God’s grace, peace
and mercy be with you. … My sermon is entitled Why Christ Matters, and
my focus is our Epistle (1st John 1:1-2:2) Let us pray. Heavenly
Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go
to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we
rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds
and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most
Holy Trinity. Amen.
Homer. Google
Homer and three results populate your screen. First, a fictional character in an
animated television series, The Simpsons. Next, a fishing city in southwest
Alaska. Finally, the ancient Greek author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Fishing
aficionados and animation fans aside, the ancient Greek author who had a
lasting effect on classical literature impacts our culture today more than the
longest running American sitcom. Homer, I will save for my final point and open
with an introduction of John’s Letter and its meaning to our church.
John’s letters emerged
from an environment of conflict and appear to provide a window into the history
of the early church where John served as pastor. Unfortunately, since our
knowledge of his church is vague, we cannot reconstruct a precise picture.
The surface issue
appeared to be the proper understanding of Jesus. The abiding center of life
and unity in John’s Gospel became the focal point of dissension and division.
Those who shared fellowship and friendship in the Fourth Gospel[1] clashed over the proper
understanding of Jesus. Mutual excommunication challenged the infant church’s
identity and existence.
Unlike Paul’s
letters that encouraged Christians, John’s First Letter warned the community
against the views of dissidents. John’s contrast between light and darkness
distinguished believers from dissident evildoers. Believers walked in the
light; evildoers preferred darkness.
John based his
image of believers walking in the light from the attributes of God: light,
fidelity and righteousness. He wrote, “God is light, and in him is no darkness …
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.”[2] Believers walked in the
light, claimed fellowship with God and one another, and lived lives free of sin.
John opened with a
phrase that echoed the Gospel and Genesis – the
beginning. He then captured the listener’s attention and interest; stated
his purpose for writing; and divulged his essential plan. He did this by claiming
to be an eyewitness, which underscored that he personally heard, saw and
touched Jesus – the eternal Word. Then John set before his readers this: Life
is in Jesus Christ. He advanced nothing new, visionary or imagined; rather,
made his focus that which eyewitnesses heard, saw and handled. In short, John
established that no faith was certain unless its object, foundation, origin and
end are from the beginning.
No faith is
certain unless its object, foundation, origin and end are from the beginning.
John said, if you have fellowship with us – eyewitnesses, tradition-bearers,
apostles – you have fellowship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ,
the Eternal Word. Fellowship is not simply a conglomeration of people with some
things in common; fellowship is grounded in what the eyewitnesses saw and
heard. In creating fellowship or church, John did it in order that OUR joy may
be complete.[3]
John wrote that
phrase as the last of the apostles in the last of his days. He sought to
preserve the integrity of the apostolic message. Knowing those in fellowship
with him believed and lived right, John strengthened their resolve to continue
their beliefs and lifestyles, and warned them about the very real possibility
of sin, that is, committing apostasy and wandering off into the dark as some did
already.
Secessionists who
committed apostasy and wandered into the dark were deceived by the day’s deadly
philosophies. One danger that influenced Christians was to view the physical
world, including one’s body as intrinsically alien to one’s true self. Those
who embraced this philosophy actively disdained all things material and denied
the reality of the incarnation and any need for blood atonement. Their remedy to
overcome sin was to flee this material world, to escape this sinful world of
flesh and blood. To counter this, John wrote, “If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. … [Jesus Christ] is the propitiation for our sins, and not for
ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”[4] Therefore, the sinner
should not fear, for the sinner’s friend is Jesus, the righteous one, the Son
of God who is love. With that in mind, as Christians, we walk by faith. In
fellowship with the Apostles, we walk as children of the light, and our joy is
complete.
Walking as
children of the light in fellowship with the Apostles, we recognize that we are
still sinners who need forgiveness. Regarding this, Martin Luther observed, “We should always be suspicious of ourselves
and fear and grieve that perchance some puffing up of the mind be in us still. For
who will boast that he is pure spirit and does not still have the flesh in
opposition to the spirit? … If you have flesh and are in the flesh, then
certainly this pride is also with you and you in it, until this body becomes
altogether spiritual. Always, therefore, we sin, always we are unclean. And if
we say that we have no sin, we are liars, because we deny that we have the
flesh, when yet the flesh is all around and has with it these evils in order to
attack the spirit.”
In another place,
Luther said, “Those who are truly
righteous not only … plead for the grace of God because they see that they have
an evil inclination and thus are sinful before God, but also because they see
that they can never understand fully how deep is the evil of their will and how
far it extends. [They] believe that they are always sinners, as if the depth of
their evil will were infinite. Thus they [humble themselves, plead and cry]
until they are perfectly cleansed – which takes place in death. This, then, is
the reason why we are always sinners.”
The Lutheran
Service Book reminds us that to confess our sins is not merely to benignly
admit to them. Rather, it is to acknowledge them as justly deserving of
temporal and eternal punishment, knowing our unworthiness, and confessing all
we did in thought, word, and deed – including the good we failed to do – as that
which contributes to a deadly bondage from which we are unable to free
ourselves.
