Rev. Dustin ParkerSo what? We know the Word
Concordia and Peace
Lutheran Churches
Easter 3, May 8, 2011
So what? The difference is:
We KNOW the WORD
† IN JESUS NAME †
As you hear that Christ has been made manifest for your sake, may you clearly hear and know that His love and mercy is yours, redeeming and saving you to the Father. This faith and hope in God sustain you in His peace!
Why ask – did you hear me?
Ignorance of the Word is no Excuse!
Are we any different?
A semi-rhetorical question:
Why, when children are being disobedient, do we ask, “did you hear me?”
I mean – how many times do parents have to tell children not to do something, or to do something else, like oh, go to bed!?
Is there some magic number where the ears and the mind and will all connect? The 457th time? 633rd? Is there a point where we won’t have to point out that ignorance of the law is not a legitimate excuse, and even if it was true, it still isn’t a valid excuse for playing out in the street, or being found at midnight with a book in hand, or talking to a friend on walkie talkies….err texting on their cell phones?
How many times does a parent have to issue directive sound waves that will terminate at their ear drums, before the message sinks in and they respond?
Or is it a habit that never seems to break? How many times do we have to hear, “love God with all your heart, soul, mind and body” before we “get” it? What about that other challenging command of God’s, “Love your neighbor/enemy as you love yourself?” Or the one like it, “love your enemy, and pray for those who persecute you?”
Can you hear ME now?
Making Christ manifest for our sake!
We trust in Him
He was raised and glorified so that we have hope
As we journeyed through the Old Testament towards Easter, I kept on getting the impression that for God, working with the Israelites must have seemed like those commercials of Verizon. You know, the ones where the guy is walking across a swamp, or a desert, or in the NY subways asking one question over and over and over…
The question, (Let them respond) “can you hear ME now?”
Sometimes they seemed like they did, but how quickly would they forget what God had told them? At least as fast as teenagers, at least as quickly as we do.
God’s reaction was not one of complete frustration, but instead patience. For at the cross God made His Word abundantly clear – verse 20 of the epistle, “(Jesus) was made manifest in the last times, for the sake of you!”
Peter goes onto clarify it, noting that it is through Him that we find ourselves trusting in God. That because Jesus was raised from the dead and glorified, we trust in God, and hope in God, expecting that which God has promised.
God dealt with humanities inability to hear Him, to grasp what He was communicating by raising Christ from the dead – proving that actions do speak louder than words! Can you imagine answering “Alleluia, He is Risen!” with, “oh yeah” (speak with a teenager’s passivity) He gives us a message we either have to rejoice in, or reject.
Alleluia – He is Risen!
And everything changes!
Purified by Obedience Hyper-Hearing
Romans 10:16
Twice – futile ways, flesh like grass
Ransomed – God’s Rhema remains forver!
Rheman – You are justified by the blood of Christ!
This is the Gospel – Christ made manifest to you!
I asked the question about the tie between hearing and obedience above for a reason. Biblically speaking, the word obedience is a form of the word for hearing. It pictures the sound waves sticking to you, being absorbed into you. The same word is used in Romans, where Paul writes,
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:16-17 (ESV)
The underlined words are all related to that basic word for hearing. Obedience coming from “hyper-accoustic” as opposed to simply the acoustic of the word hearing and heard. Obedience is nothing more than hearing so clearly it affects you deeply. So it is with the word of God.
Twice in this passage it talks about our life “before “ the cross, the grave and the resurrection. The first time is talking about the futile/vain ways that we inherited from our fore-fathers, going all the way back to Adam. Ways that didn’t recognize God’s love for us, and therefore tried to earn it, to somehow deserve it. The reaction in those religions is easy to see – as they become more legalistic and less merciful, until that doesn’t make sense. Then they keep the trappings of their religion, while dismissing the legalism.
