Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

Love Conquers All (in the Ashes of the Fall)

John 15.9-17

When you leave this physical world, what do you want to be remembered for?

When you die, what do you want to leave behind?

What will be your legacy?

Godfrey Barnsley was one of the wealthiest men in the world in the early 1800s. He directed a shipping empire that sailed the world sea’s and transported 60% of the South’s cotton to his native England. He was well respected all over the world.

Barnsley decided to build a luxurious and magnificent home for his wife, Julia. He purchased 400 acres of land in the wilderness of northwest Georgia and created a vast estate and gardens. Since his wealth was so immense, he shipped in hundreds of rare trees and shrubs—ancient Cedars from Lebanon and other bushes from around the world. He chose handcrafted windows with sterling silver latches, marble from Italy and France, and priceless furnishings from the four corners of the world. It was one of the most exquisite antebellum estates east of the Mississippi river.

Unfortunately, his wife passed away before the home was completed in 1848, but several generations of the family lived at this estate until 1942. However, by the 1980s, the home and grounds were vacant and falling into ruins. In 1988, the property was purchased by an investor who developed it into the upscale resort it is today. If you go to Barnsley resort, all that remains of Godfrey Barnsley’s investment is a pile of rocks, known as the “Manor House Ruins.”

Godfrey Barnsley spent his life collecting money and possessions.  However, less than one lifetime later, nothing was left of his life’s work except a pile of rocks.  A sad remembrance of what used to be.

Godfrey Barnsley thought that he was changing the world for the better, but today, you didn’t know his name until I shared it with you.

When we think of the few short years we get to live on this earth, what are we spending our time doing?

To leave something lasting behind in this world is not an easy task.  

Are we collecting things that in my Dad’s words, “You can’t take with you?,” or, are we using our time wisely to live in a such that the world is truly impacted by the the way we think, act, and speak?

In our Biblical text for this morning, chosen by our lectionary for this Sixth Sunday After Easter, we are going to hear about the eternally lasting legacy that Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, God in the flesh, left behind after His death and resurrection.

Our Biblical text for this morning comes from the disciple John’s biography of Jesus.

Let’s hear together from John 15.9-17.

John 15:9–17 shares these words of Jesus with us:

[9] As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. [10] If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. [11] These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

[12] “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. [13] Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. [14] You are my friends if you do what I command you. [15] No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. [16] You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. [17] These things I command you, so that you will love one another. (ESV)

Here, Jesus is sharing the legacy that he will leave behind, that will last forever, after He leaves this world.

Two weeks ago, we heard Jesus promising to leave his followers with peace.

In Luke 24, we heard Jesus say to each of us, “Peace to you!” (Luke 24.36), and from John 14, Jesus said to each of us, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14.27, ESV).

We learned that after Jesus’ life on earth is ended through death on the cross and after he rises from the grave and ascends back to Heaven, we are left with peace, specifically, peace with God.  

This peace with God comes to us after confessing and repenting of our Sin through faith in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  We are left at peace at that point because we know that we do not have to work to earn God’s approval and acceptance.  Jesus has done all that was needed for us to be approved and accepted by God.  And, we receive that peace only and simply through believing in Him as God’s chosen and sent Savior.

In addition to leaving us with peace, Jesus tells us in this morning’s Biblical text that he is also leaving us with love and joy.

Now, I have to point out that Jesus’ words here can be confusing if we don’t put them in the greater context of His teaching.

The English translation of this portion of the passage is a bit awkward, and that awkwardness can easily mislead us from Jesus’ intended meaning.  The language here, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love,” makes abiding in Christ seem conditional.  It seems as if Jesus was telling his disciples, “I’ll love you as long as you are obedient, but the moment you’re disobedient, you can kiss my love goodbye.”

What Jesus was actually saying was, “If you stay in my love, you will be obedient.”  His love is not a result of our obedience, our obedience is the result of his love.