We are unable to
free ourselves; but Christians differ from other people in that sin does not
rule them. Christians must accuse sin and fight against it throughout life.[5] For that reason, we find
these words in Luther’s Morning Prayer: “I
pray that You would keep me this day from sin and every evil, that all my
doings and life may please you.” … It is important to me to recognize the
reality of sin in my life and pray this way daily. Otherwise, I too may become a
sinful secessionist.
Having examined John’s
Letter and our Lutheran tradition, what might John say to us today? What practical
application does John’s Letter have for today’s Christian?
For assistance, I
turn to Homer. Adam Nicolson’s book, “Why
Homer Matters,” rediscovers and re-presents the ancient Greek poet, best
known for the “Iliad” and “Odyssey.” Homer’s epic poems ask
eternal questions about individual and community, honor and service, love and
war, and tell us how we became who we are.
I mention
Nicolson’s work because I want you to think about who influences your life
today. Who shapes you? Who acquires you? Who’s your daddy? Ask yourself these
questions because in our world, as in John’s, Homer mattered and Christ
mattered. Homer influenced his world’s philosophers and teachers, legislators
and leaders. Likewise, the Risen Christ influenced people then and now.
Homer influenced
men like Plato, Socrates and Aristotle. In turn, their work in the fields of
logic, ethics, metaphysics, scientific method, politics and religion profoundly
influenced people like Alexander the Great and Greeks for centuries before
Christ. 1st century Christians and pagans put stock in the teaching
of the Ancients, which forced John to open with “That which was from the
beginning ...” No faith is certain unless its object, foundation,
origin and end are from the beginning.
Today, we may not
consider the influence of Homer and other thinkers on our personal formation
but consider their influence on our culture. Francis Bacon: scientific method.
Confucius: social relationships. Machiavelli: politics. Thomas Paine:
individual rights. Adam Smith: economics. Tolstoy: anarchism. Thoreau: civil disobedience.
Nietzsche: religion. C.S. Lewis: apologetics. John Stuart Mill: utilitarianism.
Dewey: pragmatism and progressivism. Calvin: predestination. Thomas Hobbes:
social contract. Albert Schweitzer: reverence for life.
Ask ten people who
influence them. Most will say parents. Some might say siblings, spouse,
relatives or mentors. Few say pastors or theologians like Luther, Walther or
Pieper. On second thought, a number might add Jesus. However, when you consider
the big picture, that is, our culture, ideas proposed by thinkers thousands of
years, centuries and decades ago, influence it more profoundly than parents do.
Homer matters more than we think. …
Christ matters
more than we think. For the ideas of men may control cultures, but apart from
the one who is the propitiation for our sins and … the sins of the whole world,”[6]who offers salvation?
Homer Alaska or
Homer Simpson may sway me more than great Greek minds; but as a Christian in
this culture, how often do I consider what Jesus Christ did for me? How often
do I consider that I may be walking in darkness because I am influenced not by
Christ and His teachings, but by other teachings? How often do I consider that I
may not have fellowship with Apostolic teaching, but with false philosophies?
How often do I say, “I have no sin”?
The Law shows me
my sin. It convicts me rightly to condemnation. The Gospel frees me of my sin.
Christ “is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for
the sins of the whole world.”[7]
Jesus paid my debt
with the only payment that can forgive me of my sins – his blood. Jesus paid
the world’s debt with the only payment that can forgive it of its sins. He is
propitiator and propitiation. … How often do I consider that Good News?
Let us give Homer
and others their due for their great ideas but let us give God glory for His
great deed. Let us give God glory in one word: forgiveness. Forgiveness is the
greatest act of love I can show to my enemy and my fellow man. When challenged
by Pharisees for keeping company with sinners, Jesus quoted Hosea, “Go
and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’”[8] When scoffed on the cross,
Jesus pleaded, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”[9]
When bestowing the Holy Spirit upon his disciples, Jesus instructed, “If
you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold
forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”[10]
Tell me, friends
in Christ, whom shall I not forgive? If Christ was crucified for my sins and
the sins of the world, who in this world is not deserving of forgiveness, my
forgiveness? If my Risen Lord instructed me to forgive sins, who in this
community is not deserving of my forgiveness?
Employees who
embezzled my profits? Siblings who got what I wanted from my parents’ estate?
Students who lied about me? Neighbors who gossiped about me? Teachers who
failed me? Coaches who made an example of me? Principals who punished me? Pastors
who reprimanded me? Police officers who ticketed me? Bosses who fired me? The
list is as endless as God’s forgiveness.
Forgiveness
distinguishes Christians in this world from everyone else, but forgiveness is
not an idea to discuss like fishing holes, sports teams, politics or economics.
Forgiveness is an act practiced daily. Forgiveness shapes you, acquires you. If
you are a child of the light, forgiveness is your daddy.
Friends, know
Christ forgives you and the sins of the world. Believe the Risen Lord grants
you peace and forgiveness. Share the Good News of Christ’s Resurrection and
what His forgiveness means to you when you are forgiving the undeserving.
Praise God when you forgive and know that our joy will be complete.
You may never
propose new ways of thinking or post 95 Theses. You may never craft epic poems
or create a Homer Simpson, but if you forgive the unforgiveable and love the
unlovable, you will make a difference – and you will give God the glory. And
your joy will be complete. For that, children of light, pray to our Holy
Trinity, and may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your
heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
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