February 24, 2019                                                                              Text:  Luke 6:27-38

Dear Friends in Christ,

            A man was informed by his doctor that he had rabies.  The man had waited so long to go to the doctor that nothing could be done about his condition.  After telling him the sad news, the doctor left.  Later, he came back to check on the man.  Instead of finding him upset, the patient was writing on a piece of paper.  “Are you writing a will?” the doctor asked.  “No,” said the man, “I’m making a list of all the people I am going to bite!”

            Oh how we love to live for revenge, armed with ammunition, ready and equipped to pay back those who have hurt us.  Jesus knew about this sinful nature in all of us, this spiteful bitterness that builds up so easily.  That is why He went to great lengths to give us a better way to live.  Don’t live for revenge . . .

“LIVE TO FORGIVE”

            That is the sum of the message Jesus shares in Gospel reading from Luke.  Listen again to our Savior’s words:  “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.  To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.  Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.  And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” (v. 27-31)

            Now, this type of forgiveness is easier said than done, isn’t it?  It is not easy to forgive someone who has hurt you, or embarrassed you or caused you pain.  Forgiving then can be one of the hardest things in life to do.  Our nature is to strike back or make them pay or stop loving them or cut off all communication.  We can’t just let them off the hook, can we?

            Sin is never free.  There is always a price.  The price has been paid.  It was not paid with gold or silver but with the precious and innocent blood shed by Jesus Christ on the cross. 

            The price for all the sins that will ever be committed against you was paid that day when God’s own Son gave up His life at Calvary.  That same day the price was paid for all the sins you commit against others.  There is a price for sin.  We don’t pay it.  Jesus Christ, God himself, paid the ultimate price with His life.  Is it right for us to try to make others pay for their sins, when God doesn’t make us pay the price for ours?

            Jesus didn’t live for revenge.  When He rose from the grave He didn’t go off in some Stallone-Schwarzenegger rage to track down those who wronged Him.  We may love that in our hearts and minds, but that is not God’s way.  He lives to forgive and He enables us to live that kind of life also.

            Jesus says in verse 36, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”  Alex lives in Columbia.  One day he was on his way to work at a banana plantation when armed guerrillas boarded his bus, ordered everyone off and shot them.  In the shooting, Alex lost an eye.  He later joined a prison ministry where he ran into Ismael, the very man who shot him years before.  Through his sharing of the Gospel in the prison, Ismael came to the Christian faith.

            Alex is now on his way to law school to help those improperly imprisoned.  Thanks to the peace process in Columbia, many former guerrillas, including Ismael, were pardoned and released from prison.  Ismael needed a place to live, so Alex asked him to move into his place.  The former guerrilla and his victim are now roommates.

            Alex, through the work of Christ on his heart, was able to let go of the grudge against the man who had wronged him.  He was following the Lord’s plan and there is another Christian believer on earth.  “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.  For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Rom. 5:8-10)

            Live to forgive.  Live to love others.  When we share the forgiveness God has given us, it will have an effect in the lives of those we forgive.  We may not see the effect right away.  We may never see it.  But when we share the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, we can rest in His promise that He will touch the lives of those we forgive, just as He has touched our lives through the forgiveness He’s given us.

            There it is.  God’s plan for your life.  Live to forgive.  That is the kind of life God lives.  And that’s the life He empowers you to live also.  Live to forgive . . through Jesus Christ.

                                                Amen.

February 20, 2019                                                        Text:  1 Corinthians 15:12-20

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Years ago George A. Buttrick wrote:  “When he does die, the undertaker strives to make it appear that he has not died:  he dresses him in a (suit), and lays him in a narrow box as if he were asleep, even though a man does not usually sleep in a (suit) in a narrow box.  There is a funeral, for, unfortunately for our evasions, the man has died:  ‘Too bad about So-and-so.  But let’s not think about it!’  So we run to our familiar hiding place in the sensate world.  And the cynic calls religion an ‘escape!’” . . .

            That is our starting point for this morning.  We are going to die.  The fact is we are dying.  A sportscaster on ESPN used to say of an injured player, “He is day-to-day but aren’t we all.”  We are.  We don’t know when it’s coming just that it is coming and we can’t escape it.  That we would be a fearful statement if it weren’t for what Christ has done for us.  He is resurrected.  He has been raised.  He is alive.  He has given us who will fall asleep in Christ . . .

“THE GREATEST VICTORY”

            What is your greatest victory?  What makes your top 5?  Family?  Work?  A game?  I’ve been blessed to make game winning free throws with no time on the clock, a game-winning shot that got us into the district championship against Greg Sheley and his Lincoln Jr. High teammates; I’ve had the pleasure of watching victories by Karson and Holden, but “The Greatest Victory” is not a movie title or TV show it is what Christ Jesus has done for you and for me.  Why do we need “The Greatest Victory?”  Listen carefully to this:

            “The world today is trying to get into the Church in a way different from that of former times.  The radio is a most wonderful invention, and by it the pure Gospel is brought to thousands who otherwise would not hear it; but by the same means false teachers are admitted into the homes of many who otherwise would not hear them.  The automobile and good roads have shortened distances and made travel more convenient; however, the automobile is not only used to bring people to churches, but also to take them away from it.  The moving picture is a most valuable educational means; but it is largely used in the service of sin…The rapid growth of our cities is making it possible for our Church to reach more people than ever…but at the same time it is, for various reasons making the work of the church more difficult and is destroying home life.  The elimination of much hard work by labor-saving devices is not conducive towards emphasizing the dignity of toil and has a tendency to make people think that hard work in unworthy of a gentleman or lady.

            “We are living in a restless and restive age.  Life today is much more strenuous and nerve-wracking.  People, especially the young, are impatient of control and hard to keep in check.”

            Those words were penned by Lutheran Professor Dr. John H.C. Fritz and penned in 1932.  Eighty-seven years ago!  So, what’s new?  Nothing.  Your parents and grandparents lived in a restless and nerve-wracking time.  Everyone does this side of the grave.  O death, where is your victory?

            Everything hinges on the resurrection.  That is Paul’s argument in our text.  People can argue and debate Jesus and His words all they want but the Resurrection confronts the world with the greatest, most colossal event ever.  Complete victory over the grave.  Your eternal life rests on it!  My eternal life rests on it!

            If He was not raised from the dead we are to be pitied.  But we are here because we are resurrection people.  We proclaim the greatest victory every Lord’s Day.  We celebrate the greatest event that ever came to this earth:  Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection to overcome sin, death, and hell for those who believe.  And Paul instantly drags us from the roots we drive into this world, drags us past the headstones and states the case without question:  “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (v. 20)

            I still like the words of Alexander MacLaren here:  “I believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, (among) other reasons, because I do not understand how it was possible for the Church to exist for a week after the crucifixion, unless Jesus Christ rose again.  Why was it that they did not all scatter?  Why was it the spirit of despondency and the tendency to separation, which were beginning to creep over them…did not happen?  How came it that these people, with their Master taken away from the midst of them, and the bond of union between them removed, and all their hopes crushed did not say:  ‘We have made a mistake, let us go back to…our fishing again, and try and forget our bright allusions’?  That is what John the Baptist’s followers did when he died.  Why did not Christ’s followers do the same?  Because Christ rose again and re-knit them together.”

            Christ has done that for us – re-knit us together.  The broken pieces of our life re-assembled.  The defeats conquered.  “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 15:56-57)  Because He lives we will live.  Enjoy . . .  The Greatest Victory!

                        Amen.