We are not driven to obey Jesus in order to get in good with him; we are driven to obey Jesus by a heart that is filled with gratitude for the ways he plucked us out of this world and poured his love out on us.

The epistle text from the lectionary for this morning from 1 John clarifies this point a bit.

[1] Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. [2] By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. [3] For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. [4] For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. [5] Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

[6] This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. [7] For there are three that testify: [8] the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. (ESV)

Here, the disciple John makes it clear that love is an outflow of our faith.  Not the other way around.

Jesus in us, through the workng of the Holy Spirit, moves us to think, speak, and act in manner that is worthy of Him.  And, that manner is love toward him and love toward others because of the gratitude we have for his sin-forgiving and life-saving acts for us.

In other word of the disciple John, “We love because He first loved us.”

To further this good news for us sinners who can do nothing to make ourselves holy enough for God, here is a little bit of theology for us.

In the Lutheran theological tradition, we talk about two kinds of righteousness.  Alien righteousness and proper righteousness. 

Alien righteousness is the righteousness that comes to us from the outside. This alien righteousness refers to the perfect and Godly righteousness that God gives to us (Not from little green men in spaceships).  We play no part in obtaining this righteousness, it is a complete and unconditional free gift from God because of His love for us.

Proper righteousness is the righteousness that comes from our own acting.  This is the God given righteousness that is demonstrated in our thoughts, words, and actions, after we come to faith in Jesus as our Savior, and are in turn, transformed by His love to show love to God and those around us.

I have recently been reading Carl Trueman’s organized summary of some of Martin Luther’s theology that describes how and why we live the way we do as Christians.

In chapter 7 of Luther and the Christians Life: Cross and Freedom, Trueman shares this:

The alien and the proper are not unconnected and independent. But the alien righteousness has the logical priority: proper righteousness built directly upon the relationship with Christ that is constituted by the believers, possessing Christ and thus his alien righteousness. Indeed, Luther says that proper righteousness is the result of the Christian’s working with his alien righteousness and, indeed, is the fruit and consequence of alien righteousness. He describes it as follows: 

the proper righteousness goes onto complete the first [i.e., alien righteousness] for it ever strives to do away with the old Adam and to destroy the body of sin. Therefore it hates itself and loves its neighbor; it does not seek its own good, but that another, and in this whole way of living consists. For in that it hates itself and does not seek its own, it crucifies the flesh. Because it seeks the good of another, it works love. Thus in each sphere it does God’s will, living soberly with self, justly with neighbor, devoutly toward God. 

The motive for this righteousness is rooted in Christology. Luther sets forth Christ as the great example to follow, but does not do so in a short-circuited manner, such as “Christ helped the poor; go out and help the poor!” Rather, he takes his cue from Philippians 2: “Let this mind be in you.” Thus, he sees the motivation of Christ as shaping the ethics of his practical conduct. Christ humbled himself in the incarnation, and thus all Christians who understand what it is to be clothed in alien righteousness will, or at least should, start to act as servants toward their neighbors. We might say that Luther regards proper righteousness as the natural outgrowth of the cognitive realization of the significance of being justified by the alien righteousness we receive in Christ. Love is both the motive for works and that which shapes them.

Thus, the purpose of expounding the law is not simply to terrify consciences; it is also to shape the social mores of Christians. The teaching of the catechisms clearly implies that a way of life is to be taught and fostered (“this is what love looks like in action”), and not simply theological principle (“God is holy; you, as a sinner can never measure up”). This message is of a piece of what Luther taught earlier, in his first series of lectures on Galatians in 1519: 

The Commandments are necessary, not in order that we may be justified by doing the works they enjoin, but in order that as persons who are already righteous we may know how our spirit should crucify the flesh and direct us in the affairs of this life, less the flesh become haughty, break its bridle, and shake off its rider, the spirit of faith. One must have a bridle for the horse, not for the rider. 

Here the commandments of God to fulfill a positive function. They do not create justifying righteousness, but they do provide a guide to how the Christian is to keep his flesh under control and thus shape his outward life.

