Impassioned Passion. . .

The sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany on Sunday, February 13, 2022.

For all the niceness of our Lord’s Words, they fit better on a plaque than they do in our hearts.  “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”  But who wants this poverty?  “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.” But who wants to live with hunger?   “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.”  But who can laugh in the face of sorrow and tears?   “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!”  But who wants to be hated, rejected, and reviled?

When you first read these words, it may seem like Jesus is simply telling you to buck up, face the music resolutely, practice a little self-control, and wait for the tables to turn.  Who wants to hear that?  Besides that, Jesus does not appear to be self-controlled either.  He was so out of control that His disciples and family thought Him to be unbalanced.  Is our Lord calling you to be unbalanced also?  Is the Lord calling you to be out of control as well?

In fact, the Lord is relentless.  He does not resist passion but is passionate about everything He says or does.  From a boy who insists that His place is in the Temple to the Son of Man who dares to call disciples from their jobs and homes to follow Him, our Lord is passionate.  From the Son of God who commands bread to feed thousands and illness, affliction, and death to give way to His will, our Lord is passionate.  But there is something about His passion to which we must pay attention.  He is not passionate for Himself but for us, not relentless in the pursuit of His desire but the desire of the Father who sent Him, and not out of control in the pursuit of selfish things but out of control for the sake of you and me and our salvation.  His passion is His compassion for us and for that compassionate rescue He will suffer and die to save us.

It is this passion that the Lord works in us by His Holy Spirit.  We call that passion faith.  The Holy Spirit ignites in you and me passion for Christ and for the eternal salvation He has come to accomplish.  Just as there was no room in Christ for anything but the relentless pursuit of our salvation, so there needs be nothing in us but the relentless pursuit of Him and of the salvation He has accomplish for us by giving up everything for our sake.  That is the message of the Beatitudes – the radical nature of His words that go against all reason and logic but not faith.

That is why our Lord warns us.  “Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.”  If your heart is full of today and the things of this life, there is no room for eternal life and you are far from the kingdom of God and its gifts of righteousness, peace, and joy.  “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.”  If your god is your belly and your life is the endless pursuit of that which fills it, there is no room for Christ in bread and wine and you are far from the kingdom and its life and salvation.  “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.”  If your god is entertainment and leisure and that which makes you happy, your end will be grief and tears that do not end.  Think of the countless hours wasted away on those small screens through social media, Tik Tok, and a host of other platforms that offer us at best an amusement or distraction.

The world is filled with false prophets who speak everything that appeals to your sinful hearts but of hope and of life.  The world is filled with an endless preoccupation with what is frivolous, foolish, and fleeting but offers no refuge for the pain of guilt or the shadow of death.  The world changes its tune and its mind day after day because it has no anchor or foundation.  The world knows only of friendships easily broken, of marriages easily dissolved, of children killed in the womb, and of a most unsocial media that is a platform for our ignorance and foolishness.

The passion of God is for you and the Lord Jesus is relentless in the pursuit of your salvation.  He is willing to suffer the rebuke of powerful people of the day in order to rescue the lost, the lonely, and the languishing.  He will not pass by the neighbor in need or restrain His mercy because it is the Sabbath or ignore the Samaritan because it offends the people of God or hide from His enemies even though He knows they seel His death.  He has a purpose and a plan to redeem us from our sins and rescue us from the power of death.  The plan is not logical or reasonable or cheap.  It will cost Him His all this is why He has come.  To empty Himself into suffering and death in order to fill us with forgiveness and life.

And what are you willing to do to hold onto His gift of salvation?  He does not ask you to pay for your salvation or to atone for your sins or to repeat what He has done.  Only that you put first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness in your heart, mind, and life.  Only that you are willing to forego the moment for the sake of eternity.  Only that you live by faith and not by sight.  Only that you surrender your fascination with the false prophets to cling to the Word of God that endures forever.  Are you willing to do this?  Perhaps the pandemic was a good test of this resolve – what would we surrender to our fears?  Truth is we didn’t do so well.

We were not passionate for the things of God but for ourselves and to protect ourselves no matter what it cost.  We were not relentless for the things of God but to do whatever we thought was necessary to preserve our own lives.  When we were confirmed and received into membership, we pledged to suffer all even death rather than fall away from this faith.  Every Sunday sees about 40% of our people here.  We sought an easy Christianity that asks nothing of us but what you get in return is an easy but worthless Christianity – without power to save.  If the Church exists only to make us feel better about the sins we love, that is no church at all.

God does not have to judge or condemn us.  Our loose grip on God and His kingdom is judgment enough.  Our words and actions are judgment enough.  But, guess what.  God does not seek your destruction.  God seeks your redemption.  And God calls you to repent so He might restore you again.  He calls you to trust in Him now and forgives your failure to trust Him in the past.  He promises you a future and an eternity and sets aside your preoccupation with the moment.  He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding and steadfast love.  He is relentless in the pursuit of you, in the mercy that saves the unworthy and undeserving, and in the grace that is sufficient for all your needs.

My friends, the past is done.  Christ has forgiven you.  But challenges will come and tests will arise for the faithful.  Where will you stand?  Will you stand together with the faithful, who pursue with all abandon the kingdom of God and who value above all things the salvation that came at the cost of Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross?  You cannot endure by being stoic or survive by insulating yourself from any consequence of believing.  But if you trust in the Lord, He will deliver you not only from your trials and troubles but to everlasting life and light.  Faith is not easy.  It is much easier to poke fun at faith and take seriously the things around us that we think are more real.  These will not last but God’s kingdom will.

We have a passionate Christ, a Savior who is passionate about His compassion on us and our every need.  We have a relentless God, a God in flesh who comes among us full of glory, only to surrender it all on the cross for our salvation.  We have a determined God, a Lord who comes not to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many.  He plants this passion in us by baptism and faith so we might be passionate about His mercy.  He plants us firmly in His grace and gives strength to resist sin, the temptation to surrender His great treasure for the puny treasures of this life, and a place to come that when we fall, He might raise us up again.  God grant us that we may be worth of Him who suffered and died that we might live and be as passionate for Him and He is for us.  In Christ’s name.