|
|
February
21, 2010
Pastor
Judy Bangsund
"Marked
with the Cross"
Romans 10:8b-13
Dear Friends, I greet you in the name of Jesus, our Lord. Just the
other night we gathered together to observe Ash Wednesday. The church
was fairly full and the service nearly over when I looked out over
the congregation. And what I saw was a sea of faces all marked with
the cross of Christ.
It was a compelling sight. And as we greeted one another after the
service, my eye continued to be drawn to those black crosses, boldly
marked on each forehead. It's a simple sign, but it speaks volumes.
It declares to the world, "I am a Christian. I follow Jesus. And I
am marked by his cross." At your baptism your pastor said, "You are
sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever."
On Ash Wednesday, that baptismal mark, having since been imprinted
on your hearts and minds, was now displayed on your face for the world
to see.
You have been marked, inside and out. You declare it every time you
come to church, both as a humble confession of sin and as a bold proclamation
of faith. But from time to time it is useful to stop and examine the
beliefs that mark you, so that you can see their distinctiveness;
so that you can better share them with someone else.
How do you communicate what it means to be a follower of Jesus? Today
I'd like to help you put words to your beliefs. First, you have a
distinctive faith, a faith which marks you. Second, you have a unique
Lord, who saves you; and third, you God's Word, which shapes you.
You have a distinctive faith, a faith which marks you. It is not the
general brand of faith that surrounds you. We used to say that America
was a Christian nation. If that was ever true, it is no longer. The
Barna Research Group has recently published a set of trends noted
in 2009. Here are three of them:
First: "Increasingly, Americans are more interested in faith and spirituality
than in Christianity. Only 50% of adults contend that Christianity
is still the faith of choice in the U.S. At the same time, 88% agree
that their religious faith is very important in their life."
Second: "Faith in the American context is now individual and customized.
71% say they develop their own slate of religious beliefs rather than
accept a package promoted by a church or denomination."
Third: "Biblical literacy is neither a current reality nor a goal
in the U.S. Even among self-identified Christians, less than half
firmly believe that the Bible is accurate in all of the principles
that it teaches."
Carl Braaten, Professor Emeritus of the Lutheran School of Theology,
has noticed that these same trends are now showing up in mainline
churches. He encourages Lutherans (in particular) to remain true to
the confession, "Jesus is Lord" - lest we also be caught up in the
social current. The church so easily blends into society, and society
is less and less Christian even as it becomes more and more spiritual.
Braaten notes these characteristics of what he calls American Religion:
it's individualistic, experiential and pluralistic. It claims that
spiritual knowledge comes from within, unrelated to anything historical
or from any outside source. American Religion centers on the self;
its motto is that "truth is in the eye of the beholder." Sound familiar?
It sounds just like the trends noted by the Barna Group. It sounds
a lot like the beliefs of people you and I know. To be honest, we
Christians may have been touched by these current social trends more
than we realize or like to admit.
Let's make it real: imagine, for a moment, that you are having lunch
with your office mates. One person says: "My faith probably comes
from my personal experience. And some part of it from the 'grace'
to believe."
Another person (probably a Christian) chimes in: "I have trouble figuring
out what "faith" means. It seems important - all the time in the New
Testament Jesus is saying "Your faith has saved you" to people - but
I'm not sure I get it. To me it means my ability to believe
God loves me, which seems to fluctuate wildly depending on circumstances."
A third person adds: "It's so subjective, but if I ask for things
... and life seems to respond in a helpful way, I interpret that as
God loving me.... I just have a 'feeling' sometimes that he's paying
attention or that he cares, regardless of what's [actually] happening."
A fourth sums it all up: "I think you have to have faith and experience
in order to live life fully. You must have faith that all of the things
you expect from life are possible for you. You must have faith that
no matter what life brings you, you will be able to handle it."
These are real comments, from an online conversation. Surfing the
web, I find many faith-related sites which all say about the same
thing. People generally want some kind of faith experience. Many feel
that what you believe doesn't matter, as long as you have
faith. But faith in what? People seem content to simply settle for
whatever feels right. It's that inner, individualistic thing. And
the conversation we've just heard describes the ancient but very prevalent
heresy called gnosticism - which thrives on American soil.
This is nothing new; the people who wrote the New Testament were surrounded
by this sort of thing - and fought against it on every point. When
you follow Jesus, you enter into a life that by nature communal, not
individualistic, being taught by and lived out in the community of
faith we call the Church. A set of beliefs are taught that you can
learn and study. It engages both head and heart - and is something
you believe with your whole being. You have more than just a vague,
undefined faith; your faith is focused on a person, Jesus of Nazareth,
a real historical figure. And it is revealed to you from an outside
source, through Scripture, the very Word of God.
