Pastor Jim's Sermon,May 5, 2013, Christ United Presbyterian Church, Marshall, MN

Here's Pastor Jim's sermon for today given this morning at Christ United Presbyterian Church, Marshall, MN.  If you'd like to hear it, just click on the link below:

https://www.box.com/s/d81nfk93hjhzw5a05isp

CUPC

May 5, 2013

Sermon

Acts 16:9-15 (NRSV)

Revelation 21:10; 21:22-22:5
John 5:1-9; 16-18 (NRSV)

“Whose Law?”

On the one hand, this morning’s Gospel lesson gives us a “nice” story about Jesus’ healing a man who had been ill for 38 years.  On the other hand, Jesus broke the law.  He did.  He broke the law and the consequences could be deadly.  In fact if he were in some states in this country, he would also be guilty of felony conspiracy because he counseled others to break the law as well.  Jesus broke the law and encouraged his disciples to do the same thing.  Actually what Jesus broke was the law as it was arbitrarily interpreted by the powers that be.

In this day of seven-day-a-week scheduling, between work and recreation and the many weekend activities that our children engage in, we don’t see what He did as a serious thing.  He healed a sick person on the Sabbath.  But it was very serious.  It comes straight out of the Ten Commandments that everyone thinks they follow.  In fact it’s the longest of the ten.

It’s funny how we handle the commandments. The more likely we are to break one of the Ten, the more likely we are to say it isn’t all that important. 

If you look back over Jesus’ ministry you will find him throwing the rigid hypocrisy of the Temple leaders back in their faces over and over again. The man that we call “Lord” was an outlaw in their eyes who refused to acknowledge the idea that God’s redemption was neatly available to us through the rigid and mindless acceptance of some rules for behavior.  The religious leaders believed that God’s salvation was available only to those who rigidly observed an external code of behavior.  As long as you acted out the code, you were righteous.  It didn’t matter what was in your heart.  External behavior was all that mattered.  And since they also wanted the redemption of Israel itself, they were convinced that people who didn’t follow the code were preventing the saving work of God for the nation.

We want to view our redemption in “either/or” terms.  Either I’m saved by faith or I’m saved by works.  Reading today’s Gospel lesson some might say:  “See, the rules aren’t that important.  I believe in Jesus as my Savior, and that’s all I need.” 

When you say “I believe in Jesus as my Savior,” you are not just saying words.  You are not just replacing a rigid system of behavior with an equally rigid system of magic formulas that must be said in the right order.  You’re affirming an act that must change your life if it is true.

In his new book “Unfinished:  Believing Is Only The Beginning,” Rich Stearns (President of World Vision, USA) says: "Our Christian faith is not just a way to find forgiveness for sin in order to enter eternal life, yet it is that. It is not just a system of right beliefs about ultimate truth and the order of things, though it is that. Nor is it just a way to find God’s comfort in times of trouble or a helpful code of conduct for how to live a good and productive life, though it is those things too. Fundamentally, the Christian faith is a call to leave everything else behind, to follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and to join in the great mission of Christ in our world. It is a call to forsake all else and follow him. Only then will we become completed people—people living according to God’s deepest purpose for our lives."

It never ceases to amaze me the number of people who say that they want to “go to heaven.”  Certainly we should all want that, that’s not the part that amazes me.  “Heaven” is the place of God’s presence.  “Heaven” is the source of our only salvation.  “Heaven” is that place where the river of the water of life flows freely.  “Heaven” is God’s abiding presence.  “Heaven” is the Kingdom of God that Jesus tells us is here, among us. 

When you say that you want to go to heaven do you mean that you want to enter it right now, or would that be too disruptive? As members of a Christian congregation, as God’s people called together, this piece of Christ’s body is meant to be living right now in God’s abiding presence.  We are meant to be that light shining on a hill showing all the world what it means to live in the full acknowledgement of God’s presence.  That’s the reason that a church exists.

The Book of Order uses old fashioned language to say it quite clearly:

The great ends of the church are the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind; the shelter, nurture, and spiritual

fellowship of the children of God; the maintenance of divine worship; the preservation of the truth; the promotion of social righteousness; and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.

Those are the reasons that we exist.  It’s not a multiple choice.  It’s the whole thing.  And it’s summed up in that last phrase: the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.  Is that what people see when they look at our congregation?  Do we exhibit the Kingdom of Heaven to the world?

The Kingdom of Heaven is not a place in which lies and rumors and revenge and hatred can exist.  If those things are filling your life then you have hardened your heart and refused God’s invitation.  The Kingdom of Heaven is a place where the humble, the meek, the ones who want righteousness so badly that they literally hunger after it, the pure in heart and the peacemakers who are willing to suffer persecution for doing the right thing: these are the ones who live their lives fully in the presence of God. 

Don’t take my word for any of this.  Read the Gospels. They really aren’t all that hard to understand.  Sometimes we say that we don’t understand because we know that if we understand then we ought to be living it.  And if we were to live it, then it might just upset our whole life. So sometimes we hide and say we just don’t understand.  I learned this week that the lawyers call that “voluntary ignorance,” and voluntary ignorance doesn’t excuse anyone from anything.

The Kingdom of God is here.  The Kingdom of God is wherever God is invited to reign.  Jesus brought it to us.  It doesn’t run on simple rules and regulations. We can enter it right now and know the joy of God’s presence if we but open our hearts and do our best to live among each other guided only by the vision of God’s love and forgiveness for us all.  God calls us to move beyond our comfortable circles, and into unfamiliar places. We are called to share His dream of a world made new in Christ. That’s what it means to say “I believe in Jesus Christ.” When God rules in your heart, then you have already entered the Kingdom of heaven.

Amen.