In Dependence Day
In Dependence Day
Matthew 10:34-42
July 4, 1999
On June 28, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was presented by Thomas Jefferson to representatives of the original 13 colonies of America. This formal document declared the colonies political independence from Great Britain. Everybody knows that this birth of a new republic has come to be considered the greatest nation on earth. We, as its citizens enjoy the greatest prosperity, the greatest diversity, and the greatest liberty and independence of any nation, perhaps, in history.
What a treasured blessing, and coveted existence, our land’s independence has brought us. As a military man for 24 years, I had opportunity to visit numerous nations around the world. But, nowhere have I ever seen or experienced such beauty and prosperity as in the United States of America.
American warriors are equipped with a determined attitude to protect and preserve this most marvelous heritage. War helps bring clarity to the importance of a nation’s independence. But there is a higher and greater independence to think about and experience in our lives. God in Jesus Christ has declared the independence of all who believe from the power of sin, death, and hell. Just as U.S. citizens are dependent on their leaders to maintain national independence, so also, Christians are dependent on the Savior for spiritual independence. But unlike our national independence that gets celebrated once a year, we can properly refer to this day, and all days in our spiritual lives, as an “In Dependence Day.”
National freedom came at a cost of many lives. Lives continue to be sacrificed to maintain our nation’s independence. Peace comes at a high price. But Jesus’ words today remind us that pursuing worldly peace and freedom does not cost nearly as much as pursuing a spiritual life of peace and freedom.
1. Our spiritual independence can cost relationships (vv 35-36). Consider the child who comes to know the Savior in a household that repudiates and rejects Jesus Christ.
Most of you know that Bonnie and I went to the baptism of my niece’s baby daughter in Holland, Michigan. But what you might not know is that my niece was raised in a home where Jesus was not welcome. She related to me how she used to go to Sunday School at the invitation of friends and come home all excited about what she had learned about Jesus. When she tried to tell her dad about the wonderful things she was learning he flatly rejected her input. “Don’t bring that crap in here,” he would say. How interesting that the Lord would eventually lead her and her twin sister out of that home of tyranny, to a God-fearing, Christian home, where Jesus was the delight of everybody in the family.
What an honor to meet those people at the baptism. What a joy to share Jesus with so many others. And, they weren’t even Lutherans. The point is this, important relationships can become severed because of faith in Christ. Jesus said, “I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man’s enemies will be the members of his own family.”
This is not a happy thought, is it? It certainly is not what we might prefer. Yet, the word is very clear. This might very well be the cost of discipleship with Christ.
2. Spiritual independence can cost us our personal loyalties, loves, and pursuits (vv 37-39). Jesus says, “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Can you imagine the blood, sweat, and tears men and women faced when striving for national independence. Who was right? The King of England, or the rebel colonists. That time seems so distant from us now that it’s hard to even conger up a picture of what it was like. Old loyalties are always being replaced by new ways of thinking. And, in reality we are probably much closer to the people of our heritage than we might think. I mean, we are being stretched in so many different directions. Old loyalties are being forsaken for new ways and ideas. Even in the church this happens. And, in some ways, it must. We try to escape this reality by denying its importance. We say things like, “Don’t talk about politics or religion if you want to keep your friends.” Sadly, too few seem to think a determined loyalty to Jesus Christ is no longer necessary.
But, Jesus views religious loyalty on the basis of God’s truth. Loyalties toward family members at the expense of one’s devotion and love for Christ enslaves that person to this world. A friend of mine has a son who is studying political science at Western. He is a loyal Democrat. So I typically do some political sparring whenever I see him. During one of our visits I asked him if he could be politically successful and retain his honesty? I know his Christian upbringing. I know this young man’s loyalties to Christ. But, I also know that loyalties can be misplaced. You see, love for self and this world, which refuses to carry the cross of self-denial and dependency on Christ, results in the loss of true worthiness in Christ.
In The Waiting Father, Helmut Thielicke wrote, “We want our own superiority to be confirmed and we achieve this by being horrified at others and putting ourselves above them. Anybody who looks downward and measures himself by the weakness of his fellowmen immediately becomes proud. … When a man really turns to God with a burdened conscience, he doesn’t think of other people at all. There he is, utterly alone with God. … He measures himself ‘upward,’ God himself is his standard. And measuring himself by that standard he is suddenly aware of how far removed he is.” My friends in Christ, loyalty to Christ means being totally dependent on him, in an upward manner. This is indeed an In Dependence Day! A day that frees us from the tyranny of death and hell. A day that removes the constraints and control of sin. A day for which our Savior paid a high and divine price.
Remember his horrible cry of grief and agony on the cross? “My God! my God! Why have you forsaken me?” In other words, it cost him separation from his Father. It cost him the humiliation of being stripped of his heavenly glory for the sake of sinful mankind. His cry tugs on human hearts to hear and believe.
4. He is offering spiritual independence through his own death and resurrection to our very flesh and blood every day. Every day is In Dependence Day!
Daily dependence on the promises of baptism bring and keep us in a peaceful relationship with God because it unites us to the resurrected Christ. And that union to Jesus frees us from the guilt and consequences of sin; all sin. Baptism serves to remind us of what we have been given with Christ, that is, a new spiritual life of peace and freedom with God.
Nevertheless, that freedom calls us to be warriors of another kind. We are called to keep and defend our spiritual independence by retaining the truth of God’s Word and passing it on to others. In this regard, we need not fear. Just look at what God can do in the lives of people like you and me. Like my niece and her new daughter. Like fishermen and common people who followed Jesus. Let’s not be afraid of loosing worldly loyalties. All that we are and have, even as Americans, comes from the Lord.
Thus, when we speak of him and are received, He is received. But not only He, also the Father. The new freedoms we have in Christ came at great cost to our Savior. At times, we may face great cost to be a citizen in his kingdom. But, by the grace of God, we are empowered through Word and Sacraments because it unites us to him. On this Independence Day, we celebrate our true independence from sin and its curse and our dependence on Christ for true peace and freedom. Let’s make this and every day a truly In Dependence Day celebration. Amen.