Second Wednesday in Lent 2010 sermon 2 of 6

Second Wednesday in Lent


2/24/10

Text: 1 Peter 1:22-25

Title: I’m Being True to Myself!



On Ash Wednesday last week we learned through the words of God that contrary to modern belief life is not better in our own hands. Life is only better in the hands of our heavenly Father, for that is where true life is found. It is in him only can we trust. We also learned that God created the Christian Church to be his voice on earth. It is in the church, namely the local congregation where the Word of God is rightly preached and the Sacraments administered that God is present. Today we are going to look at our identity, just who are we, not by the world’s standards, but by God’s, since we are Christians living together in the community of the Christian Church.



Countless times and places require you to show your identity. We all have been there and done that. At the airport security checkpoint we’re required to show our identification. When you and I use a credit card, we are asked to show identification. With the new Mississippi law we are now required to some identification to buy some cough medicine.



Your identity is important. Identification is immensely important nowadays. Think about your identity, it’s important isn’t it?! Your identity distinguishes you from the other 6 billion people on this earth. Your identity gives you a purpose, and direction for your life! So the question to consider today is “Who are you?” Seriously, who are you?



A popular saying today is, “I’m being true to myself!” I am not sure what that means, for how can you be true to yourself if you don’t know your true identity? When Jesus was on the cross, he said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Oh, the ones who crucified Jesus were being true to themselves. Judas the betrayer was being true to himself. But they crucified the Son of God! It’s a soul-searching question: Who are you?



Maybe you say that you know who you are: you’re a Christian! You are here today doing Christian things like attending worship and Bible classes on a pretty regular basis, but how many of you are still searching for your true place in life? In the good old days, as we refer to them, we grew up with less media. We got the local newspaper, local radio stations, and maybe 4 channels on the TV. Today it’s different. We are constantly bombarded from every direction. All the media messages, the commercials, the pundits, the self-help programs, the life-style magazines, all undermine a sure sense of identity. How many of you have your own Facebook or MySpace pages? Is that who you really are? Talk about identity crisis! We can literally create our identity, projecting what we want people to perceive of us! How about your values and morality? Even the “best” Christians pick and choose parts of the Bible they would like to live by. And then there’s identity theft. What a terrifying experience! People can actually steal someone’s identity—social security number, banking information, personal information, and so on. In fact sometime in August we are going to have the Thrivent rep come in and show us how we can better keep our identity secure. Talk about an identity crisis!



As I thought through this problem of identity I came to the conclusion that a good way to describe our identities might be to think of our identity as being a patchwork quilt. A patchwork quilt is made of a bunch of very different, usually brightly colored patches, all a little different. Through relationships, occupations, and past times we fabricate our own realities like assembling a patchwork quilt. We take a little from our parents, a little from our experiences, a little from work, a little from the media, a little from the Bible, a little here and a little there. Our lives resemble that patchwork quilt, crafted from whatever we consider is best for us. We’ve let the ways of the world influence who we are, what we believe, and how we behave. “Father, forgive us for we know not what we do.”



Instead of basing who we are on who we think we are we need to ask, “How does God see me?” Who am I according to God?



Saint Peter writes in 1 Peter 1:23, “You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God”. “You have been born again.” That makes us think of baptism. Because you are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus your identity is changed and you are given a new identity. Your identity as a condemned sinner is changed to an identity of forgiveness from Jesus Christ. Your identity of trusting no one but yourself is changed into an identity of trusting our heavenly Father who has given us an eternal salvation. We talked about that last week. Your identity as a patchwork of all the influences upon your life is bound together by Jesus Christ. That’s true for you, for me, and for us all.



Our identity in Christ is constantly threatened. As I said earlier, our weekday lives are bombarded with messages about who the world wants us to be. When you think about it, so much around us is here today and gone tomorrow. Think about your interests, how much have they changed through the years? How about the arrangement of furniture in your house? How about your relationships? Do you let the changes of life change who you are? Do you let the world’s purposes take you away from your true purpose?



