Sunday
02/17/19 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “Your faith has been in vain”
Old Testament
Scripture: Jeremiah 17:5-10
New Testament
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Gospel Lesson:
Luke 6:17-26
Welcome again my
friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ, on this the Sixth Sunday after the
Epiphany. Six Sundays after the Wise Men came to visit Christ, and left changed
and different.
So, I have a question for us all to think about this
morning? The question is this, how do we know what is true or untrue, and how
do know what to believe? We are certainly living in an era where we are hearing
truths and untruths.
To be illustrate this, I wonder if any one of your family
members, friends, or significant other has ever lied to you? Anyone here? I’m
not just talking about any lie either, I mean the story that they gave you was
really lame.
For example, when I was a little boy my parents put me in a
pre-school or sort of a head start program. One day during this program, I
discovered an amazing item. What was this item you might ask? Well smelly
markers of course! As the class was settling into an activity, I grabbed a
package of smelly markers, and I hid around the corner from the rest of the
class. I wanted to smell all of the different marker smells. Apparently, in the
process I touched most of the markers to my nose, and got marker spots on my
nose. When my mother Susan picked me up for the day, my nose I think looked
like a rainbow of colors. My mom looked at me like she was fighting laughing
out loud. Then she asked me, “Paulie, were you smelling the markers at school
today when you weren’t supposed to?” Of course, as a good person that would one
day be a pastor, I lied to my mother. I shook my head and I said no. Little did
I know that evidence was all over my nose!
The point of the question that I asked for us to think
about for this morning, and my story of my love of smelly markers, is this, we
have all have to decide at some point in our lives what we believe and what we
think is true. Within this church we have Democrats and we have Republicans,
and we have people that have different views on various things. Yet, we are all
good people. So what is true, and what should we believe? Further, as
Christians what should we believe? What are the general beliefs of the
Christian faith? Further, how do we even know what these beliefs are in the
first place?
The two general ways that we know anything about God,
Jesus, the Holy Spirit, is from the Bible and the two-thousand year tradition
of the Christian Church. When we quote Jesus from the gospels in the New
Testament then, are the words that we are quoting true? Did Jesus say those
things, or didn’t he?
In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus says:
“Teacher, which
commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love
the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all
your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like
it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments
hang all the law and the prophets” (Mt. 22:36-40, NRSV).
Jesus
is also recorded this in Mark’s gospel, as well. I have never ever met a
Christian that rejects this very basic and core teaching of Jesus Christ. We
should love God and love each other. You think it would be hard to screw that
one up right?
The
Bible, which is our primary source, along with the two-thousand year tradition
of the church, tells us who God is, and everything about Jesus. The Christian
understanding of the world is that we live in a broken, suffering, and sinful
world. God sent his son Jesus Christ, to love, heal, forgive, to die for us, to
be raised to new life, to ascend to the Father in heaven, and to return one day
in glory.
The
Christian faith for two-thousand years has made large claims about us as
people, and how we are reconciled to God. Some people really struggle and
wrestle with the faith claims that Christians make, as did even Jesus’ first
12-disciples at times. Yet, the church didn’t then or now just believe the
things that we believe because we were told to. Rather, we believe them because
they are just as transformational today as they have always been. For nearly
two-thousand years generation after generation of people have been transformed
by Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit. For generations, for
centuries, the broken, the hurt, the lost, the oppressed, have turned to Jesus
Christ, and have been made whole through him.
Some
of us might say, “This is what Christians believe, because my pastor and my
Sunday school teacher told me so!” I would argue the truths, the power, and the
transformation of our faith is much deeper than anything that I or likely
anyone here can tell you fully.
This
I do know though, no figure has transformed more lives, in more places, at more
times, than Jesus Christ. Who we say Jesus is then, and how we regard him, I
would argue is very important. Whatever our politics, or our other views are,
do we believe that Jesus Christ was truly the one who came as God in the flesh,
taught us to love, heal, forgive, and who died for us? Do believe that on that
first Easter Sunday that Jesus was resurrected to new life and rose from the
dead?
The
reason most Christians have their normal scheduled day of worship and Sabbath Day
as Sunday, is because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Sunday. While our
Jewish brothers and sisters have their Sabbath Day or Lord’s Day from Sunday
down on Friday to sun down on Saturday, most Christians shifted this to Sunday.
Why? Well because this is the day as Christians that we say that Jesus rose
from the dead triumphantly. Over the centuries the Jewish Sabbath of Saturday
and the Christian Sabbath of Sunday became known as what we now called the
“Weekend”. The “Weekend” is historically a combination of the Jewish Sabbath
Day and the Christian Sabbath Day. Every Sunday in the Christian Church
therefore, is a mini-Easter, as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ
our Lord.
Well
you might be thinking, “Why is belief in the resurrection of Jesus so important
to Christianity?” Well, while it’s peppered all throughout the Bible, the
Apostle Paul offers us an answer in our scripture for this morning from 1
Corinthians 15:12-20. Once again this scripture that is subtitled in our pew
bibles, “The Resurrection of the Dead” says:
“Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how
can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no
resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has
not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been
in vain” (1 Cor. 15:12-14, NRSV).
