The text this morning is from Paul’s letter to the Romans, the 11th and 12th chapters:
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Life is difficult; this is true and it may be an understatement. But, life is also joyful. So often, I think, we’re tempted to think of the good things and thank God for them, but when it comes to that which we see as evil, we complain, we roll our eyes, we curse. Now, what I’m about to say may be hard to think about, but it also is true. We know that every good thing comes from our Lord, but we also must recognize that even those things which are not good to our eyes, challenges, hardships, sufferings, these also come from the Lord.
I suppose that’s not always a pleasant thing to think about, but the Scriptures tell us that this is exactly what God does. Now, I don’t think that the Lord takes delight in the fact that we are suffering. Rather, the Scriptures make clear that Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, and certainly the Father and the Holy Spirit as well, took pity in suffering, cried in anguish, was moved towards compassion. Your God cares for you. But, what we may perceive as evil, and it may not be a whole lot of fun, is always done for our good, that we might be transformed even more fully into the image of God’s own Son, Jesus Christ.
It certainly is never fun or enjoyable or satisfying when a loved one dies, when the cancer diagnosis comes, when your children are sick, when your home burns down, when that which is evil seems to creep in. Yet, from the Lord’s perspective, and remember that He is completely unknowable outside of the Scriptures, and so we may never now why certain things happen to us, these things happen for His purposes, whatever that may be. There are always consequences for the things of life. There are always natural consequences for sin. Sometimes, I’m sure, God may send a specific discipline for sin, sometimes He may just let nature take its course. We will never know and it’s useless to say, “Well, God wanted another angel…,” or anything like that. You can’t know the mind of God; stop speaking for Him where He hasn’t spoken. The only thing that we might say for certain about our suffering is that it is to discipline us.
I don’t mean discipline like bending you over your father’s knee, but discipline like to teach, to edify, to build up. Paul calls it here, today, as being transformed by the renewal of your mind, not conforming to the world. But when that which is horrendous happens, how can you know that it is for your good? After all, we are still tempted to think that we know the reason. God took Him because He was too jealous for his company. God gave you this so that you can be strong. God will never give you more than you can handle. Poppycock! How can you know that this is to help you, that this is not the end of the story, that this is not the end-all-be-all of life in His name, that this is for your benefit and God’s glory, that the love and mercy of God are still with you? Through the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.
To be centered in God’s Word and Sacraments, to hear of the blessed death of Jesus Christ for you, to be washed in His blood, to eat and drink His body and blood, these are the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. These ways are unsearchable and inscrutable. We cannot begin to understand them, yet by the Word of God, the promises of Christ, He tells us that these things will deliver to us faith, the forgiveness of sins, and the strength to endure until the end. This is the transformation our Lord desires for you.
By these means of grace, our Lord will teach you to discern His will, which is ultimately that you continue to receive these means of grace until the end of your life. This is our Lord’s desire for you. The more we hear the Word of God, the more we receive His grace through faith, the more we are reminded of His gifts to us, the more we then fulfill His will, which is to serve us the fulfillment of His promises.
It is why we must be in the Church, where the Lord’s Word is proclaimed and explained in such a way that we grow in our knowledge and understanding of it. The more we study God’s Word, whether that be through daily devotions, daily prayer through the Psalms, meditating on our favorite Scripture verse, or, get this, coming to the congregation each week to hear the Word of God rightly taught and have the Sacraments rightly administered, the more we will grow in our deep appreciation for all that God has done for us through Jesus Christ. We will know Him more and more, depend upon Him more and more, need Him more and more.
Ultimately, the point of it all is to bring us to the day when our risen and ascended Lord, Jesus Christ, will return from the right hand of God, to remake the world and raise you from the dead. To have yourself made acceptable to God is to be washed in His blood, to wait eagerly for the day of His return, that you might be found faithful. And if you hear His Word and receive His Sacraments, then indeed you are faithful to the Lord and the promise He has given you to raise you from your grave. He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. He will do as He promised.
But, what until then? Until then, we lean upon that which is imperishable, namely the faith given to each of you by God Himself. You see, the faith granted to you in your Baptism will see you through, and when we judge ourselves, and even view our circumstances, through that faith, we see that our Lord is good and faithful to have given us to one another.
If you were to break your pinky finger, you’d get it treated, right? You wouldn’t look at it and thing that, because it’s the smallest of the fingers, it’s not worth your time. Or, have you ever had an ear ache? One of the smallest areas in your body causes such extreme pain that it can totally disorient you, make you fall, impede your hearing. Wouldn’t you fix that?
So also it is with the Church, that God in Christ has given us one to another. We take care of one another, we bind up the wounded, we support the woozy, we speak peace to the hurting. We are the members of the body of Christ, members of the Church, given to help one another in our time of need, and each according to their gifting.
Now, Paul is certainly speaking here about the functions within the gathering of the Church, prophecy, which is like preaching, service, teaching, exhortation, contributions, generosity, leadership, zealousness, showing mercy. But these are true for us also outside of the gathering, outside of the Divine Service. Our Lord gathers us together that we might build one another up using the gifts that He has given to us. If a member needs mercy, and you’re pretty darn good at doing that, shouldn’t you? If a member is in a financial hardship, and you have a wealth of resources and you are gladly doing it, shouldn’t you? If someone needs to be taught the Word of God, and you’re skilled at that, shouldn’t you? If one needs to preached to, as we all do, and you’re called as the pastor, shouldn’t you? (Okay, there’s only one guy here now who can, but I am!)
You see, this is how we are to bear with one another. Knowing that God has given all things over to us for His purposes, that we might be transformed to the image of Christ, helps us. This is done through His gifts of Word and Sacrament to us. And to help us, He gives us yet more. Through the mystical joining to His body, where He adopts us as His brothers and sisters, where He grafts us into Himself, the true vine, our Lord gives us each other that we might persevere through this life and that we might be served through each other.
This is what we’re all about here. We have been given to one another, and we may know that we are truly a Church, that we are all truly brothers and sisters of Christ, when we approach the Lord’s Table together, and, at the altar, lay our burdens down upon each others’ shoulders and pick theirs up, that we might be bound up together, not only through the body of Christ, but through the very nature of life together. And when we forget that, and we will from time to time, we come back to the Word, we come back to receive the Sacrament, we repent of our sins, and find the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of faith unto life everlasting. Jesus has given Himself for you, and He has given others for you, and you for others. He will see you through the good and the evil, and He will raise you on the last day, for the faith He has granted to you, that you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, that faith will persevere. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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