Sermon, Christ United Presbyterian Church, Marshall, MN November 3, 2013 All Saints Day

CUPC

November 3, 2013

Sermon:  “Of Sound Mind….”

Ephesians 1:11-23; Luke 6:20-31

Here's the link to the audio file
https://app.box.com/s/nm9yvizzi8tbzcv5fw5s

Imagine that you have a very rich and powerful relative.  You haven’t seen or spoken to him in a long while, but one day you get a letter telling you that this relative has died and named you in his will for an inheritance.  When you show up at the reading of the will, you are told that you have inherited one million dollars.  Because your dead relative was a very charitable person, you have inherited one million dollars that you are expected to give away.  If you just keep it, it’s your’s:  no strings attached.  If you give it away, it will be renewed and will continue to grow as long as you give it away.  But if you keep it, it’s your’s, no strings attached.  Hmmmm.  You think, well a bird in the hand….

The epistle lesson today opens: “In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory [Eph 1:11].”

A friend once asked me to be the executor of his estate.  I knew a little bit about his will.  It had some very complicated conditional clauses in it.  “If his children did such and such by some given date, then they could have this much.  If they failed to do such and such, then they got nothing, unless within 3 more years they did ….”  I declined the request.

My friend was certainly of “sound mind,” as they say, but all those conditional clauses were just too complicated for me.  Either he wanted his children to inherit his money, or not.  Placing conditions on an inheritance even with the best of intentions is a sure prescription for conflict and disagreement.  It reflects a need for control not a love that values free will.

Scripture says that through Jesus we have been given an inheritance.  It’s not an inheritance that’s conditional on our accomplishing certain things.  It’s an inheritance that allows us to do certain things, chief among them living to praise Christ’s glory.  It’s an inheritance that brings us a wonderful benefit, an advantage beyond any benefit that earthly riches could bring us.  It’s ours to accept, to embrace, and if we  clutch it to our hearts we shall live lives that have been changed by this inheritance.  Unlike earthly riches it gives us something that will multiply endlessly as long as we use it, as long as we share it, as long as we give it away!

God has given us his love.  God has given us his power.  And that power is revealed in the resurrection of Jesus.  The resurrection is the witness to God’s power, and we have received God’s pledge of our redemption sealed by the Holy Spirit.

Think of it this way.  In the resurrection we have seen God’s financial statement.  It’s incredible.  Through the Gospel we have heard and read Jesus’ last will and testament, a will that names us as beneficiaries.  God’s executor, the Holy Spirit has come among us to oversee the distribution of God’s wealth and power among us as we move forward in our lives to finally redeem our share in the glory of Christ.  This is the hope of our Gospel.

If all you do with this inheritance is keep it to yourself, well that doesn’t change the fact that Christ died to redeem you.  It simply reveals that you don’t understand the value of your inheritance, a value that increases with more and more blessings for us each time we share it with someone else.

In our Gospel lesson today Jesus tells us precisely what God expects us to do with the blessings we have been given, with the inheritance we have been granted: “Do to others as you would have them do to you [Luke 6:31].”

This is what God expects us to do with our inheritance.  This is how we will act when we realize the value of what we have been given.  We can say thank you and keep it to ourselves, and like the manna given to the people in the wilderness if we hoard it, if we believe it’s just for us, it will turn to dust.  Or we can recognize that we have been invited to share Christ’s own glory, the glory most readily understandable to us in the power of the resurrection. 

In Romans 6, Paul asks us: “³Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

This is a day on which we remember the saints in faith who have died before us.  In the funeral service we say that our baptism is now complete in our death.  And in the funeral service we proclaim: “All of us go down to the dust; yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. Give rest, O Christ, to your servant with all your saints, where there is neither pain nor sorrow nor sighing, but life everlasting.”

I don’t put many tests to the faith that people claim for themselves, but the core of the richness of our salvation is the knowledge that we have nothing in this world to fear.  God in Christ has overcome death for us.  That’s the bottom line of Christian faith.

We are free – even in the midst of this chaotic and violent world – to live as God designed us to live; to enter God’s kingdom today; to live fully and share God’s love and promise of a new kingdom with one another and all who are hurting under the oppression of the powers of the world; to live under the reign of God here in the midst of this world.  We are free to live the life that Christ describes in Luke caring for the poor, feeding the hungry and consoling those whose lives are filled with tears and sorrows.

The Message version of Ephesians says it like this:   “¹¹ It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, ¹² part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone. ¹³ It's in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free - signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. ¹⁴ This signet from God is the first installment on what's coming, a reminder that we'll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life [Eph 1:11-14].”

The gift of deliverance through the resurrection is the first installment.  What we do with it is up to us.  Where it can take us is guaranteed by God.

Let us pray:  O God, before whom generations rise and pass away, we praise you for all your servants who, having lived this life in faith,

now live eternally with you.

Especially we thank you that our baptism shall be complete in bodily death. We praise you for the gift of our lives and give you thanks for all in us that is good and kind and faithful.  We give you thanks and praise for the grace you gave to us, that kindles in us the love of your dear name, and enables us to serve you faithfully.

Lead us forth, O God, that in the power of the resurrection we may find the courage to live in this life as citizens fully alive under your reign.            

Amen.