Sermon “Clear for Action” (Exodus 20, John 2, 1 Cor. 1, Acts 1-10)
Lord, let us hear your word and respond with a whole heart, growing in grace and the knowledge of You, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Today we heard God's commands, his holy commands. There we have the first principles of the Christian faith. I recall when my older daughter was in third grade one of the songs her class sang at a school program was about the ten commandments. The teacher wanted to be sure that her students would learn God's commands so they could live a life in accordance with God's high calling. We were blessed to have a Christian school where God's word was taken seriously and where the teachers would encourage students in the faith. And this is a great blessing. I don't think it's a secret to anyone here that I'm wholeheartedly committed to Christian schooling, and am a supporter of home schooling. This is one way parents can work to nurture their children, showing them how all of life is centered on God's word, and how the Lord has created and sustains all things by his gracious command. So we teach our children God's commands. The perfect ten! God's commandments which will never pass away reveal some of his character to us. They tell us how to live an upright life in our society. As Lutherans we may well be familiar with the terms “curb” “guide” and “mirror.” The Law of God hinders evil. It's a curb. It shows us what is pleasing to God. It's a guide. And it shows us our sin, as we look at ourselves in light of the Word. It's a mirror. So we uphold God's commands. We teach them to our catechism class. Our adult class ran into them earlier this year as well, as I've been encouraging people who are not in confirmation class to consider a portion of the catechism each week, just like the confirmands. If we all nourish ourselves on God's Word and wise Christian teaching together we will find that we are able to encourage one another in the faith. So we hear the commandments. We strive to do the commandments. Like Mrs. Jones taught her third grade class, and may still be teaching them today, as far as I know, God's commands are good. They will not pass away.
Yet I need to ask you a question. Is that all there is to life? Is that all there is to the Christian faith? Keep God's commands? Where's the love of God in all this? Of course we could argue, and argue well, that God's love is shown as he uses his commands to guard us from evil and to show us what is pleasing to him. But then there's that annoying fact of the mirror. You know how the mirror works, right? I wonder how many of you have ever walked into a dance studio? You really find out what a mirror does there, because usually at least three walls of the rehearsal space are covered with mirrors. I know what the mirror does for me. They say a mirror puts ten pounds onto you. I'd like to think then that having a dozen mirrors makes me look a hundred and twenty pounds overweight and that I'm really skinny. Afraid that's not so. But you know it and I know it. The mirror shows our flaws. It points out to us what others might miss. And we tend to be more concerned about ourselves than others are. Married men all know this feeling. Our wives ask us if their hair is all right. Then they want to know if we looked carefully enough. The fact is, most of you aren't nearly as conscious of my hair, face, or clothes as I am when I look in a mirror. And I'm not as aware of your appearance as you are when you check yourself in the mirror. God's Law acts as a mirror, and it shows us our flaws. If God's law is all there is to life, we are in deep deep trouble. He turns on the light of his word and shows up all our faults, at least all that we can stand to see. This is why people come to me and look ashamed, telling me about sin before I ask. God's word shows our sin. And if we end there, we are condemned. We are hopeless. We realize that we are sinners. And we confess – thought, word, deed, commission, omission – it's all there. We're condemned.
Ah, God's perfect law. When we have a sermon title like “Clear for Action” we probably think the sermon will be about casting out sin, getting it out of the way, clearing the decks so we can do righteous works. But now we've spent about half the sermon (I know you're watching your watches, some of you decided not to have breakfast before church) talking about God's Law but not seeing how it prepares us to live a victorious life. That's actually exactly the problem I had with the third grade class and their song about God's perfect ten commandments. What were they prepared to do? Go and live according to God's commandments? How? Either they would be end up lowering their view of the commands so as to convince themselves they were obeying them or they would be driven by despair to see that they could never live a life pleasing to God.