In this scripture, the Apostle Paul tells the church in
Corinth, or the Corinthians that giving up on the belief of Jesus Christ being raised
from the dead defeats the purpose and the power of the Christian faith. The
Apostle Paul goes even further, which is where I get my sermon title for this
morning”
“and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation
has been in vain and your faith has been in vain” (1 Cor. 15:14, NRSV).
So
the Apostle Paul is saying that our faith without the belief in the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is why we gather to worship on Sundays, is
in vain.
The
Apostle Paul goes even further and says once again:
“We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we
testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that
the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not
been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are
still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished.
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be
pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of
those who have died,” (1 Cor. 15:12-20, NRSV).
The
Apostle Paul is telling the church in Corinth, or the Corinthians that if you
reject the resurrection of Jesus Christ, than everything we believe as
Christians makes no sense. He even says, if we don’t believe in the
resurrection of Jesus Christ then we “are of all people most to be pitied.”
Jesus Christ,
as scripture calls him is:
“the firstborn
from the dead” (Col 1:18, NRSV).
You
see, if we believe as Christians that Jesus Christ died on a cross for our
sins, and if he was never resurrected from the dead, than he was never truly
the savior, the Messiah. Why? This would mean that he was just a nice man who was
crucified, but if he wasn’t resurrected, then he wasn’t truly who he claimed to
be. The Apostle Paul is saying again then, that without resurrection we have
nothing. We have no Easter. We have no hope.
As
Christians we are sometimes called “Resurrection People.” Yet some people that
I have talked with, just have a hard time with believing that a dead Jesus
could physically rise from the dead. I mean a dead body that had sat since
Friday, rises on Sunday, how could this be possible? It’s a valid question. If
God created the heavens and the earth though, could resurrection happen? I
think so.
Did the people in the gospel narratives,
including Mary Magdalene really see Jesus alive and resurrected? Did Thomas
truly have an opportunity to not doubt his faith, and to put his finger in
Jesus’s nail hole in his hand? Did Jesus truly offer to have Thomas put his
hand in his side where the spear had been trusted into him? Did many others,
who have testified truly see and believe that Jesus Christ was risen? His resurrection
proves that he is who he says he is. It proves that he is alive, that he is alive
in us, and that he is indeed the savior of the world.
So,
the consistent belief in the Christian Church for nearly two-thousand years, is
that generation after generation has reaffirmed that yes we believe that Jesus
Christ truly rose from the dead. This gives us hope, give us a future, and shows
us that love and goodness win over evil and sin.
As
I often say on Easter Sundays, after I declare Jesus’ resurrection, I say that part
of our faith tradition is being resurrected with Christ spiritually. We die to
our old selves, to our sins, our brokenness, and we go from death to life, just
as Jesus did on that first Easter.
So,
did I smell the smelly markers that day as a little boy? Well, I told my mom
Susan that I didn’t, but there was great evidence to the contrary. As
Christians, we have long claimed that an empty grave is there to prove my
savior lives! We seek Christ and we can be spiritually resurrected and renewed
this day.
In
briefly looking at our gospel lesson for this morning from Luke 6:17-26, we
have not Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount,” but rather his “Sermon on the Plain.”
Let’s hear again what it has to say:
“He came down with them and stood on a
level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of
people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had
come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were
troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to
touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them” (Lk.
6:17-19, NRSV).
At this point then Jesus delivers “The
Sermon on the Plain”. The gospel then says of Jesus:
“Then he looked up at his
disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the
kingdom of God. “Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled. “Blessed are
you who weep now, for you will laugh. “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you,
revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in
that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that
is what their ancestors did to the prophets. “But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation. “Woe to you who are full now, for you will
be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. “Woe to you
when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false
prophets” (Lk.
6:20-26, NRSV).
I would argue that nothing has changed this world
more than the life, the death, the resurrection, and the teachings of Jesus
Christ. Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount,” and in this case Jesus’ “Sermon on the
Plain” are central to teachings of Jesus Christ. These are the “Beatitudes.” In
this “Sermon on the Plain,” Jesus is telling those who suffer, that their
suffering will be ended in eternity with God. He is also telling them that God
is with us. Jesus is also speaking here I believe to our moral obligation as
Christians to help the poor, to feed the hungry, to minister to those who weep,
to love those who hate us, to be generous if you have wealth, to not neglect
others, and to be honest and truthful. Now these are serious and powerful moral
and ethical teachings from Jesus Christ. Do we believe there true? Do we
believe that Jesus actually said them?
The
Apostle Paul says this morning once again that if Christ didn’t rise from the
dead, than it is all for not. For without resurrection we don’t have a living
savior, and without a living savior, we have nothing.
In
the hymn from our United Methodist Hymnal, #364, “Because He Lives,” the
first verse says:
“God sent his Son, they
called him Jesus; he came to love, heal, and forgive; he lived and died to buy
my pardon, an empty grave is there prove my Savior lives” (UMC Hymnal, Pg. 364).
Praise God, and Amen.
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