Sermon June 20th LCMS 3 year B

Sermon June 20th LCMS 3 year B

St. Peter’s Lutheran Church

2 Corinthians 6:1-13

Father’s Day

Job, a righteous man. In a single day he suffered a raid from the Sabeans, which killed nearly his entire workforce, a raid from the Chaldeans who stole all his camels, a fire, which consumed all of his sheep, and a great wind, which collapsed the house of his eldest son, killing all of his children inside. Not too long after, he lost his health, and was struck with disease. His own wife and friends considered him forsaken, accursed and abandoned by God. Paul, wrote most of the New Testament. Of low esteem among many. Given the cold shoulder by other apostles. Sufferingafflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger, dishonor, and slander. Treated as animpostor, a false apostle, a false teacher, and in the end, beheaded. Jesus, the Son of God. Humbled to a state lower than the Angels. Voluntarily placed under His own Law. Raised, nourished, taught, and cared for by the human creatures that were created through Him and for Him, who He sustained second by second. Mocked by His own creatures, suffering for their sins against Him, dying by the hands that He formed for them. Forsaken. Crushed. Beaten, smitten, afflicted, abandoned by all.

Why is it then, that so much of the church then;Job’s friends, the church in Corinth, Jesus’ own disciples, and now; the health wealth and prosperity preachers, the Triumphalists, and the Christian Statists, simply do not understand that suffering is a mark of the church? Those in intense suffering under Roman andJewish oppression like Christ and His disciples, or those in lackadaisical complacency like us in modern Canadian Society, still don't seem to get it. Those who live under the tight grip of oppression, poverty, or chaotic violence all too often cry for earthly rebellion, liberation, anduprising. Those who live in the easy living times for Christians such as we, shriek back whenever someone calls us a nut for thinking that God exists or when people rejectBiblical morality as if it is simply persecution to not be the societal majority.

Often the church will tell you, that if something works, if something is right and good, it should feel good. The church should be growing in number they say. And so they attract people with a message that trickles their ears. They bring them in with gimmicks and entertainment. But not even so that they might then expose them to the Word of God in its purity, because the accusation of God’s Law and the Forgiveness of Christ’s gospel are offensive. And you wouldn’t want to do that they say. Because if you do that, then nobody will come. Everybody will leave. And we don’t want that. It may be harder to paythe bills, we may need to sell the church building and downsize, or rent. It may make us feel rejected, unwanted, unliked. We should instead cooperate with the world. Bow to their every whim. Agree to every new wind of human desire. Change the standard of morality. Do away with the wrath of God. Get rid of this doctrine of human inability. We don’t like that. We don’t want any of that. What we want is a gospel that we can have a share in. And a doable Law. A saviour? No-no. An assistant. A God? No-no. An impersonal force maybe. Maybe a creator, but not a Lord. A hell? No-no. And Suffering? Oh my, well. Suffering. This is something to avoid. This does not afflict the holy, only give us more money and we will spare you of your suffering. Only be holier – do more for God, if there even is a God, and He will protect you, unlike those sick people over there who He has abandoned in their sins and pain.

This was the message of the so-called“Super Apostles” that Paul was facing up against in 2 Corinthians. They poked fun at him andhis down-to-earth demeanour, his meekness, his suffering, and said of it, that was proof that his message was false and thathe was not an apostle, but cursed for his past sins of Christian persecution. This was also the message of the Jewish and the pagan world. Look at this lowly sect they said, these crazy Jews who believe the Messiah has already come, the Jews said. Heretics of the highest order, rightly killed on sight. Look at these crazy Atheists and cannibals the pagans said. Theydeny all gods but one, that of the Jews, but the Jews wont even accept them as their own! They claim to gather ever Sunday to desecrate a human body and consume human flesh and human blood in order to remember the execution of their silly leader! And to boot, almost all of them are slaves, and sinners, low people, andcriminals who believe that they are forgiven for their crimes, who feign themselves to be a royal priesthood!We simply cannot let these people run around committing cannibalism and causing public disturbances with their obscene preaching. They ought to be thrown in prison, crucified, beheaded, thrown to the lions! And so they were.

Do not question why you suffer, nor shrink back when it cuts you deep. The Christian life is marked by suffering and always has been. Christ did not send you to hunt wolves, but to be sheep among them. The martyr has always been the seed of the church and our tears and blood have always watered her. Friends, weep. For just as Christ was swallowed up by death and hell for an eternity that lasted 3 days, so you too are going to be sent out to walk towards the completion of your baptism in death. To fulfill the death of the old Adam who abides in your flesh – that you might be resurrected anew. Just as a seed that is planted must first die before it brings forth life, you are not called remain a seed but a tree– not a group of martyrs, but a church. You are not called to remain both saint and sinner, but to put Adam to death, daily through contrition and repentance, andfinally and fully in physical death. We are called to die precisely because the duality of just and sinner is not so much a good thing as it as a battle between the old and the new man within us, between Adam and Christthat we are walking towards victory in, not in this life, but through the end of it in death where baptism is fulfilled and completed and Adam dies one last time and we are glorified with Christ in the resurrection. Our death isn't meaningless tragedy but it is a daily thing we are working in throughour baptism to put the old Adam to death and to raisethe new man. Victory looks like the lid of your coffin. Triumph, looks like ridicule. Was it not in the Baptism of our Lord, the washing of Himself in our sins, and numbering himself among criminals in which God proclaimed Him to be His Son – in whom He was well pleased. Was it not in violent and gruesome death – utter defeat and despair that our redemption was won? Was it not the cry of dereliction that freed us from our bonds? Was it not from the water and blood pouring out the side of Christ from which we receive Baptism and the Holy Supper? Do we not worship the humiliated God? Is it not before The Lamb slain that the Angels cry Holy holy Holy?Is it not said, that in heaven, where all things are made perfect, that Christ’s wounds remain? Our Lord says to us, that in our weakness His strength is made perfect. In our suffering, the power of Christ rests on us. It drives us to Him. Kiss the wave that drives you to the rock. Reverence the illness that bids you home. Do it in tears, do it in pain. Do it while screaming out to God for salvation from it. As you suffer, remember that it is not a sign that God has abandoned you. Nor does it mean that you have wrongly believed the gospel in vain. But that it is precisely in that suffering that we can truly say “today is the day of salvation.”

I want to close with an illustration from the book and movie series Harry Potter. In this tale, Harry, a youth, is tasked with the defeat of the dark lord Voldemort, who killed his parents, his friends, and threatens toenslave the entire world and bring darkness, death, and suffering everywhere that he goes. But Voldemort cannot simply be defeated by sheer force or skill, because, in an attempt to gain immortality, he has destroyed himself, through the destruction and murder of others, and placed parts of himself within relics of his past, which must first be destroyed in order to destroy him. However, as Harry finds out, he is one of those relics. In him dwells a part of the dark lord himself which must first be destroyed in order for Harry to defeat Voldemort, but for that to happen, Harry must die. Harry must let the Dark Lord take his life and put him to death, in order for the Dark Lord himself to be defeated. But Harry does not do this without a promise, for while he surrendered himself unto death, he was grasping the resurrection stone. And it was here, in the Dark Lord killing Harry, that He ultimately put Himself to death, for Harry was resurrected and returned in greater strength, no longer burdened by the duality within himself, and defeated the Dark Lord for one last final time. So it will be with you. Do not suffer as those without hope, do not die as if dying is your defeat. For in Christ, all things are yes and Amen. In Christ, your death is Adams death. Your death, is Satan's death. Your Death, will be your victory, and your entrance into eternal life