Fifth Sunday After Pentecost

+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti Amen. +

Text: Luke 9:57-62
Theme: Identity With Christ

Dear friends in Christ Jesus,

Reputations are indicators of how we are viewed by others. What associations do people make when they see you and speak of you to others? If others were called upon to describe your commitments and allegiances, what would they name? Do people identify you by worldly tags? Or do they first recognize you by your association with Christ? The Bible reminds us, “All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”1 The Holy Spirit empowers us to live accordingly.

Jesus speaks today of the urgency of following Him. Discipleship is a serious commitment. Human activities, even when they relate to family or career, cannot have a higher priority in life than faithfulness to the triune God. The struggle of living according to His truth is the struggle of having all of our temporal activities conformed to our identity as God’s people and not the other way around.

Christianity is not a hobby. The living of your Christian life is not an occasional, optional, or auxiliary pursuit. What things do you invest your time and resources in on a daily and weekly basis that matter the most in the end? God is always calling us to an evaluation of our priorities. That is part and parcel with daily repentance for sin and bearing the cross. At times He calls you to a more radical re-prioritization and restructuring of your life. This can rarely happen without discomfort or even pain. Christ says this about the way the Father tends His vineyard, the Church, “He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”2 The pruning off of our sinful and selfish ways is a painful, but necessary part of the maintenance our well-being and our training for usefulness in God’s kingdom.

The influence of selfishness in our culture is chronically underestimated. When our selfish desires go unchallenged they become expressed in all kinds of practices that become habitual. And when others concede to our ego-centric natures because of the need to be liked or out of fear or exasperation we may get the idea that carrying on in such a manner is perfectly acceptable. Our consciences become dulled. We become desensitized to the warped reality of “living in our own little world.”

How often do trivial and meaningless things dominate people’s lives? Recreation too has now become so endemic in our culture that most people can’t imagine their lives being structured in any other way. We might consider not just the hours frittered away watching TV or engaging in an endless range of spectator entertainments, but also of the time devoted to things which serve no useful or godly purpose. These realities hardly do justice to the biblical urgency to understand the times. The Bible says, “Be very careful, then, how you live- not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.”3

Jesus illustrated this emphatically as He went on His way teaching about the kingdom. “He said to another man, ‘Follow Me.’ But the man replied, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’”4 The words of Jesus are demanding. They show a clear break with Jewish tradition which held that the burying of a family member took precedence over religious duties. Without showing disrespect to the deceased Jesus nevertheless gives clear priority to the mission of the gospel. The spiritually dead, unbelievers, can be left to attend to their own burials.

At the moment of death an individual’s eternal future is sealed. No change can be made. Nothing can be done. There is no existence between heaven and hell, no purgatory, no temporary place of waiting. Jesus emphatically stresses the importance of tending to the spiritual state of the living. The time for repentance cannot be squandered. For others there is still hope. That hope is anchored to the One who was lifted up on a cross on Calvary.

Christianity proclaims and defends the unique biblical teaching that God revealed Himself definitively in the person of the crucified Jesus. Jesus is not merely God’s messenger, His prophet, or His designated agent to facilitate His mission. Jesus Christ is of the same divinity of the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Scripture says, “In Him the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form.”5 Jesus is the enfleshed Word of God, the Gospel incarnate. Only His death and resurrection open the gates to heaven. He is the sacrifice for sins. He is the Mediator; He is our Advocate before the Father. Jesus said “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”6

Dear friends, the realm of unbelief is a vast expanse of chaos, confusion, and darkness. People wander to and fro not even knowing they are lost. But the Holy Spirit, with this one beaming light of truth- the gospel of the forgiveness of sins- pierces that darkness wherever the Word holds forth. And then the Spirit gathers lost, wandering, and injured sheep into His fold, the Church. Within this community ruled by the truth of His Word He heals the souls of the injured and feeds hearts hungry for His mercy. He separates truth from falsehood, good from evil, and faith from unbelief. When you eat and drink the bread and wine consecrated by His word you receive the sacramental body and blood of Jesus Christ. In that body and blood the believer receives forgiveness, life, and salvation, while the unbeliever invites judgment.

In this continual dynamic of the working of His word the Spirit calls unbelievers to faith, sinners to repentance, and the repentant to rest. And because we have spiritual rest we are strengthened to give our lives in sacrifice for others. Christians should not be as concerned about rights and entitlements as they are about privileges and responsibilities; gifts and stewardship. If we’re always focused on whether we’re getting our fair cut in life it is unlikely we are striving to love our neighbour as ourselves. You belong to Christ and nothing He possesses can be lost. Your life can be spent on others because you have an eternal inheritance.

A person’s reputation in life is very important. But it’s only God’s approval that really matters. We have the Father’s approval because of the sacrifice of the Son. All human influences are reduced to nothing. Who is going to stand with you before the throne of judgment and advocate on your behalf. Will it be any of those people your received accolades and praise from in this life? Will it be your spouse or children? Your boss or your employees? Do you think any mortal holds any persuasive influence over the Almighty? St. Paul said, “Am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”7

Yet the poor and downtrodden will testify to the faith of Christians- precisely because believers act as Christ to those in need. The Bible says that at the judgment “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.”8 He will say, “Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.”9 Amen.

+ in nomine Jesu +

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
27 June 2010 Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Galatians 3:27 2 John 15:2
3 Ephesians 5:15-16 4 Luke 9:59-60
5 Colossians 2:9 6 Matthew 7:13-14
7 Galatians 1:10 8 Mathew 25:40 9 Matthew 25:34