This is why life can be talked about as if it had the durability of grass, and the fragrance of flowers. The stuff that isn’t redeemed by Christ cannot last – whether it is a few weeds in the backyard, a country, a war, or an enemy, or even gold. It will all fade, and that is the point. The message of the gospel is not primarily that this is true, but that we have something far more enduring, far more sure. For while all apart from God fades and blows away, that which united to God is recreated whole and pure. The perishing compared to that for which perishing is impossible!
Our news is that we are ransomed from that old life, that we are regenerated, children not from human conception, but of God! That is why Peter starts out acknowledging that we CAN call out to God as our Father. It is why he talks about the fact that we are born again, actually re-generated, re-genesis’d and He is our source, our Father
Those very words come to us, and change us as we hear them, as they stick to us. We hear the picture of Christ crucified and know His love and hear what He has done. We can know they are true, because they give us life! They bring with them the power of God that raised Christ from the dead, and bring us to life spiritually.
This is the Christ that has been made manifest for you, showing you the love of God, showing the lengths He will go to restore us, healed and whole, to Himself. Hearing this truth purifies us, it awakens us to God’s work that leaves us in awe.
He who through whom the world was created, was conceived in Mary, lived, died, rose and ascended that we who were dead from sin could be re-conceived and reborn in the waters of baptism. Marked with God’s name, nothing can separate us from Him – that is His declaration, His Rhema, His word that endures forever.
We Hear and know The Word that Abides forever.. and calls us to His feast!
As we grow in Christ, we don’t grow taller, or more powerful or necessarily more intelligent. Where we grow is in our trust in our hope, our expectation of God’s work in our lives. This word we hear, this gospel that is proclaimed in the words He is Risen, sinks in as God confirms in us that we are linked by baptism with Christ. That His resurrection means our re-creation, our re-conception, our being completely remade as His children, as His offspring. As He is the living and abiding Logos, we find life has changed, our conduct has changed, our ability to love has changed. Such is the change of hearing and knowing He is Risen!
And we live in awe, until the time we return from this exile, we live in awe of God’s love, for this love of his is poured out on all who have heard to call Him Father….
Living in that awe, even this world becomes a place of peace…. For all fades in view of the one made manifest for our sake…
AMEN
Lutheran Churches
Easter 3, May 8, 2011
So what? The difference is:
We KNOW the WORD
† IN JESUS NAME †
As you hear that Christ has been made manifest for your sake, may you clearly hear and know that His love and mercy is yours, redeeming and saving you to the Father. This faith and hope in God sustain you in His peace!
Why ask – did you hear me?
Ignorance of the Word is no Excuse!
Are we any different?
A semi-rhetorical question:
Why, when children are being disobedient, do we ask, “did you hear me?”
I mean – how many times do parents have to tell children not to do something, or to do something else, like oh, go to bed!?
Is there some magic number where the ears and the mind and will all connect? The 457th time? 633rd? Is there a point where we won’t have to point out that ignorance of the law is not a legitimate excuse, and even if it was true, it still isn’t a valid excuse for playing out in the street, or being found at midnight with a book in hand, or talking to a friend on walkie talkies….err texting on their cell phones?
How many times does a parent have to issue directive sound waves that will terminate at their ear drums, before the message sinks in and they respond?
Or is it a habit that never seems to break? How many times do we have to hear, “love God with all your heart, soul, mind and body” before we “get” it? What about that other challenging command of God’s, “Love your neighbor/enemy as you love yourself?” Or the one like it, “love your enemy, and pray for those who persecute you?”
Can you hear ME now?
Making Christ manifest for our sake!
We trust in Him
He was raised and glorified so that we have hope
As we journeyed through the Old Testament towards Easter, I kept on getting the impression that for God, working with the Israelites must have seemed like those commercials of Verizon. You know, the ones where the guy is walking across a swamp, or a desert, or in the NY subways asking one question over and over and over…
The question, (Let them respond) “can you hear ME now?”
Sometimes they seemed like they did, but how quickly would they forget what God had told them? At least as fast as teenagers, at least as quickly as we do.
God’s reaction was not one of complete frustration, but instead patience. For at the cross God made His Word abundantly clear – verse 20 of the epistle, “(Jesus) was made manifest in the last times, for the sake of you!”
