth to be a blessing to this world. Amen.