ECUC Lenten Sermon 03-14-2018

Parkerford Baptist Church

It’s a Package Deal

Exodus 6:2-8, 2 Corinthians 5:14-21, John 17:20-25

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen

I usually follow the Lectionary for my Sunday Sermons. This past Sunday the recommended readings gave me a real treat that included the 107^th Psalm. It’s a beautiful Psalm about God’s steadfast love. In fact the phrase “Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love” is repeated 6 times.

Also to be found in that text are four examples of when God’s steadfast love came through for God’s people; two of which represent times of struggle in the chaos of the world and two represent times of sinfulness; self inflicted struggles resulting from disobedience. Hence, the Psalm not only speaks of God’s steadfast love for his people, it also proclaims the message of God’s graciousness with his love in offering his redemptive power in times of chaos and in times of sinfulness.

My closing thoughts in my message related how we can now realize, make real in our hearts and in our souls, that where we were, and what we were; as well as where we are and what we are does not, and never will, lessen God’s steadfast love for us!

This, as I said, was just this past Sunday; a few weeks after I selected the scripture readings and announced the title of this evening’s message. But, by fate or by the movement of the Holy Spirit (I believe the latter) it coincides so nicely with my thoughts of Faith as a “package deal” that I felt I just had to include a synopsis of it in this message.

The scripture readings I selected for this evening also feed our desire for God’s steadfast love. The one from Exodus gives us the image of a God who was present with the ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; who remembers his covenant; and is still with, still watching over, still listening to, his people suffering under slavery in Egypt. It also includes that wonderful promise “I will take you as my people, and I will be your God”. All this speaks loudly of God’s steadfast love for his people!

In the reading from 2^nd Corinthians we also hear amazingly assuring words; especially that line, “For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all…” and the one that reads “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new”! …God’s steadfast love for his people!

And, yet again, in the Gospel reading we have that deeply heartwarming verse “I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them…” How much more can our hunger for God’s steadfast love be satisfied than that?!

It’s a wonderful feeling isn’t; to think of Christ and God as one in love and to add ourselves, through Christ, as one with God and Christ! It’s a beautiful gift; not earned, not purchased; a gift given to us by God through Christ; a package deal that brings us all together!

Yet, that’s not why I chose these readings for this evening. You see, there’s something else in the three readings; not a common thread per say, but a line of progression. Look at it this way… In the Exodus story, God’s proclamation through Moses saying “I will take you as my people and I will be you God” connects God and a specific group of people; the Israelites.

Also mentioned in the same writing are the Egyptians, who are about to lose all their slaves; and the Canaanites who, in the near future, will lose their land. The Good News of God’s steadfast love for his people isn’t good news to them.

Then, in chronological order, the Gospel message expands things a bit as Jesus travels about form Galilee to Judea and a bit into Samaria and other neighboring areas where he touched the lives of a few others outside his own people. Yet, despite the inclusion of “so that the world may believe that you have sent me” in the story, the Good News has remained mostly within the Judeo community.

After this, we hear of the Apostle Paul’s work in really expanding the spread of the Good News to the world both geographically and ethnically. And in this evening’s reading from 2^nd Corinthians we can find this all packed into just three verses;

“So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us”.

If one short quote, from any part of the Bible, could put a summary of the Good News of God’s steadfast love into an easily delivered package, it would be this. In Christ; the old has passed away; there is a new creation; God has reconciled us to himself (notice here, we didn’t reconcile ourselves to God, we didn’t earn it, it’s by the Gracious act of God); God is not counting our trespasses against us; and it’s all availableto everyone!

Oh! But then; there’s that one last line that I just read; it’s not a sentence standing by itself; it’s not a separate statement; it is connected with a comma. “…not counting their trespasses against them [comma] and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us”. It’s a part of the package. When we accept the graciously given gift of God’s steadfast love, there is no charge, it is a gift! But, it does come with a responsibility.

When we accept the wonderful gift we also accept responsibility; not only the responsibility of carrying forward the glorious message of reconciliation; but also the responsibility of being as gracious toward everyone we encounter as ambassadors, representatives of God and Christ, as they have been toward us; to not count another’s trespasses against them as God has not counted ours against us; and by this, becoming the righteousness of God!

It’s not all about the love between Christ and God. It’s not all about the love between us and Christ with God. It’s about God, Christ, us, and the world; every-one in a loving relationship as one! It is a package deal, accept the gift, and show your steadfast love.

Amen

Exodus 6:2-8 God also spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name ‘The LORD’ I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they resided as aliens. I have also heard the groaning of the Israelites whom the Egyptians are holding as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the Israelites, ‘I am the LORD, and I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.’ ”

2 Corinthians 5:14-21 For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.

 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

   John 17: 20-26 “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

 “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”