"Build Your Own Religion" Fourth Sunday in Advent Adam and Eve December 19, 2010 Romans 1:1-7
My kids got their Christmas lists together at least a month ago. It’s always fun to put it together but it’s hard to wait to see if what you’ll find under the tree is what you had on your list. When you put your list together you have to be realistic. When you’re a child you fantasize about certain things. You wish you could fly or have powers over people. Or you may actually put things on your Christmas list you know you won’t get, but that doesn’t stop you from putting it down. When you’re a kid you always hold out that hope. You just know Mom & Dad can’t afford to get you that new bike you saw in the window, and sure enough, there was no big box under the tree. And yet, when Christmas arrived and you all gathered around the tree and the last gift had been opened Mom & Dad asked you to come outside, and there was a shiny new bike. It was hard to imagine how your parents could have given you anything better at that point. But adults don’t stop fantasizing. Perhaps the particulars are different. But we wish for things that aren’t possible, things we know we can’t have. It might be more money, a better job, living in a place where it’s warmer, living in a place where there are four seasons, a better house, a car that doesn’t keep breaking down, better health. Yes, we adults are very good at writing a list of things we’d like to see under the Christmas tree of life. The reason for this is a little word the Bible uses to describe our condition. The word is ‘flesh’. The Bible says our condition is that of being bound by our flesh. Now you can take your fingers and touch your arm, or your face, or your leg, and you can plainly feel that you are made of flesh. That’s not the problem. God created us, and He created us in perfection. The problem is that our flesh has become corrupt. The problem is that with the union of every man and woman, the flesh that is conceived is corrupt, bound in sin. The problem is that even though we were created in perfection by God we have tainted ourselves by our sin against Him. We are born in our flesh and wrapped up in the sinfulness of it. We start off centered around ourselves and continue to be curved in on ourselves. We live lives of constantly building our own religion. Think about what you want in religion. The very fact of doing that proves that you want to build your own religion. The true religion has absolutely nothing to do with what you want. Even if your answer is noble, for example, something like, What I want in religion is what God wants. That falls short because you don’t trust God fully for all that you need. Your notion of what God wants is conditioned upon what you want. When you’re born in the sinful flesh it can’t be any other way. Even your good motives are tainted with sin. Even your good intentions curve back in on how you are affected. Building your religion is fantasy. When you think about what would make for the perfect religion what you’re really doing is thinking about what you think would be best for you. What are some things that we would want that we would say would be truly good, that true religion is all about, what really is not self-centered at all, what is not what we want for selfish reasons? Perhaps the one most quoted at this time of year is “Peace on earth.” Even throughout each year you hear a wish for an end to wars. In the same manner, in Christianity you hear the lament that there are divisions within Christianity and the desire that we can all be one. For many people, both Christians and non-Christians, this is extended to other religions. Why can’t all the religions get along? You can see how quickly well-meaning wishes turn into fantasy. None of these things are possible as they are wished for in this life. The reason is that little word we mentioned a little bit ago: the flesh. All of these may be well-meaning, well-intentioned, but they have nothing to do with true religion because they have nothing to do with Christ. That’s not to say that Christ has nothing to do with those things, but it is to say that when people wish for those things they are wishing for them apart from Christ. And those things can only come about through Christ. We who are born in the flesh are apart from Christ. Therefore all our wishes, well-meaning or unabashedly selfish, are wishes that have nothing to do with Christ and everything to do with our sinful flesh. We don’t want to hear this. We don’t want to agree with it. We think it’s wrong because we do want what God wants. We do want peace to come through Christ. So how is it true that our attempts to build our own religion are truly anything but God-pleasing? It’s true because any attempt we make is an attempt that begins with us and not Christ. The way God brings about His true religion is through His Son Jesus Christ. He didn’t say, All you people down there need to get it together and be more loving and peaceful toward one another. There was no insistence that we end our divisions among ourselves. What there was was one simple, almost non-descript thing: a baby. Joseph almost missed this himself. In his own attempt to be a godly man he was going to divorce Mary quietly. But it was through that ordinary peasant girl that a baby was born. A baby that was going to bring about peace through people like you and me slaughtering Him in cold blood. The only way for us to have peace is by our own sinful flesh being crucified. It must be put to death in the same way that Christ was slain on the cross. In Baptism we are united with Christ, our flesh being united with Him in a death like His and a new creation arising, being united with Him in a resurrection like His. That’s the amazing thing about the true religion. It comes about through the flesh. But not ours. There’s no way we can build the perfect religion. We are unable to bring about world peace, we can’t even maintain it in our own homes. The true religion, the one that God has brought to us was brought to us according to the flesh, but according to the flesh of Christ. That’s what Paul says in the Epistle reading: the Gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was descended from David *according to the flesh*. We will never build our own religion that results in eternal life. Because our own religion will always be according to the flesh, that is, our own sinful flesh. But we have been brought into the true religion according to the flesh, namely, according to the birth and life and suffering and death and resurrection of Christ. Of course, religion is a word that can mean many things. God’s purpose in bringing Christ to us in the flesh isn’t so we can be part of a religion, or at least ‘religion’ in the sense that many of us think of it as. Some think of institutional religion. Some think of rules that God lays down for us to obey so that we can get into His favor. Some think in terms of not thinking in terms of religion at all, but rather just being a good person—which is really a religion of their own making. No, the purpose of true religion, as God has brought it about in His Son Jesus Christ, is to bring us into a relationship with Him forever. When we’re in heaven we will truly understand that religion has nothing to do with us but everything to do with God as He has made Himself known in Jesus. But it is also when we’re in heaven that we will see and understand the irony that it actually does have everything to do with us, because we are the sole reason Christ came in the flesh. He came in the flesh as we are but without sin in order to deliver us from the sin of our flesh. Our religion is always begun and focused on ourselves. Amazingly, His religion is focused on us also. On the cross Christ suffered for you and me and everyone. His religion is Him giving you access to the Heavenly Father and the eternal glory of heaven, all in and through His suffering and death and resurrection. All because in His flesh He is not curved in on Himself but extending His love and grace and mercy toward you. As we live in our flesh we are desperately in need of His constant care and grace. That’s why as He came in the flesh He continues to come to us in His Gospel that is read and proclaimed and heard for the forgiveness of our sins. That’s why He has come to us in our Baptism, so that we may be united with Him in His righteousness. That’s why He comes to us often in His Holy Supper, where He comes in His body and blood, giving us Himself for heavenly food. Giving us Himself to sustain us in the true religion—that true religion being an unconditional, eternal relationship with Him. We don’t need to build anything. He has accomplished everything necessary in His birth, His life, His suffering, His death, and His resurrection. He reigns over His Church in compassion and will come again in glory to bring us into the glory of heaven. As we wait for that we are grateful that He doesn’t leave us to build our own religion but rather has brought us into His. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. 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