Sermon - 2016-06-26
There are many lessons that we learn in life. Some we learn very easily and others we learn and it is difficult. When we are growing up, we learn how to cook, bake, clean and so many other things that we do not want to learn but truly it is for our own benefit to learn them. Now there are other aspects of our life that happen over and over again and yet we do not learn anything from them. Generation after generation, decade after decade, we as a human people continue to engage in war. A time in which all of our times, energy, money, and resources are devoted to the death and destruction of other people. Over and over again, we send our own children to the battlefield for a reason. Yet we do not learn that we can do more and achieve more through understanding one another one rather than through the use of violent means. How many people must die before we learn that working together for the good of all is sometimes more important than achieving the process of getting there?
Once again, I draw you back into the letter of Paul to the people of Galatia. People are wanting the people to realize the vast gift that Jesus Christ has given to them in all that they are. In this gift of Jesus is setting us free to be the people of God. However, like the people in Galatia, we in our own modern get confused about what that freedom looks like and is for us. It is not a setting us free to do whatever we want. It is not living life to the fullest knowing that God will forgive us for all that we have done. Rather this freedom is to be set free from our sin and the sin of the world but for the purpose of becoming slaves for one another, to care for those who are in need, to share the gospel and to share God’s love with all people.
Now for much of Christian teaching and the message is all about Jesus Christ and the heavenly home that Christ has prepared for each and every one of us. A place that is filled with wonderful and glorious things. This is the destination and the direction that we are constantly striving for and the work has been done by Jesus Christ, our savior, and lord through his death and resurrection. So then we begin to wonder, what is that we are called to do?? Can we simply live out our days in whatever way we feel because we believe in Jesus Christ? We could but to truly filled with the Holy Spirit, God’s spirit of love, grace, and mercy. We would see those who are around us who are in need, those who need to be fed but also those who need to hear and experience the love of Jesus Christ in the Gospel. It is in this calling that we may find ourselves really wrestling with, what is that we like about it. We come to the buffet of the Gospel and we do some picking of what it is that we like and what it is we would like to stay away from. So the Christian message has become: Believe in Jesus Christ, be a good person and you shall be good.
We find ourselves perhaps believing in Jesus Christ but not fully understanding what or how Jesus has done these things. We know the why thanks to the wonderful song in Sunday School that we learned of “Jesus Loves Me This I know”. Yet when we do not find ourselves being called to action, called to do anything to make a difference in the lives of ourself or even the lives of others.
So we find ourselves directly in the center.
For many people, they do not like hearing this because it means that we are trading the chains of sin for the chains of service. However, this is what we are created for, to work together, to care for the world and one another and above all to do so in the name of Jesus Christ, our savior and lord.
Once again, I draw you back into the letter of Paul to the people of Galatia. People are wanting the people to realize the vast gift that Jesus Christ has given to them in all that they are. In this gift of Jesus is setting us free to be the people of God. However, like the people in Galatia, we in our own modern get confused about what that freedom looks like and is for us. It is not a setting us free to do whatever we want. It is not living life to the fullest knowing that God will forgive us for all that we have done. Rather this freedom is to be set free from our sin and the sin of the world but for the purpose of becoming slaves for one another, to care for those who are in need, to share the gospel and to share God’s love with all people.
Now for much of Christian teaching and the message is all about Jesus Christ and the heavenly home that Christ has prepared for each and every one of us. A place that is filled with wonderful and glorious things. This is the destination and the direction that we are constantly striving for and the work has been done by Jesus Christ, our savior, and lord through his death and resurrection. So then we begin to wonder, what is that we are called to do?? Can we simply live out our days in whatever way we feel because we believe in Jesus Christ? We could but to truly filled with the Holy Spirit, God’s spirit of love, grace, and mercy. We would see those who are around us who are in need, those who need to be fed but also those who need to hear and experience the love of Jesus Christ in the Gospel. It is in this calling that we may find ourselves really wrestling with, what is that we like about it. We come to the buffet of the Gospel and we do some picking of what it is that we like and what it is we would like to stay away from. So the Christian message has become: Believe in Jesus Christ, be a good person and you shall be good.
We find ourselves perhaps believing in Jesus Christ but not fully understanding what or how Jesus has done these things. We know the why thanks to the wonderful song in Sunday School that we learned of “Jesus Loves Me This I know”. Yet when we do not find ourselves being called to action, called to do anything to make a difference in the lives of ourself or even the lives of others.
So we find ourselves directly in the center.
For many people, they do not like hearing this because it means that we are trading the chains of sin for the chains of service. However, this is what we are created for, to work together, to care for the world and one another and above all to do so in the name of Jesus Christ, our savior and lord.
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