|
|
Sunday Sermons
4-13-08, Easter 4
Pastor Phil Lee
Title: "A New Quality of Life"
Text: Acts 2:42-47
Theme: The Easter Gospel shapes our lives with devotion (v.42)
Introduction
Three years ago I stood in the midst of Trinity Lutheran Cemetery at my parent’s grave, where the dirt had not yet settled after my mom’s funeral and burial. It was a beautiful day in southeastern Minnesota – a picturesque country setting, like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. The names on the gravestones testified to the region’s Norwegian heritage: Johnson, Qualley, Knudson, Olafson, Odegaard, Jacobson, and my ancestors, Guberud, Glasrud, and Lee. We had gathered as family and friends to worship and fellowship together.
We had come from near and far to mourn our loss, while at the same time, we celebrated the hope that is ours because of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Before my mom’s funeral service I had gone to the cemetery with Carolyn, who lovingly stood at a distance and gave me the quiet moments I needed for personal reflection. I pondered as I stood at my parent’s gravesite, and I invite you to consider with me now: What does it really mean to live in Easter hope?
Point
It was only a few short weeks after the Easter resurrection of Jesus that the events of the Day of Pentecost took place, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, followed by Peter’s sermon.
Peter preached (Acts 2): “Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you – this man…you crucified…But God raised him up…Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
We are told that when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and asked Peter, “…what should we do?” So, Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized…in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” So about three thousand persons welcomed his message and were baptized.
Then, these new Christians began to experience a new quality of life as they “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42)
Easter completely re-shaped the lives of Jesus’ first followers as they repented of their sin, were baptized, and devoted themselves to the essentials of the Christian life.
In the same way, when we believe the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection by faith, it can lead to a life that is devoted to the teaching of the Gospel, to Christian fellowship, and worship. And when we do that, we experience a new quality of life that we’ve never had before.
Problem
For the first Christians, life was devoted to the essentials – the Gospel, worship, fellowship, and good works – and we are called to be devoted to the same things!
However, devotion can be a tricky thing, and human nature is prone to all kinds of distortions and misdirections. The story was reported in The Washington Post a few years back about a woman who used stolen credit card numbers to feed her habit and was given six months in jail and five years’ probation with the condition that she does not touch her drug of choice: Beanie Babies. Tamara Maldonado, 25, of Marina [California], was sentenced by Judge Jonathan Price after pleading guilty to four counts of commercial burglary. She said her obsession with the beanbag toys began when she worked as a cashier at McDonald’s and had to stuff Beanie Babies into Happy Meals. She was soon ordering for herself by telephone, using her own credit cards and, eventually, stolen credit cards.
“It was like a drug,” she told authorities. “Once I started, I couldn’t stop. It was like being addicted.”
Her ex-husband, Gabriel Maldonado, told police she threatened to run off with their young child if he did not bring her discarded credit card slips from his job at a hotel. She used the information to buy $8,000 worth of rare Beanie Babies. Police found 206 Beanie Babies at her home. Most were stored in a plastic container in her bedroom. (“Beanie Babies Fan Gets Six Months for Credit Card Account Fraud,” 11-21-98)
Of course, in our confession we speak honestly of misplaced devotion – we confess that we have not loved God with our whole heart, nor our neighbors as ourselves, because we’ve been devoted to other things. So, what are you devoted to? What is it that holds your passion and trust and allegiance? What shapes your life?
Power
In response to the invitation to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, many early Christians devoted themselves to the teaching of the Gospel, to Christian fellowship and worship, and to living out their faith in daily life.
Are you devoted to those things? Will you allow God to shape your life in those ways?
Jaroslav Pelikan, former Lutheran (and Orthodox) scholar, now deceased, tells of hearing his eight-year-old daughter sing, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so,” and reflecting on how the lyrics of the song did not really fit her situation. He said, “She had not read the Bible. She knew that Jesus loved her because her mother, her father, her Sunday-school teacher, her pastor, and others in the Christian community had told her so. Only later would she come into contact with the Bible.” (Darrell Jodock, The Church’s Bible: Its Contemporary Authority, 74) Are you doing the same? Are you being taught by the good news of Jesus, and teaching it to others?
And what about the simple act of sitting down around a table? That’s something a lot of people don’t find particularly important – but for Christians, fellowship and the shared supper is a vital aspect of spiritual life.
In his book called Life Together (p.66), Dietrich Bonhoeffer says: “The Scriptures speak of three kinds of table fellowship that Jesus keeps with his own: daily fellowship at table, the table fellowship of the Lord’s Supper, and the final table fellowship in the kingdom of God. But in all three, the one thing that counts is that [people come to know Jesus].’
Bonhoeffer goes on: “The fellowship of the table teaches Christians that here they still eat the perishable bread of the earthly pilgrimage. But if they share this bread with one another, they shall also one day receive the imperishable bread together in the Father’s house.”
And what about prayer? Is prayer shaping your life? The story is told that following a Sunday morning service, a man said to his friend, “I’ll bet you can’t recite the Lord’s Prayer.” “Yes, I can!” his friend responded. “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.” “Wow!” said the first man, stunned. “I was sure you wouldn’t know it!”
Prayer is not about “going to God” because God already dwells within us by His Spirit. It’s not about “seeking God” because God has already found us. Prayer is communing with our Creator and Redeemer – Who is already communing with us.
Conclusion
To live in Easter hope means that we have a new quality of life that is shaped by the teaching of the Gospel of Jesus’ life death and resurrection. To live in Easter hope means that we have a new quality of life that is also shaped Christian fellowship, worship and prayer, the Lord’s Supper, and living out our faith each day.
If you are lacking in that quality of life, then consider the objects of your devotion, and consider the example of Jesus’ early followers: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers [and] many wonders and signs were being done.”
I invite you to pray with me, using a prayer from St. Francis of Assisi:
“Our Father, each day is a little life, each night a tiny death; help us to live with faith and hope and love. Lift our duty above drudgery; let not our strength fail, or the vision fade, in the heat and burden of the day. O God, make us patient and pitiful one with another in the fret and jar of life, remembering that each fights a hard fight and walks a lonely way. Forgive us, Lord, if we hurt our fellow souls; teach us a gentler tone, a sweeter charity of words, and a more healing touch. Sustain us, O God, when we must face sorrow; give us courage for the day and hope for the morrow. Day unto day may we lay hold of Thy hand and look up into Thy face, whatever befall, until our work is finished and the day is done. Amen.”
| If you would like more information about our Church's Ministries and/or Department-Committees, please contact our Church Office at 206-244-9400.
|
|