So how are we going to clear the decks for action? We've got this burden of sin. It's weighing us down. If we can't get rid of it we're bound to capsize. We saw in our Gospel reading that the solution our Lord provided was that of sacrifice. He gives offerings which can carry our sin, releasing us. And as you read in the Bible this week, wrapping up the book of Numbers, release from sin is a messy process. It's full of death, the death of many animals on your behalf, again and again. So the people of Israel were engaged in this life of offering, of sacrifice, with the priest taking an animal and killing it before God on behalf of the sinner who needed release from sin. Out of kindness people had begun selling sacrificial animals at the temple. After all, some people had to come a long distance. Would their animals be acceptable when they arrived? So it is a good thing for people to be able to exchange money for an acceptable animal. Money travels pretty well. Yet once again, God's law, the law of sacrifice, did its work as a mirror. What did the people who sold sacrificial animals do? They agreed with the banking industry to accept only certain types of money, which would often have to come from the bank branch which they set up in front of the temple. They also agreed with the priests that the priests would accept only certain sacrificial animals, those sold in the temple courts. So a famer could count on the livestock he raised being rejected. Instead, he would have to exchange it for money where he lived, take the money, possibly exchange it and pay an ATM fee, buy an offering at the temple, and then make his sacrifice. The result? An expensive offering which may have been a substandard animal, and a profit for the money changer and the person who sold animals for sacrifice. Sin once again weighs us down. We need to be cleared of this. Thanks be to God, Jesus comes into the courts and condemns the selfishness of those people. They aren't enabling worshipers to come before God. They are hindering them.
All our works, all our attempts at obedience – are they evil? No, not really, but the sin in our lives makes our attempts, even our most faithful attempts corrupt. We are not able to save ourselves by any of our obedience. We need something different. We need the renewal of the Holy Spirit. We need a sacrifice substituted for us. We need Christ crucified for sinners. We need just what Paul was talking about in our reading from 1 Corinthians 1. We need just what we read about in the Bible reading challenge as we read the beginning of the book of Acts. Because what we saw there, in Acts 1:8, was that God promised he would recreate his disciples. He said they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they would be his witnesses.
So now is the time I tell you to clear the decks for action. Sweep out your sin and shame by the power of the Holy Spirit. Go and be witnesses! But there's still something missing. Leaving you like that would be, well, wrong. It would leave you with a command to keep those commandments. You can't make the Holy Spirit clean you. You can't make yourself be a witness. And what's more, when Jesus tells his disciples they will be witnesses, he is not making a command. So when the pastor of the independent church I used to belong to told us to obey this verse by going, he was wrong. So was the Assembly of God pastor. So was the pastor of the Evangelical Free church. So was the Southern Baptist pastor. So was the Presbyterian pastor. I hate to say it, but so was the Lutheran pastor. In Acts 1:8 there are no verbs which make commands. The verbs are descriptive. In grammar we call them “indicative” verbs. They indicate something that is happening. They are not “imperative,” verbs, which make commands. Those have a different form. Here's what Jesus is saying. He is saying to his disciples that they will be people who have the power of the Holy Spirit and that they will be people who can be described as witnesses. That's who they are. It isn't what he commands them to do.
In Acts 1:8, Jesus takes the burden off of the disciples. He says they are going to live their lives, and because of his work in them, their lives will be lives that testify to him. What happens? They receive the power of the Holy Spirit. They live out their Christian life, talking about what comes naturally to those who have been changed by God – they talk about God's wonderful works, about what the Lord says in the Scripture. They live lives together, doing good. And their lives are testimonies to the Lord. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1, he determined to know nothing but Christ crucified when he went to Corinth. This was a different message. It was the message of a life recreated by Jesus' love.
Does this mean we ignore God's commands? No, we've still got that curb and guide. It delights our Lord when we take his commands seriously. But salvation is not, and has never been, by the works of the Law. It has always been by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us. He is the one who recreates us. He is the one who fills us with the Holy Spirit. He is the one who makes us his witnesses. And he is the one who goes on through the book of Acts to do all those mighty deeds, turning the world upside down, brringing people to himself in faith. He uses his witnesses, people just like you and me. But he is the one who does it all.
Stand with me, if you can, in prayer. Lord, you have created a people for yourself. You have made witnesses in this community, and you have made them right here. Grant that we may walk as your faithful witnesses in our community, rejoicing in your word, seeing, knowing, and showing that it is by your grace that we are saved from all our sin and shame. Grant us repentance and faith, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
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