Sermon and Video for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

 

Icon of St. Paul the Apostle

Click for video of service at St. Luke, Rensselaer

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost  

Genesis 9:8-17      
Ephesians 3:14-21          
Mark 6:45-56

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. 

In an age when our technology enables us to do remarkable things, the readings for today remind us that God has power beyond our abilities. We can inflict significant damage to our world, make a desert green, and build enormous buildings, but God is the one who has complete mastery over the world. God created the world from nothing. He can use the forces of the world that he created to bless or discipline His creation as He sees fit. 

The reading from Genesis comes at the end of the Great Flood. The wickedness of men must have been ghastly and awful for God to feel the need to punish humanity with a worldwide flood. But now the waters have receded. The earth is turning green again. The Lord God has decided that no matter what happens in the future, He will never again enact a punishment upon humanity through a Great Flood. The Lord God not only creates the world and creates the means of destruction through the Great Flood, but He can also establish a covenant, a promise, with mankind and every living thing that he will never again discipline His creation through a Great Flood. Whenever we see the rainbow in the sky, we are reminded of God’s promise to us. This is the only instance in the Bible where God establishes a covenant with both human and every living thing.

In the Gospel reading, we see God’s power at work through God’s Son. The Lord Jesus not only heals the sick, casts out demons, restores the dead to life, and feeds thousands with only a few loaves of bread and a few fish, He also has mastery over the primal, natural elements. Jesus is The Calm in the storm. He remains above the raging waters. He stills the storm. The Lord Jesus shows his disciples that He is Lord of all the forces on earth.

Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus reveals God’s power. In chapter 1, Paul explains that God has the power to elect us, predestine us, to receive His gift of salvation through Christ, even before the creation of the world. The Lord God has the power to endow this gift to us independent of our nationality, family of origin, or what we will accomplish. In chapter 2, Paul says in the plainest terms possible that we are saved by God’s grace on account of Jesus’ death on the cross. We receive this gift of God through faith because of Christ Jesus’ merit earned for us on the cross. 

Paul goes on to explain in chapters 2 and 3 that God has the power to bring together that which has always been separate. The Lord Jesus died for all sinners on the cross. It makes no difference whether the sinner is Jew or Gentile, sin is sin, and Jesus is the paschal lamb who dies so that all sinners may receive God’s salvation.  Through the Word of God, the Holy Spirit is working to bring into the Church both Jew and Gentile. Eventually, the identity of Jew or Gentile will be dropped. We will all just simply be known as The Church, the assembly of sinners who are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, our Lord Jesus Christ.

The reading that is from the lectionary today is a prayer. This is a transitional moment in Paul’s letter. Before this reading, Paul explained the several different ways in which they experienced God’s unmerited grace through Christ.  After this prayer, Paul explains the real-life implications of living with the gift of grace that the Lord bestows upon us. 

In this prayer, Paul reminds us where our spiritual strength comes from. It doesn’t come from us. It is up to us to recognize the gift that is set before us, but the spiritual strength we have ultimately comes from our heavenly Father. Paul says, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth is named…”    

In our Lutheran tradition, kneeling or bowing our knees, is perfectly normal. Many Lutheran congregations have kneelers in the pews. We may use those kneelers several times during the liturgy. Many of us are familiar with congregations that kneel when we receive the Lord’s Body and Blood. So, what Paul just said their will not catch our attention. 

In the Jewish tradition, it is customary to stand while praying to God.  Often times eyes are open and uplifted, as well as hands are extended, as prayers are offered. But to bow, to bend the knee, in prayer, is a posture of humility that demonstrates submission and worship. In the church, we know that we are utterly powerless before our heavenly Father. Not only are we sinners who are but a dark, ugly, shadow before the brilliance of God’s ineffable light, we are also mortal. We are created. 

Before God and one another we confess that any spiritual strength that we have is a gift from our heavenly Father to us. As is also the dwelling of Christ within us. Paul prays that our heavenly Father will bless us with the indwelling of Christ through faith so that we may be rooted and grounded in love.  That is God’s love shown to us through Christ. His love for us is mysterious and beyond our comprehension. 

Despite the fact that we will never fully understand or appreciate what the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have all done for us, Paul asks God to root and ground us in His love. 

Why do we need to be rooted and grounded in Christ’s love? And, why do we need Christ to dwell within us? 

A part of that answer is that to love as Christ loves us is not natural to us. We are sinners. One of the ways in which this reality plays out is that we are primarily concerned about “me and mine.” We love our own deeply. The others, well, it depends. 

In AD 60, when Paul wrote this letter, two groups of people that often cast eyes of suspicion upon each other and sometimes flat out hated each other, are through the gifts of God finding themselves kneeling alongside one another and confessing that Jesus is Lord together. In those close quarters, and in a small, misunderstood congregation that the world looks upon with suspicion, the group of Jews and Gentiles are going to need all the love of Christ that they can get in order to love and serve one another. The temptation is always to suspect, to accuse, to speak angrily toward those different from ourselves. That is what comes natural to us. Well, Jesus died to take away what is “natural” within us and give us forgiveness and a whole different way of living and interacting with the world.  In order to engage in the discipline of resisting and turning away from what comes natural, we need a brand new orientation. That new orientation to life comes from Jesus Christ. He dwells within us, he grounds us, he feeds us with a new way of being that is like roots feeding the plant its nutrients. 

The gifts of Christ’s sacrifice are what shapes us, molds us, guides our decisions, and quite frankly, determines the company that we will keep. In order to live through this transition, we need Christ Jesus every step of the way. 

We are no longer in AD 60, we are in 2024 America. If only we could go back to the good old days of Jews and Gentiles becoming one in Christ! In 2024, we live with an enormous amount of diversity. We are a profoundly free nation. Thanks to our various communication technologies we are aware that there are strong feelings regarding just about everything. We are free to think, say, and write just about anything. And, of course, we are all aware that we are in a time where we have some significant social and political tensions within our American culture. 

If there is ever a time, when Christians need to pray regularly that Christ Jesus will dwell richly within our hearts and that we be daily grounded and rooted in the love of Christ Jesus, this is the time. We can easily be overwhelmed with anger or despair and thereby be consumed by them. We can easily allow the sparks of hate and bitterness shape our thoughts, words, and actions. 

The Apostle Paul’s words are a strong caution to us. Hold on. Step back. What did Jesus do in the face of adversity and diversity of opinion? What did Jesus call us to do? Jesus looked upon everyone with compassion and love. He held his own. He spoke the truth that the Father gave him. But he always spoke and acted with love. He even forgave those that killed him.

We are called to a life of discipleship. We want to imitate our Teacher, our Master, Our Savior. How can we possibly do it when the task is so hard? It is possible because Christ who dwells within us and in whom we are rooted and ground in love, works through us. It’s Christ, not us. Christ brings us the freedom to let His way be our way. 

I want to close with the Apostle Paul’s words. We need this in our heads and hearts to meet the coming days. 

 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,  and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus Amen.