St. Luke 7:11-17 Dearly beloved,
It is the Pentecost season, and so we turn our attention to the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church. Our two New Testament readings for today hover over the same topic--the gospel. St. Paul tells the Galatians, “But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ”(Galatians 1:11-12). St. Paul talks about the gospel, and he points out at the outset to the church in Galatia that this gospel is not man-made. Paul didn’t just make it up. Paul didn’t receive it from man. Paul received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. But what is the gospel, exactly? Is it a few nice words to make everybody feel warm and fuzzy all over? The core of the gospel is laid out for us by St. Luke in the gospel for today. A young man had died and was being carried out of the city to be buried. The young man’s mother, who was a widow, followed the casket. A large crowd walked with her. Not only was the young man’s life over, but so was the mother’s life. She had no man to represent her in Jewish society, which meant she was lost and truly alone. She weeps. The crowd looks on. Two things existed there that day--death and being forsaken. This account is the story of salvation. Over and over again the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, drives home the story of salvation as it unfolds in death and resurrection. The young man, the widowed mother who grieves, and the crowd all represent you and me. We found ourselves walking and meandering in this world. Lost, dead, forsaken, and forlorn, we wandered aimlessly. This represents St. Paul, too. Paul walked the earth killing Christians and he bumps into Jesus on the road to Damascus, and boom! Paul’s life was never to be the same again. This same dynamic has happened in your life. Jesus came to the coffin, touched it, and He said, ‘Young man, I say to you, arise.” Fear came upon the crowd when the young man sat up in the coffin and began to speak. The crowd glorified God. St. Paul, once he was baptized and the scales fell from his eyes, began glorifying God and preaching the gospel. The interesting thing about Paul is that in the book of Acts, as he relates the gospel, he recounts to the listeners his story of his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus road. Why? Because in his conversion is an eye-witness account of death and resurrection. Not a real death and resurrection in Paul’s case, but a spiritual one. Paul was walking the world as a dead man and boom! Jesus enters Paul’s life and brings him to a new life. Paul died in Jesus through Holy Baptism. Paul was taught by Jesus and then proceeded to live the Christian faith and tell people about the gospel. Paul even tells the Galatian church that as he went to Judea to preach the gospel, the people marveled because Paul, the one who had persecuted the faith, now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy--and just like St. Luke’s gospel we are told that the people who heard and saw Paul’s new life “glorified God in [Paul].” What do we make of this? But the gospel has results. But, how do you live? Do you live out your Christian faith? Do you live as if the gospel has changed your life? Which characterizes you more? Do you live like the world or do you live like a disciple of Christ? St. Paul tells the Romans, “...do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God”(Romans 12:2). How do you come off to people? Do you live and govern by the old passage, “an eye for an eye?” or do you live mercifully, seeking to help others, giving them your tunic when all they ask for is your garment? To be conformed to the world is like play-dough. You are the play-dough. You get shaped, molded, influenced, impacted. You become what the world makes out of you. Then you try to bring what you have become into church and live like the world in the church. How can we do that when Jesus‘ account of death and resurrection has been placed upon us through His cross? How can we continue to live like the world when we are told that we abide in Christ? Why is it that we try to govern and live in the church, all the while trying to make it like the world? We can’t do that. Our sinful flesh was crucified, because Jesus took our sins with Him to the cross. We have been brought out of the world’s ways in order to live holy and righteous lives that are filled with the gospel--the ongoing account of dying to sin and living to God. Paul talks about this. Paul says, “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again”(2 Cor. 5:14-15). Paul is saying that we no longer live like the world, but we live in and for Christ. So who do you live for? Yourself or Christ? This Christian life is one of discipleship. Listen to what Paul tells the Philippians in chapter 3: “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead”(Philippians 3:8-11). Paul takes it all back to the gospel--”that I may know the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death....” Paul’s life is conformed to the gospel. It is the gospel that molds, stretches, shapes and influences Paul, making Him the way the Lord wants Him to be but all the while Paul is living in Christ. Paul puts off the world and rests in Christ and the gospel. Do you? This is what you are called to do through holy baptism, as well. You reside in Jesus. Your life is no longer your own. You cannot live in the world and be conformed and molded by the world. Jesus has a new way. His way is that He took your sins to the cross. All those sins that you have learned from the world, Christ says to give them up. Jesus paid for them, and as He takes your sins, He gives you His holiness and righteousness as He puts you on His road. You come into church with your sins and exchange them with Christ’s forgiveness. You live in Jesus; you are His baptized children; you are His disciples. He loves you. The church puts off the world and abides in the new way of Christ--the gospel, which is mercy, love, and forgiveness which is given to you and to all who come to follow Jesus, the way, the truth and the life, whose gospel and victory is not a tale told from men but is the power and the revelation that has come through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. -- Rev. Chad Kendall Trinity Lutheran Church Lowell, Indiana www.trinitylowell.org
