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The Sacrament of The Risen
Christ by Rev. J. Howard Cepelak Isaiah 55:1-9, Psalm 63:1-8, I Corinthians 10:1-13, Luke 13:1-9 | |
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From the Book of the Prophet, Isaiah: From St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians:
From the Gospel According to St. Luke: Let us pray. Any careful reading of Scripture will most certainly reveal that God has high expectations for His people. The currently popular notion that anything goes has no justification in Scripture. Just the opposite is true. God expects that we will respond to Him with our highest and our best. God sets standards for His people -standards that He established for us knowing full well our human frailty, our capacity for and tendency towards sin. In fact, He set those standards precisely because of our human frailty, knowing the presence of and the power of evil in this world. The divinely established standards function to protect us from that evil, to insure some degree of goodness, health and well being in society and to keep us safe and secure. The best and most concise summary of those behavioral standards is, of course, the collection revealed to Moses - the Ten Commandments. Truly, if everyone kept most of the Ten Commandments even most of the tune, life would certainly be better, less painful and more joyful. They protect us from victimization. No one wants to be the victim of theft, adultery, false witness or murder. Recognizing that we do not want to be victimized should cause us to desire not to victimize anyone else. Hence, the commandments protect us from both victimization and becoming a victimizer. These commandments represent rules for living. They apply horizontally, relating to how we relate to each other. We benefit largely through the avoidance of injury, suffering and pain. But the first four commandments pertain vertically, that is in terms on how we relate to God. The First and Great Commandment to love God above all else as well as the keeping the Lord's name for holy usage, worshipping faithfully on the Sabbath and avoiding any form of idolatry keep us in a faithful relationship to Him. They come first because if we keep them, the others will more easily follow. As I said in last Sunday's sermon, if we get it right with God, we will get it right with each other as well. The Ten Commandments as well as the massive body of the Law that developed after Moses delivered the commandments to God's people formed the foundation of the covenant that God had made with His chosen people. Throughout their history, as they broke the commandments and departed from their God, the Lord would recall His people through His prophets. Each of those prophets proclaimed essentially the same message - return to God. Keep the commandments. Keep the covenant. Hence, the prophet Isaiah said the same thing in his generation as did all the other prophets that had gone before him. He spoke for God when he said, Incline your ear and come to me: hear that your soul may live ... the people had turned a deaf ear to God. They ignored His commandments and had turned away from Him. Their community life, their life as a nation and their individual lives suffered for then- unfaithfulness. Abuse, oppression, injustice and misery resulted. But Isaiah not only issued the call to return to God, but he also went a step further when, again, speaking God's word, he added, and I will make with you and everlasting covenant. With these words, God told His people that he would one day send to them a savior. He told them that He would establish a new covenant with them in and through that savior. This new covenant would be an everlasting covenant, a covenant not only for the goodness and quality of life here and now, but also for the sake of eternal life. God kept His Word. That should be no surprise. God always keeps His word. He always has. He always will. He came to us in Jesus Christ. And the new covenant that He established in and through Jesus Christ became a positive covenant. No longer was it necessary just to avoid doing evil, but now He has revealed that He wants us to do good. He wants us to bear good fruit for he sake of His kingdom. Hence, Jesus proclaims the importance of loving God above all else and then adds the corollary, love thy neighbor as thyself. He calls us to an active, positive and creative goodness to be lived out in our lives to increase the love of God and of neighbor in this fallen world. He said, If you love me you will keep my commandments. And I give you a new commandment; love one another as I have loved you. Active goodness replaces passive avoidance. He expects goodness. Active, powerful and life changing goodness that increases the quality of life not only for us but also for everyone around us. As positive agents for goodness, life simply gets better for everyone. He expects good fruit. It all sounds so simple - and in some sense it is. But life gets complicated. We get caught up in the muck and mire of living in a world in which self-seeking replaces the active practice of goodness. Power brokers play games with our lives. Greedy people seek to take what we little we have. We see this hi the history of governments and even in our own government. Some dislike us or even hate us because we profess a love for God. We're surrounded by temptations. They can hit hard and fast. In defense, we're tempted to become power brokers ourselves using power for abuse to serve our own self interest at the expense of others. We can get caught up in a vicious cycle of taking whatever we can whenever we can because we fear that someone else will take it from us. And even as we profess our love for God, our desire to have those who disagree with us like us, we're further tempted to compromise our relationship with God in favor of seeking their approval. But for God, there's no acceptable compromise with evil. If only we sought God's approval rather than the approval of those who disapprove of God, this world would be so much better off. We will avoid that temptation and the consequent fall into sin to the extent that we keep our relationship with God primary in our lives. That most certainly means regular worship in a true church. We must never deceive ourselves that we can do it alone. God calls us into His community of faith for the sake of ever increasing faithfulness. And that faithfulness has its purpose as well - the joy of life in the joy of salvation. If we fail to worship Him we will worship something or someone else. In true worship we give ourselves, over and over again, to God rededicating ourselves - heart, mind, body and soul to Him. It means living our lives for the fulfillment of His purpose. St. Paul knew the power of temptation - the temptation to depart from God. But he also knew that God will give us the strength to resist. That power comes through faithfulness to Jesus Christ just as He has been faithful to us. Thus, the apostle writes, God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. St. Paul, though, does not stop there. He tells us in the next few lines the source of that power to resist temptation. Listen to his words. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? The Sacrament of the broken body and shed blood of our savior empowers us to ever increasing faithfulness. We have no power separate from His power. His power, active in us, results in our bearing the good fruit. So we come to His table knowing our human frailty hi the midst of what may seem to be overpowering temptation. He strengthens us, not only to resist the powers of evil that surround us, but also to actively bear good fruit in good works that maximize the goodness of life and bring glory to the Lord of life who has established a new covenant with us in this life for the sake of eternal life. So come to this sacred table and let the power of Christ's saving sacrifice empower you to bear good fruit for the sake of the joy of salvation. Let us pray. Amen. |