Peter goes onto clarify it, noting that it is through Him that we find ourselves trusting in God. That because Jesus was raised from the dead and glorified, we trust in God, and hope in God, expecting that which God has promised.
God dealt with humanities inability to hear Him, to grasp what He was communicating by raising Christ from the dead – proving that actions do speak louder than words! Can you imagine answering “Alleluia, He is Risen!” with, “oh yeah” (speak with a teenager’s passivity) He gives us a message we either have to rejoice in, or reject.
Alleluia – He is Risen!
And everything changes!
Purified by Obedience Hyper-Hearing
Romans 10:16
Twice – futile ways, flesh like grass
Ransomed – God’s Rhema remains forver!
Rheman – You are justified by the blood of Christ!
This is the Gospel – Christ made manifest to you!
I asked the question about the tie between hearing and obedience above for a reason. Biblically speaking, the word obedience is a form of the word for hearing. It pictures the sound waves sticking to you, being absorbed into you. The same word is used in Romans, where Paul writes,
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:16-17 (ESV)
The underlined words are all related to that basic word for hearing. Obedience coming from “hyper-accoustic” as opposed to simply the acoustic of the word hearing and heard. Obedience is nothing more than hearing so clearly it affects you deeply. So it is with the word of God.
Twice in this passage it talks about our life “before “ the cross, the grave and the resurrection. The first time is talking about the futile/vain ways that we inherited from our fore-fathers, going all the way back to Adam. Ways that didn’t recognize God’s love for us, and therefore tried to earn it, to somehow deserve it. The reaction in those religions is easy to see – as they become more legalistic and less merciful, until that doesn’t make sense. Then they keep the trappings of their religion, while dismissing the legalism.
This is why life can be talked about as if it had the durability of grass, and the fragrance of flowers. The stuff that isn’t redeemed by Christ cannot last – whether it is a few weeds in the backyard, a country, a war, or an enemy, or even gold. It will all fade, and that is the point. The message of the gospel is not primarily that this is true, but that we have something far more enduring, far more sure. For while all apart from God fades and blows away, that which united to God is recreated whole and pure. The perishing compared to that for which perishing is impossible!
Our news is that we are ransomed from that old life, that we are regenerated, children not from human conception, but of God! That is why Peter starts out acknowledging that we CAN call out to God as our Father. It is why he talks about the fact that we are born again, actually re-generated, re-genesis’d and He is our source, our Father
Those very words come to us, and change us as we hear them, as they stick to us. We hear the picture of Christ crucified and know His love and hear what He has done. We can know they are true, because they give us life! They bring with them the power of God that raised Christ from the dead, and bring us to life spiritually.
This is the Christ that has been made manifest for you, showing you the love of God, showing the lengths He will go to restore us, healed and whole, to Himself. Hearing this truth purifies us, it awakens us to God’s work that leaves us in awe.
He who through whom the world was created, was conceived in Mary, lived, died, rose and ascended that we who were dead from sin could be re-conceived and reborn in the waters of baptism. Marked with God’s name, nothing can separate us from Him – that is His declaration, His Rhema, His word that endures forever.
We Hear and know The Word that Abides forever.. and calls us to His feast!
As we grow in Christ, we don’t grow taller, or more powerful or necessarily more intelligent. Where we grow is in our trust in our hope, our expectation of God’s work in our lives. This word we hear, this gospel that is proclaimed in the words He is Risen, sinks in as God confirms in us that we are linked by baptism with Christ. That His resurrection means our re-creation, our re-conception, our being completely remade as His children, as His offspring. As He is the living and abiding Logos, we find life has changed, our conduct has changed, our ability to love has changed. Such is the change of hearing and knowing He is Risen!
And we live in awe, until the time we return from this exile, we live in awe of God’s love, for this love of his is poured out on all who have heard to call Him Father….
Living in that awe, even this world becomes a place of peace…. For all fades in view of the one made manifest for our sake…
AMEN