You are marked with the cross of Christ. First, you have a faith that's
distinctive, a faith which marks you in a crowd. And second, you have
a unique Lord who saves you. In our lesson today Paul makes a very
big claim, using three little words: "Jesus is Lord." Paul is saying
that Jesus is God. Further, it's a claim that only Jesus
is Lord, which makes a lot of people today uncomfortable. It sounded
radical in Paul's day, too. He lived in a pluralistic society, just
like us. The Greeks and the Romans had a whole host of gods. On the
other side of the spectrum stood his own people, the Jews, who confess
that there is only one God, and that God is One. They heard the claim,
"Jesus is Lord" as blasphemy.
So the lordship of Jesus rubbed everyone the wrong way. Was this only
Paul's particular preference? His own personal experience? No. This
claim was based on the witness of many. Many had known Jesus; many
had listened to him; thousands had eaten bread given by his hand.
They had witnessed his miracles, including the greatest of all: his
own resurrection from the dead. In our Gospel lesson last week we
heard God's own voice claiming that Jesus is his beloved Son. And
God commands, "Listen to Him." Listen to Jesus, over all
other voices - even those of Elijah and Moses. Listen to Jesus, God's
only and unique Son.
Jesus is Lord. It's a unique claim with an inclusive message. I think
people today often don't hear the inclusivity of that message,
of Jesus' love. Earlier this morning we heard Paul exclaim, "... the
same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him for,
'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'"
You have a distinctive faith in a unique Lord. And God's Word shapes
that faith. Over and over again in the New Testament, you will find
quotes from what was, in Jesus' day, his whole Bible. In the six verses
we read today from Romans alone, there are references to Leviticus,
Deuteronomy, Isaiah and Joel. Paul very skillfully weaves these together
- words that his hearers, faithful Jews in Rome, would recognize.
Today, both Old and New Testaments shape your faith; the whole of
Scripture is far more persuasive than any one person's experience.
Oswald Chambers compares the witness of Scripture with individual
experience saying, "Think who the New Testament says Jesus Christ
is, and then think of the despicable meagerness of the miserable faith
we exhibit by saying, 'I haven't had this experience or that experience!'
Which has more validity: the expanse of God's revelation to many men
and women over a period of thousands of years - or my experience?"
Like a bucket brigade, Christianity is handed down from generation
to generation, carrying that same life-giving water of biblical faith.
Sadly, that brigade is breaking down today. But Scripture shapes a
that must remain, as Braaten says, "without abbreviation, without
compromise and without tailoring to suit our own whims and fancies."
You who are marked with the cross of Christ have a distinctive faith
in a unique Lord, shaped by Scripture. What is the alternative? Why
share it with anyone? Because this world is so lost and so blind.
Because when life fails you, when your own experience is insufficient,
when your own variety of truth is proved false, you need something
real to fall back on. I've been reading a book called Grace Under
Fire: Letters of Faith in Times of War. In every letter - regardless
of which war, regardless of one's peacetime beliefs or lack thereof,
soldiers fall back on God. One World War II soldier writes, "The man
who said that there are no atheists in foxholes had hit the nail on
the head. When the sun goes down and darkness steals in, life to the
infantrymen becomes nothing more than a gust of wind. The nights are
long, fifteen hours and cold... it's you and good old Mother
Earth and God. And when the time comes that you leave that hole and
charge across several hundred yards of enemy territory with machine
guns burning, 88's and mortars thinning your numbers, God is never
forgotten. To us, death is no distant unknown.... Several Sundays
ago, just after we had completed one of our toughest battles, the
Chaplain preached a sermon that I shall never forget! - "Our God is
eternally just. Our God is eternally seeking. Our God is eternally
loving. It's easy to die but it's difficult to go on living." My friends,
if your faith doesn't get you through the difficulties of this life;
if your faith doesn't open the doors to the next, if your faith is
not centered on Jesus, the life-giver, it's worth nothing.
Charles Spurgeon, said to be the greatest preacher of the 19th
century, said this: "I would recommend you either believe God up to
the hilt, or else not believe at all. Believe this book of God ...
or else reject it. There is no logical standing place between the
two. Be satisfied with nothing less than a faith that swims in the
deeps of divine revelation; a faith that paddles about the edge of
the water is poor faith at best. It is little better than a dry-land
faith, and is not good for much."
What's the alternative to biblical faith in Jesus? Not much. A gust
of wind. A faith that can't swim in deep water. Once Jesus' followers
told him, "Lord, You have the words of eternal life." Where else shall
we go? There is no one else.
A distinctive faith in a unique Lord, shaped by Scripture. If you
are marked with the cross of Christ, you're going to stand out in
a crowd. His cross has been imprinted on your heart since baptism,
and on your mind as you have grown in your faith. It is on your lips
as you confess it every week in church. Bear his mark boldly on your
face and in your life as you follow him, that this confused and spiritually
starved world may know that only Jesus is Lord; that all may believe
and be saved. Amen.
|
|
St.
Timothy's Lutheran
