Sermon - 2014-05-18

Have you ever looked at someone, and just by the way their face was formed, the color of their hair, their mannerisms, you could tell that they were part of a particular family?  You could easily tell that this boy was a Johnson, Swenson, or Heskin.  You could look at a girl and know that she was a Larson, Frederickson, or Berger. Each one of us, has similar features in our face, our hair, the way that we walk, and even our mannerisms to others family members.  These are all things that we share with our own family members.  

Though we each have our differences in appearance and we come from different families, we bear the image of God.  But I am not referring to our looks when I state this, but I am referring to the way we act and treat each other. For when we look at one another, we bear witness to similarities to our own self. We see within others the same hard life experience, and the same joys that we also share with one another.  However, in each and everyone of us, we merely see a glimpse of who God is.  We see for only a moment the Holy Spirit that dwells within us.  

It is not until Jesus Christ came to us as human, that we bear witness to the true essence and image of God living and dwelling among us.  For, Jesus was truly human and divine.  With Jesus,  the Savior and Lord of all humanity is living and dwelling among us.  Jesus teaches the people of God the very heart of God’s Will for us.  Jesus shows the lessons and truth that we are all children of God.  Jesus shows us that we have fallen and are in need of God within our daily lives.  Once we realize that God should be at the center of our lives, and that we are in Him, we find ourselves with a new life, a new reason to live, and a new calling to live out our days.  

Jesus tells us, that as his disciples we show that we are his disciples by the love that we share with them.  The LOVE, the kindness, the mercy, and the care, we share to others, is the Will that displays to others that God is with them and we are his followers.  Yet this love to one another does not come easy.  It is not something that we wish to share with those around us.  For too often in this world, we bear witness to the competition that sets us against one another.  We bear witness to people seeking the revenge or justice a person deserves for what they have done.  For this world and the ways it works is not the way that God works.  

When Jesus says, I am the Way the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  Christians are reminded that there is only One God.  We are bearing witness to the Way in which God works. God enters into our lives, when we least expect it, and delivers to us the hope, grace, and love for which we are longing.  We hear the truth of how and why we were created to be in this world.  We were created for the sake of those around us. We bear witness and receive the life that we have in our Baptism.  Through our baptism, we share in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit this hope, grace and love for which others are longing.

It is here that we see God doing the work for us.  There is nothing more for us to do because God has done it for us.  We look around and see our brothers and sisters in this world, in need of that same grace, hope, and love that God has given to us.  So when we hear that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the life,  we as Christians rejoice for we hear that promise once again and above all that it is for all of us.  Fully and completely and delivered to us.  

Thanks be to God.  Amen.