That being said, we do have to remember that in these bodies of flesh and bones, we will never get love completely right in this world.  Even after faith, we struggle with Sin.  We struggle with the Sin that continues to tell us to look after #1 first in selfishness and self-centeredness. 

However, with faith in Jesus, the working of the Holy Spirit will convict of us of those times so that we can confess that Sin and repent of that Sin, staying connected to God the Father and Jesus, God the Son.

And, the result of God’s peace and love being given to us and left with us, until we eventually meet Him face-to-face, is joy.

We rejoice because of God’s grace that loves us, even when we are stuck in Sin, to work through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, His Only Son, to ensure that we are not separated from Him, but reconnected to Him forever in this life and the next.

In his book, Thinking for a Change, leadership guru John Maxwell says this:

“If you are successful, it becomes possible for you to leave an inheritance for others. But if you desire to create a legacy, then you need to leave something in others. When you think unselfishly and invest in others, you gain the opportunity to create a legacy that will outlive you.”

The now defunct punk band Anti-Flag has a lyric that I have written on a post-it note next to my desk that says:

“Love conquers all in the ashes of the Fall.”

Jesus’ peace, love, and joy persist through all of the world’s hatred and sustain you, the Christian, as you endure it.

Jesus’ peace, love, and joy do not depend on your immediate circumstances or situations.

Jesus’ peace, love, and joy transcend this world into eternity.

That means that whatever happens to you today, through faith in Jesus, you have peace with God.

That means that whatever happens to you today, you are loved unconditionally by the Creator and Redeemer of the Universe.

That means that whatever happens to you today, you have reason to rejoice when you lay your head down at night because you have been forgiven of the sin that separates you from God.

This is Jesus’ legacy for you.

This is what Jesus leaves you with.

This is what Jesus works in you—peace, love, and joy—so that you can do his work, through obeying his commands, and with his daily help, work to create peace, through love, leaving others with joy. 

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Pastor Fred Scragg V.

May 5, 2024.

Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

Don’t Play With God

Mark 1.14-20

Who do you follow?

We all follow someone or something.

What I mean is that we all take instructions for our daily life from a person, place, or idea.

And, in today’s technologically driven world, we actually find ourselves hitting a literal “follow” button on social media apps and websites.

Do you follow the Stanley Cup Fanatics, always chasing after the newest color or design of those sought after and worshipped water bottles?

Do you follow Dr. Phil, Dr. Ox, or Oprah Winfrey, looking for the perfect personally tailored path to mental and physical health?

Do you follow the leader of some pyramid scheme hidden under the guise of a business opportunity or side hustle to chase after a wealthy and luxurious lifestyle?

Do you follow the interpretation of world news from only one source, channel, voice, or YouTuber?

Do you follow the feeling at end of a glass of wine or the intake of weed?

Do you follow your own desires and instincts, always speaking your mind in the moment with little to no thought about what is coming out of your mouth or the actual consequences and implications for those around you?

If we sit back and examine our thoughts, words, and actions, we can all back track them to the input of someone, someplace, or something that came before us.  Whether we realize it or not, whether we want to admit it or not, we follow after the path, or, paths, that another has paved for us.

In a semi-recent interview with with Denzel Washington, it noted that the actor has been getting more explicit about his Christian convictions. 

In 2019 Washington called himself “a vessel of God.” 

Privately over coffee with the interviewer Washington added:

The enemy is the inner me. The Bible says in the last days — I don’t know if it’s the last days, it’s not my place to know — but it says we’ll be lovers of ourselves. The No. 1 photograph today is a selfie, “[Look at] me at the protest.” “[Look at] with the fire [with a glass of wine].” [Look at me with my kids at the park.  Look at me in church on Sunday.] 

“Follow me.” 

“Listen to me.”

We’re living in a time where people are willing to do anything to get followed. What is the long or short-term effect of too much information? It’s going fast and it can be manipulated obviously in a myriad of ways. And people are led like sheep to slaughter.