Saint Peter tells us that two things are constant. Change, yes, and something else that is constant for all eternity, the non changing Word of God. God’s Word never changes, but engages our ever-changing lives so that we can live and grow into the identity to which we’ve been given in baptism. You have been baptized into that reality. Week by week the preached Word grows and strengthens your identity. Week by week the preached Word engages our lives to keep us true to who we are in Christ. Your identity, the way in which God sees you as His perfect child, does not change, just as God’s Word does not change. The Father heard the Son’s words that Friday Afternoon—“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”—and he has forgiven you and through his Word continues to forgive you. As God considers you, He does not see a poorly crafted patchwork quilt. Instead, he’s painted the portrait of your reality—a portrait of the cross and resurrection of Christ. That’s your identity, proclaimed by God’s Word that will stand forever. As you share in the death of Jesus through your baptism so you too will indeed share in His resurrection!



In discovering your identity in Christ, God opens the door to learning about who you are, what you are called to be as His child, and to embrace the hope for your life in this world and the world to come. Now we say, “In God being true to His Word and His self, He has shown us who we are to be!” We can boldly proclaim, “We are to be true to Him” because the identity He’s given us is imperishable and everlasting. We are His children, born again in baptism from the imperishable Word of God. We can be sure of who we are in Christ because although all things around us wither and fade like grass, God’s Word stands forever. His promise spoken to you is forever, “I will be with you always” (Matthew 28:20).



Your identity is not a patchwork quilt crafted by you or any other person. Rather, you are part of God’s church, a community that comes together around His Word to be the body of Christ and a foreshadowing, although imperfect, of what’s to come in the New Creation. Born again of the imperishable Word, this is our “Life Together.” This is what God sees. This is our identity. God is being true to His Word and to you! Amen.

Second Sunday in Lent 2/21/10 Text: Luke 4:1-13 Title For us.

Second Sunday in Lent


2/21/10

Text: Luke 4:1-13

Title: For Us.



Over many generations musicians during times of war have composed war songs. They would compose songs designed to get soldiers and civilians ready to take up arms when there is a common enemy to fight. Some of the songs would be about the glory of giving of one’s life for the common good, for we all know too well that keeping peace many times means dying for peace.

The Church for countless generations also sang “spiritual war songs”. Our Lutheran Service Book still has a section called “Church Militant”. Lutheran “fight songs” you could call them. “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”; “Preserve Your Word, O Savior”; “Stand Up For Jesus!” and “Fight the Good Fight”; just to name a few.

I firmly believe that, for the most part, the vast majority of Christians have lost the sense of spiritual warfare. Satan is now ignored; demons are laughed at; God’s Word is rarely taken seriously. You can tell that by the lack of attendance in Bible study classes and personal devotion time. Christianity, for the most part has forgotten that Jesus entered into the war against Satan on our behalf. And that even though the cross and grave are empty, the war still rages on. Satan is not going to win in the end, but he still looks for an opportune time to tempt you into believing you don’t need Jesus to survive in this world and when he sees the opportunity he pounces, seldom directly, and therein lays the danger of temptation, for they are often half-truths and lies.

That brings me to what I want to talk to you about today “The temptation of Jesus”. To better understand what is happening in this particular story of Jesus we need to look back at the first book of the Bible, chapter 3 verses 1 through 13. There we see Satan is talking to Eve. "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" With those words he put doubt in her mind. Maybe God really did not say that.” Then Eve says that she will die and the serpent replies with, “You will not surely die.” More doubt about what God really said. Then he continues with, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." In those words he implies that God is holding out on her and thus cannot be trusted. He has her in his grip.



Now that Eve is doubting God’s word all she needs now is an excuse to do what God has told her and Adam not to do. She sees that fruit was good for food, and it sure looked good, and surely God would not have put something that looks so good there if he did not want her to enjoy it. Plus, if she eats it she will know what God knows, surely God would like that. So she ate and gave some to Adam and everything, as we all know, went downhill from there.



Sometime later God comes by for his daily visit and finds them hiding. Of course Adam blames Eve and Eve blames Satan, but in their blaming they are actually blaming God, for if he had not made the fruit in the first place they would not be in the mess they are.



