To die for. . . to live for. . .

On this day when the attention of the Church is turned to those who died in the faith and for the faith, it occurs to me that there is a difference between what we are willing to die for and what we are willing to die for.  Over the course of centuries and even to the present day with its abundance of violence, it has not been that difficult to find people willing to die for something.  Rile up a crowd and they will march to destroy or be destroyed in the name of their cause.  Individuals are willing, at an alarming rate, to kill and to be killed for seemingly small reason or none at all.  I recently watched The Good Nurse in which the villain may have killed 400 in hospitals across the Northeast -- a figure made even more scandalous by his refusal to give a reason for perpetrating such violence.  

When we confirm youth in the faith and when we receive people into membership in the congregation, we routinely ask if they are willing to suffer death for the sake of their confession and Church.  It does not seem to give them pause to make such solemn promise.  Perhaps it is because we are more confident now that we will not be put before magistrates, judges, kings, or emperors in the way that once was routine.  Yes, I know death is not simple or easy for folks to contemplate.  I know that we surrendered all kinds of things from our liberty and dignity as people out of fear of Covid.  I know that it is not as easy as it once was to raise up an army to defend even a righteous cause.  But as difficult as these things are, it is even more difficult to find people willing to live for something -- for faith, for freedom, for honor, for integrity, and other noble cause.  That is the challenge to Christianity.

We seem to do well enough to find people willing to suffer all -- even death -- for the cause of the faith.  The numbers of martyrs for the faith does not seem to decline significantly in any age or generation.  But when it comes to living as those who belong to Christ, whose membership in the Kingdom of God is above all, and who are committed to a nobler morality and ethic than what might pass the litmus test of culture or popularity in the moment, well, that is another thing.  Look at how easily and how willingly Christians surrender the truths of God's Word for what passes for science or what is judged reasonable in the moment.  Look at how easy it is for orthodoxy to become a broad boulevard instead of Christ's narrow way.  Look at how quickly doctrine has become a bad word, a sign of prideful exclusivity instead of the preservation of Scriptural truth confessed down through the ages.  Look at how terrible it is to exclude anyone from anything in the Church for reason of sin or unbelief without being condemned as a hater.  No, dying for Christ is easy but living for Him is more difficult by far.

In the Our Father we pray for our heavenly Father to forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and yet we keep the wrongs in our memory and in our playbook when charting how we deal with them going forward.  We do not forgive except in a perfunctory and shallow way and are almost scandalized as Trump was when the widow of Charlie Kirk publicly forgave his murderer.  We say that we love the poor as Christ did but they continue in want and need while the rich get richer.  We protest that we are against racism and bigotry and yet the excess of our words finds it hard to believe we do not hate our brothers and sisters who are different from us.  I am not at all suggesting that we should be passive or surrender doctrine in the name of some passive and weak love for others but just the opposite.  I am insisting that if dying for Christ is what we are willing to do, then living for Him is at least what we also ought to be willing to do.  

How many Christians live outside the places where God's Word is preached and His Sacraments administered and yet they claim to be as real in their faith as those who go?  Why?  Does Scripture give us a choice?  If our faith cannot muster us from our beds and pajamas and screens long enough to be in the Lord's House on the Lord's day, it is not likely to be able to muster us from our comfortable sins and the ruts of our sinful ways either.  If we complain that nobody needs to confess to a pastor in order to be forgiven and yet God has clearly given us this gift of private confession, what is it that is keeping us from it?  If we find the burden of the tithe to great and deem our own needs to be the higher priority, should we not be urged to examine such motivation for not giving and square it with God's Word?  The dearth of those who are willing to serve in positions of leadership and service in our congregations is testament to the way we value our time and skills for our purpose over the Lord's and raises a challenge to those who insist I am willing to die for my faith.  Oh, well, are you willing to live for it also and to sacrifice time and energy in the positions of leadership and service that cry out for people in every congregation I know.

Before we pass by All Saints and get back to our own lives and business, it is worth contemplating how those we remember gave themselves and their all for the sake of the Kingdom and to ask why we are unwilling to give our time in worship and prayer, our gifts in support of the Church and for the sake of the poor, or our precious desire for entertainment to be called to repentance and faith.  

For All the Saints
   
For all the saints who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest.
    Alleluia! Alleluia!

Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might;
Thou, Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true light.
    Alleluia! Alleluia!

Oh, may Thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old
And win with them the victor’s crown of gold!
    Alleluia! Alleluia!

Oh, blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
    Alleluia! Alleluia!

And when the fight is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
    Alleluia! Alleluia!

The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest;
Sweet is the calm of paradise the blest.
    Alleluia! Alleluia!

 But, lo, there breaks a yet more glorious day:
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of Glory passes on His way.
    Alleluia! Alleluia!

From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:
    Alleluia! Alleluia!