Sunday Sermons

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska

Sunday sermon – Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 17, ’09

“Gifted Way To Live”

Text: 1 John 5:1-5

It is a gracious & generous & gifted way to live, when we who are Christians not only believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God but we who are Christians believe in paying attention to, carrying out, keeping, obeying God’s commands.

What we have to focus on in the epistle reading for this Sunday from 1 John 5 is that living a gracious & generous & gifted life of paying attention to, loving to carry out, keeping, obeying God’s commands is first, not a burdensome, not a troublesome thing. And second, it is to be on the way to overcoming the world.

First, Christians paying attention to, carrying out, keeping, obeying God’s commands is not burdensome, not irksome, not oppressive not grievous, not a pain? What does this mean?

It means, if we let Scripture interpret Scripture, paying atten-tion to God’s commands, carrying out God’s commands, obeying God’s commands is not a matter of what we have to do but what we Christians born of God & believing Jesus Christ is the Son of God, get to do. Can you believe there is a level of enjoyment, fulfillment, meaning & purpose for our lives, when it comes to doing the will of God?

This past Wednesday I watched 12 Junior High students plus one guest & her little brother finish our last Wednesday session of the school year with bowls full of ice cream & brownies that the kids covered with their favorite toppings.

I did not have to say to them, “Now you have to eat this & enjoy this. You have to find this delicious & have fun celebrating this year we’ve been together.” No, none of the youth had to be forced, had to be told, “You have to eat this ice cream.” They were ever so glad for the opportunity to get to eat it. Not! Do I have too! But, wow, I get too! May I please have some more. Thank you!

So it is with keeping God’s commandments when our hearts are in the right place and we are born of God and our faith is in Jesus the Son of God.

The apostle Paul writes in Galatians 6, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” What kind of harvest? A harvest of joy, a harvest of love, a harvest of meaningful & purposeful living, a harvest of life, eternal life!

I have always loved the story Dr. Fred Craddock tells about a group of high school students wearing themselves out doing good.

At a church where Dr. Craddock had been invited to speak he saw a large 15 passenger van pull up in the church parking lot, and a bunch of young people in ages ranging from 13 to 18 years old got out. They unloaded bedrolls, duffel bags, back packs. Dr. Craddock recalls it was the awfullest looking bunch of kids you’ve ever seen, something like what the cat would drag in, really in bad shape.

After talking to a few people, Dr. Craddock learned this motley looking group of church youth had just returned from a work mission. They had been to a place down south where in one week, along with some other young people, they had rebuilt a little church for a community. The kids were beat. They looked terrible.

While they were sitting on their bags waiting for their parents to come, Dr. Craddock had a chance to walk over and ask one of the boys, “You tired?”

And the youth said, “Whew – am I tired . . . This is the best tired I’ve ever felt.” (Craddock Stories, edited by Graves & Ward, page 94)

Now that’s what a harvest of joy is, a harvest of love, a harvest meaningful & purposeful living, a harvest of real life. Have you experienced it? “The best tired you’ve ever felt.” Isn’t it a gracious, generous, gifted, fulfilling way for us to live daily? Carrying out, keeping, obeying, doing what God commands?

Worship every weekend . . children of all ages loving & obeying moms and dads . . parents not provoking their children . . couples honoring their marriage vows for life . . young people standing up, speaking up for the sanctity of life for the unborn, for the handicapped, for the elderly; church members striving to love people and use things and not visa versa - loving things and using people.

Whew . . it’s work! It’s demanding! It’s tiring. Such living calls for focus, obedience, discipline, sacrifice. But when it’s done in the Spirit of Christ, trusting in the presence of Christ, looking again & again to the cross of Christ, it’s not burdensome, not irk-some, not oppressive, not grievous, not a pain!

Therefore, writes the apostle Paul, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

“Carry someone else? Sure, He’s not heavy, he’s my brother.”

“Pick you up, drop you off? See that you get where you’re going? Sure, it’s not far. I’d be glad to do it.”

“Help the helpless, love the loveless, encourage and be there for children for this year’s VBS, for neighbors in need? We don’t have to! We get to! We want to. Where do we sign up.” Love in Christ is not burdensome, troublesome, irksome.

Love in Christ is strong & living, Binding faithful hearts in one;

Love in Christ is true & giving. May His will in us be done.

Love is patient & forbearing, Clothe in Christ’s humility,

Gentle, selfless, kind, and caring, Reaching out in charity. (LSB no. 706, VV.1,2, CPH)

Second, living a gracious & generous & gifted life of paying attention to, carrying out, keeping, obeying God’s commandments is to be on the way toward overcoming the world.

This is how we know that we love the children of God, by loving God and carrying out his commands.

Not only are God’s commands not burdensome to those born of God & believing in Jesus as the Son of God, but everyone born of God, believing that Jesus is the Son of God, carrying out Christ’s commands is on their way to overcoming the world.

This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

What is involved in “overcoming the world?” What does this mean?

Again, if we let Scripture interpret Scripture, our Lord Jesus Christ said to his disciples, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. Yes! I have overcome the world.”

In the writings of the apostle John, both in his Gospel and in his New Testament letters, the point John makes about the world is that the world we live in often turns out to be a world that is too much with us, too much temptation, too much darkness, too much wanting, to much having, not enough believing, not enough repenting, not enough giving, loving, lifting, sharing, sticking together. Yet John writes, “Whatever is born of God overcomes the world.” Christ’s victory over sin, death, and the world is our victory through faith.

Sunday mornings when our SS classes meet for our SS opening, and on Wednesday afternoons when our ice-cream loving, talkative Jr. High Youth need a musical interlude, one of the songs the kids have really picked up on singing is called, “Hope’s Celebration.”

Talk about Christians talking the talk and walking the walk on the way to overcoming the pressures & problems, the trials & temptations of a secular society, a secular culture, a secular world, the very first verse of this neat song says:

Enemies threaten, but God will tend them.

God does not fail us though storms assail us.

God’s love enfolds us, His mercy holds us.

Praise to the Great Trinity! Alleluia! (Hope’s Celebration – By Terry K. Dittmer)

In helping us to overcome the world, God in Jesus Christ brings us each of us through our own on-going episodes of weakness, selfish-ness, unfaithfulness so that we may also be counted among those who overcome through our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes! In Chist we have help in overcoming the world.

Way back when Thomas Jefferson was president of this country, he and a group of companions were headed cross-country on horses for an important meeting.

When they came to a swollen river which was running out-of-its-banks because of a recent down-pour, they saw the river had washed the bridge away. Each rider was forced to cross the river on horse-back, fighting for his life against the rapid current.

The possibility of not making it threatened each rider which cause a traveler who was not part of their group to step aside and watch.

After several of the riders had made it to the other side, the traveler asked President Jefferson if he would take him across the river. Jefferson agreed without hesitation. The man climbed on Jefferson’s horse and shortly thereafter the two of them made it safely to the other side.

As the stranger slid off the back of the back of Jefferson’s saddle onto dry ground, someone in the group asked him, “Why did you select the president to bring you across?”

The traveler was shocked, admitting he had no idea it was the president who had helped him.

“All I know,” the traveler said, “is that on some of your faces was written the answer ‘No,” and on some of them was the answer, “yes.” His face was a “yes”.

I would think, every time you willingly, joyfully, gratefully gather for worship here at St. Paul when you gaze up at this beautiful stained glass window behind me, what you see, what you can believe with confidence, is that wherever you have to go in this troubled, broken, storm-ravaged world, you can go in faith with Christ.

Who is it that overcomes the world? Who is it that has a “yes” face? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.