Adam and Eve who had a wonderful intimate relationship with God are now separated from him by what they had done. God in being just could not let their disobedience go unpunished, so they were booted out of the garden and sentenced to live a life of brokenness and death.



But God did not walk away from them. God wanted to restore the relationship he had with them. And the only way it could be restored was for someone to die on their behalf. Justice had to be done. This someone would have to live the life they could not, and then, even though he had not sinned against God he had to, of his own free will, take the wrath of God on himself. The problem was who was going to be able to do it, for all of his human creation would be sinners.



So God came to us born of a woman, but not of a man and in a way that we cannot understand became fully human while being fully God. In his humanity he lived the same lives we all live. He had to learn how to walk, and talk. He had to learn the Torah and how to be a carpenter. He cried. He mourned over his people that would not accept his wonderful act. And as we journey with him toward Good Friday during this Lenten season he will die, an innocent man, for us, so that when our time comes to stand before God we will be declared righteous. Not because of anything we have done, for there is nothing that we can do to satisfy God’s demands, but because of Jesus death.



Just having come from the Mount of Transfiguration where God’s voice said, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him”, Jesus is tempted for 40 days in the desert. This event is reminiscent of Israel’s journey out of Egypt through the desert for 40 years where, like Adam and Eve, and all people since, they failed to trust in God to care for them.

We are not told except for the last three what other temptations Satan used against Jesus during those 40 days, but they were no doubt temptations that we are all tempted with. When Satan thinks Jesus is at his weakest he brings up the line that condemned Adam and Eve to their life of sorrow; that condemns us to our lives of sorrow. He says to Jesus, “If you are…” In other words; “Jesus did God really say that?” Doubt worked in the past, so why not now?

Jesus did not fall for that, for in his being tempted he is doing what Adam and Eve, what the people of Israel in their trek across the desert could not do, and what we cannot do. He fully trusts the Father. Jesus in trusting the Father is not going to be tempted. He is not going to turn stones into bread to satisfy his hunger, for he knew that this temptation was not about satisfying his hunger. None of the temptations were about what Satan was promising. The temptations were about whether or not Jesus trusted in God’s promises to take care of him.

You, as I am, are fully aware of the promises of Satan, “Just trust in me and you will have bread to satisfy your hunger. Just trust in me and you will have all the wonderful things of the world. Just trust in me and you will be glorified. Just trust in me. Satan lied to Adam and Eve. He is lying to Jesus and he lies to us. Satan is a liar and can’t be trusted, but boy do we like to listen to him.

Satan will very seldom, if ever attack you with a terrible sin. He would rather warp God’s Word as he did to Adam and Eve and Jesus. He likes to tell Christians his favorite half-truth, “Your forgiven, so it is alright to tell that little white lie”; a lie. “It is alright to take what is not yours or to covet what others have”; a lie. “It is alright to use other people for your own gain”; a lie. “It is alright to get back at someone if they have hurt you”; a lie. “It is alright to gossip, especially if what you are gossiping about is true”; a lie. “It is alright to not pray, or study God’s Word, or worship God in fellowship with others”; all lies. “It is alright to not use your money and talents that God has given you to support the body of Christ that you belong to”; a lie. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

For the next 40 days we will walk with Jesus to Gethsemane and the cross. We will not suffer and die, as he did because he has already done that. But we will, in studying his Word, and faithfully attending Sunday and Wednesday worship services come to a better understanding of who he is and what he has done for us. For in his life, death, and resurrection he made it possible for us to be restored into the relationship with God that God intended us to be in, in the beginning.

The price has been paid. We will not be condemned when we come face to face with God because as Psalm 143:13 tells us, “The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.” Even though we know that God is true to his words we still live in brokenness.

And so we still have to march into battle against Satan daily. Not alone, but with Christ, for in our baptism we have put on his armor and it will protect us, so that on that glorious resurrection day we will rise from our graves to live, as he originally intended, in perfect fellowship with him and each other. Amen