Sermon for the Eighth Sunday After the Epiphany A Sermon on Preparing to Live
Theme: Are you no longer afraid to die? Great! How do you feel about living? Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. Today’s Gospel is from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus says to you, “Do not be anxious about your life.” With these Words, Jesus acts like a lifeguard who performs mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. With these Words, Jesus breathes and exhales life itself into your heart and mind. “Do not be anxious about your life.” With these Words, Jesus chases anxiety away from you; He banishes fear and forbids all fear; He miraculously fills you with courage and willingness to live. Dear Christian friends, Over the years, I have heard many Christians say—and it seems that quite a few of you have said it to me very recently—“I am not afraid to die.” Congratulations! Many things can bring a Christian to that point in life at which he or she can flatly and unblinkingly say, “I am not afraid to die. I am in fact ready to die.” · Certainly the good news about Jesus’ forgiveness of all your sins will rob you of your fear of death. Over time, as the good news of forgiveness roots and grows more deeply within you, it will choke away your fear of death. The Book of Hebrews states this very thing when it speaks about Jesus: “Since the children have flesh and blood, He [Jesus] too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14-15). Stated another way, because Jesus defeated death and the devil for you, you no longer need to feel afraid of dying. What is death when you have been guaranteed to life and health and peace forever? · What about God’s miraculous love for neighbor, which He has created within you by the power of His Word? Certainly God’s miracle of love for neighbor will also evoke a sense of readiness or willingness to die. Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). In the same way that Jesus loved you unto death, “even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8), you probably can think of someone whom you love so dearly that you would gladly lay down your life for that person. (My first memory and realization of this sort of love came in 1980, when I looked into the cradle of my newborn baby brother.) So sincere love for neighbor will motivate many Christians to say, “I am not afraid to die. I am ready to die.” · In addition to faith in Jesus and love for neighbor, there is a third very good reason why a Christian might feel ready to die. Call it world-weariness. Call it disgust with the cesspool of daily struggle. Call it feeling as though there is nothing left for which to live. Christians who have suffered great losses in life begin to feel this way. Christians who outlive too many of their friends and relatives begin to feel this way. Christians who suffer debilitating illnesses or terminal diseases begin to feel this way. Christians who feel lonely or forgotten or overlooked or neglected begin to feel this way. Christians who feel the weight of their age begin to feel this way. “I am not afraid to die,” they say. “I am in fact ready to die,” they say, “because life has nothing less for me.” Allow me to say again, congratulations! If you now feel unafraid and ready to die, good for you! By the miraculous power of God’s living Word, you possess exactly one half of the cookie. You are halfway free. Today’s Gospel gives you the other half of the cookie, so to speak. Today’s Gospel exhales and breathes into you the other fifty percent of the freedom that is now yours in Christ. In today’s Gospel, Jesus says to YOU, “Do not be anxious about your life.” These Words intend to do more than merely take away your fear of dying. With these Words, Jesus means to take away your fear of living. What is that? You say that you do not feel afraid of living? I am not so sure that any of us have truly lost our fear of living: · Some Christians take it really hard when they lose their property, such as through a job loss or a house fire or a natural disaster. (By the way, St. Paul raises a very good point in today’s Epistles when he asks, “What do you have that you did not receive?” [1 Corinthians 4:7]). Think about what you have accumulated. Do any of us really think we could shrug our shoulders and walk away without a tear, should it all gets swept away? (When I think about all the hours I have spent building my house, it becomes very difficult to remember that the entire building is nothing less than a gift dropped out of heaven from God.) What is this, other than a deep fear of living? To such fear, Jesus speaks consolation and peace in today’s Gospel: “Do not be anxious about your life.” With these Words, Jesus He is loosening the chokehold on your possessions. In view of your possessions, Jesus promises you, “You heavenly Father knows [what] you need.” Even if everything you own should suddenly disappear, you are more valuable than the birds of the air and the grass of the field. Do not be afraid. · Some Christians have taken enough punches in life that they no longer dare to live. Every day is a day of defensive posturing. The thought of another injury is nearly more than can be imagined. Every situation gets approached as though you were in a MetLife® advertisement. You get so preoccupied by asking, “What if? What if? What if?” that you end up losing sight of what IS. What is this, other than a deep fear of living? To such fear, Jesus speaks consolation and peace in today’s Gospel: “Do not be anxious about your life.” With these Words, Jesus is reorienting your heart and mind away from “what if,” and back toward “What is.” Again Jesus promises you, “You heavenly Father knows [what] you need.” Even if you should suffer more injury than you can imagine possible, you are more valuable than the birds of the air and the grass of the field. Do not be afraid. · Some Christians—and this includes children and teenagers—constantly feel as though they need to vie for position. For example, some Christian children feel so deeply jealous toward their brothers and sisters, and so insecure about who they are, that they are constantly striving for the biggest piece of cake or the first place in line or for the best of whatever is given. What is this, other than a deep fear of living? To such fear, Jesus speaks consolation and peace in today’s Gospel: “Do not be anxious about your life.” Again Jesus promises you, “You heavenly Father knows [what] you need.” Even if your earthly father and mother should fail you, you are more valuable than the birds of the air and the grass of the field. Do not be afraid. “Do not be anxious about your life.” You ought to take some bright paint and, with very bold strokes, paint these Words of Jesus right onto the wall next to your bed. You ought to paint these Words onto the walls near your children’s beds. “Do not be anxious about your life.” These Words are spoken to you as though they are a command, but they carry divine promise within them! These Words are spoken to you by the God who created you and redeemed you! These are the Words of Jesus, and Jesus wants you to know that He forgives you all your sins. “Do not be anxious about your life.” Forgiveness runs unimaginably deep, Christians. Forgiveness is not merely about feeling better and it is not merely about the guarantee of eternal life. Forgiveness is yours and this forgiveness means that you now truly have nothing to fear. Forgiveness means that you have very good reason not to fear in dying. Praise be to God on high! Forgiveness also means that you have nothing to fear in living. The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen. ___________________________________________________________________ 'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author (as long as no charge is made for the work and it is not made part of a compilation), as well as for quoting or use in a congregational setting _with_or_without_attribution_. 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