Don’t play with God. Don’t play with God. You hear what I said? Don’t play with God. You heard what I said? Don’t play with God.

Then the interviewer mentions that Washington urged her to download and use a daily Bible reading app. 

Washington said. “You have to fill up that bucket every morning. It’s rough out there. You leave the house in the morning. Here they come, chipping away. By the end of the day, you’ve got to refill that bucket.”

In our Biblical text this morning, chosen for us by the lectionary, we enter into the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry as recorded for us in Mark’s biography of Jesus.

It is in this short narrative of Jesus preaching and gathering of disciples that we hear the words, “Follow me and I will make you a citizen of Heaven.”

It is here that Jesus preaches a message that can be summed up with the words, “Don’t play with God.”

Let’s hear was the disciples Mark records for us in these opening words of his gospel.

Mark 1:14–20 says this:

[14] Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, [15] and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

[16] Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. [17] And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” [18] And immediately they left their nets and followed him. [19] And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. [20] And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. (ESV)

Our text for this morning opens up with interesting contextual note telling us that what Jesus was doing happened, “after John was arrested.”

This is an interesting time stamp that we may initially breeze over as inconsequential.

However, this simple statement is revealing to us a HUGE truth.

And, that truth is God cannot be stopped from loving you! Don’t play with God!

John’s preaching in the wilderness, and we have to assume elsewhere throughout his life, was “repent of your sins and believe in God’s promise of forgiveness through a Savior.”  For more specifics on this, or, if you don’t trust me, you can look back at Mark 1.1-8.

This message of personal wrongdoing that separates you from God and makes you guilty before God’s throne and deserving of extreme eternal punishment, rubbed the ruler of the day the wrong way because he wanted to live self-centeredly, cheating on his wife with his sister-in-law, while promoting his self-righteousness to all of his subjects.

So, to silence the conviction that God’s Spirit was bringing upon him, Herod had John thrown in prison and eventually beheaded.

However, this did not stop God’s message of sin and salvation.

God’s message of humanity’s need to repent—that is, confess of their sinful living against God’s standards for life and love and committing to turn away from that lifestyle with the Holy Spirit’s promised help—and believe in the good news of God’s forgiveness of that sin through the Savior’s life, death, and resurrection—would go forward until the end of time.

Herod tried to play with God, but God is relentless in his desire to love you by forgiving you, making you righteous, and welcoming you home into His eternal Kingdom of Heaven.

So, after John was taken out of the public eye and ear, Jesus picks up where John left off—preaching the message of humanity’s need to repent of their sin and believe in Him, who is now present with them, as their ONLY Savior.

In a few short, seemingly unimportant words, we are hearing the life changing message that God cannot be stopped from loving you and the world around you!

In the NT Biblical book of Acts, when the religious leaders had arrested and imprisoned some of Jesus’ disciples, a Pharisee by the name of Gamaliel said this to his fellow leaders:

“I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them.  You might even be found opposing God!” (Acts 5.38-39, ESV)

Getting rid of John the Baptist would not overthrow the power and plan of God who was, is, and will forever be, working for your good through your salvation!

Pop/Punk band, Green Day, released their newest record this past Friday.

The title track, called, “Saviors,” has them reaching out for help with the following lyrics.

Calling all saviors tonight

Make us believers tonight

Calling all strangers tonight

Will somebody save us tonight?

The interesting thing that we see when we compare these lyrics to this morning’s Biblical text is that Simon, Andrew, James, and John were not in the business of calling for and looking for a Savior.  

In fact, we are told in the Bible’s Scriptures that none of us is ever in active pursuit of a Savior.  

The truth is that we definitely need one.  

But, Satan uses lies and evil to bring the sin within us to life in order to make us feel like we are self-sufficient through self-centered living and the the feeling of self-righteousness—meaning that we can be our own Saviors by putting in enough work and hours at decent living—or, having the good outweigh the bad in our lives.

The apostle Paul quotes Psalm 14 in his letter to the Christians gathering in Rome, found in the book of Romans in our Bibles and remind them and us that,

[10] as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;

[11] no one understands;

no one seeks for God.

[12] All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

no one does good,

not even one.” 

(Romans 3:10–12, ESV)

But, here’s the good news, even though the four fishermen weren’t calling for a Savior, they had a need for one, and their Savior came calling each of them by name.

And, that Savior, Jesus, did everything for them that they couldn’t do for themselves.

Jesus through his grace, mercy, and love, showed them their sin and gave them the strength, words, and desire to repent of that sin.

Jesus through his grace, mercy, and love, placed faith in their hearts to believe so that they knew without a doubt that He was God in the flesh, God with them, their Savior, and the Savior of all of those who also heard HIs call, repented, and believed.

Jesus through his grace, mercy, and love, called sinful, God denying men by name to follow Him in bringing God’s grace, mercy, and love, into the world.

And, Jesus made them fishers of men, meaning, partners in the Gospel who would work alongside of him loving God and loving others so that they too would hear the call of God, repent of their sin, believe in Jesus as Savior, follow him, and also become partners in the ministry work of loving God and loving others.

Repentance, belief, following Jesus, and loving others is all God’s work in our lives.  He works this things in and though us, not because we are calling him to do so, but because He loves us and wants the best for us now and eternally. So, He calls us by name and transforms us with His power because the power to change does not exist inside of us—regardless of what others tell you or you tell yourself.

In Ephesians 2:8–10, the apostle Paul lays it out like this:

[8] For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, [9] not a result of works, so that no one may boast. [10] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (ESV)

Following Stanley Cups, Dr. Phil, Dr. Ox, Oprah Winfrey, a pyramid scheme, a business opportunity, a side hustle, news interpretations, conspiracy theories, alcohol, drugs, or your thoughts and desires, will NEVER get you any closer to genuine happiness, genuine fulfillment, genuine satisfaction, or genuine contentment.

We all know that to be true because we have all tried at one time or another, or are trying right now to follow someone, something, or some idea, that is not Jesus, and we still feel unhappy and even miserable.

But, here’s the good news, even though you weren’t calling for a Savior, you had a need for one, and God your Savior, in Jesus Christ, came calling you by name.

And, that Savior, Jesus, did everything for you that you couldn’t do for yourself.

Classic rockers, still releasing music in this post-modern era, The Dead Daisies, say it like this:

Chosen and Justified 

…you know your satisfied

In your grace

You can’t erase 

Hear my call 

Don’t let it slip away 

Chosen and Justified

I was leading an AA meeting on Wednesday night and we were discussing the need for God to intervene in our lives to help us when one of recovered addicts said, “God doesn’t wear off quickly like drugs do.”  

I was taken aback because it was one of the most truthful, experience-driven statements that I have ever heard. 

When Jesus speaks into your life by calling your name, which is has been doing and is doing right now and will continue to do tomorrow, through the Word (the Bible) and the Sacraments (Baptism and Communion), you clearly hear 4 separate things.

1. Repent.

2. Believe.

3. Follow Me.

4. I will make you fishers of men.

And, these four things are not one time events.  They describe a cycle, or pattern, for your life from the day you find yourself believing in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior until the day you meet that Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in His Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus points out that the beginning of your faith journey with Him is just like the middle and the end of your faith journey with him.

Matthew 16:24–27 has Jesus reminding his followers of this daily need to repent, believe, follow him, and be made into fishers of men.

These verses tell us this:

[24] Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. [25] For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. [26] For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? [27] For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. (ESV)

This morning, don’t play with God, repent of your sin, believe in Jesus as God’s gift of Savior, follow Jesus, and be made into one who can freely love those around you because you have first been freely called and loved by God, your Father in Heaven.

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Pastor Fred Scragg V.

January 21, 2024