Hope Lutheran Church March 29, 2017 Midweek Lenten Romans 5:6-8. ChristCross Series: But God!

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1 Hope Lutheran Church March 29, 2017 Midweek Lenten Romans 5:6-8 1 P a g e ChristCross Series: But God! Will you pray with me: Heavenly Father come to us on this Lenten eve; quiet our minds, still our hearts, and make us attentive to Your Word. In the name of Christ. Amen. Dear Friends in Christ: I have always been intrigued and challenged by simple words, and short, transitional phrases that occur in the Scripture. Since the Bible is God s Word, inspired by the Holy Spirit, I believe every word, every phrase, every miracle and every event has deeper meaning, if only I will pause and reflect on its impact for my life and walk with Christ. Especially in this season of Lent, the opportunity is ripe for God to speak to us anew, the Christcross, the Christcross, the mark of the cross looming as sign and symbol of love and grace so great that sometimes it seems impossible to comprehend. But not tonight, at least not for me, because of one little contrasting conjunction in Paul s letter to the Romans, chapter 5, verse 8: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. But God but God! Now, to be honest, I have never liked hearing the word but. In my mind and life experience, it was but a word preceding a no! It was a synonym for being denied or excluded, reminding me of that time I failed to make the first cut in a summer baseball league, and the coaches said, Everyone makes the first team BUT you, and you, and you. You guys go the farm league for a little while longer. Yea, that s the way it

2 worked back in my day, not everyone made the team, not everyone got a trophy, and not everyone played in every game. But it wasn t fair was it!?! Think about some of your experiences with the word but - like the time a girlfriend or boyfriend tried to let you down easy, saying, But we re just not right for each other! Or, when the boss says, You tried your best, but! You may think you ve come a long way, but! Or, when a parent says to their child, Your grades are pretty good, but! At least you tried to clean up your room, but! It may sound like a good idea to you, but! Or, when a spouse with no brains responds, It was a great dinner honey, but! That s a fancy looking sport coat you re wearing tonight, but! I care about you, but! Or, when a parishioner begins a conversation, Pastor, I really like this church and I know you try hard, but! And at that word but we steady ourselves for the criticism and complaint soon to follow, or the put down that awaits, or the tongue lashing that wounds and hurts - everything that has preceded the but a transition to words that often make one feel less than acceptable, accomplishments demeaned, gut feelings exposed because we just can t past the but! But God but God! Now that s a different story. Listen to the Scripture lesson again: 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8, ESV) Listen to the way The Message, a contemporary paraphrase of the Bible presents that same verse: But God put his love on the line 2 P a g e

3 for us [I just love that!] by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. (Romans 5:8; MSG) Now that s a big BUT in the Bible, and the point is this: God loves us so much, no if s, and s or but s about it! On the ChristCross, God communicates and demonstrates His love for us, undeserving though we be! It is a truth affirmed by God over and over again in Scripture, the Apostle writing in Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death, BUT the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. In Ephesians, chapter 2: 1 [As for] you, you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of 4 mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us 5 made us alive together with Christ. 8 by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:1-2, 4-5, 8 ESV) This, my friends, is what we call in our faith life GRACE! It is the acrostic: God s Riches At Christ s Expense. God s grace is seen clearly in the CROSS, as Jesus gives His life for sinners. That s you and me that s the whole world, beckoned and invited by grace through faith to receive God s forgiveness and love! The Cross of Christ encourages us in our daily walk to trust God s promises, echoed again in Romans 8: He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32NIV) It is the same radical, revolutionary spiritual thinking, the assurance of God s Word which led Joseph in the Old Testament to declare to his brothers who sold him into slavery: As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good! (Genesis 50:20) Oh, the power and promise of those two little words: But God! One author, Casey Lute, writes that to understand those two words as they are used in Scripture is to understand the Gospel. 1 Another writer, Herbert Cooper, tells the story of his life by 3 P a g e

4 sharing how he was headed down a road of reckless living until those two words, But God, changed his life. Here s what he goes on to say: These two words, But God, can change every single person s life. Each word is only three letters long. The phrase is short, but the implications are huge. The path may look bleak, dim, and hopeless but GOD changes everything! We ve all sinned, Cooper confesses, and maybe you re at a place in your life where it just feels like things are falling apart. Perhaps you re portraying one thing on the outside and living something else on the inside. Maybe you are simply going through the motions of a life that s not quite what you hoped it would be. These moments drag us down - leaving us feeling hopeless and lost. We need something to happen in our lives that changes us! We need a But God moment when God intervenes and offers hope, light and life through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ! 2 There are indeed, many buts in life, aren t there? Most of us, whether young or old, tweens or geezers, baby boomers or millennials have been kicked in that anatomy quite a few times along the way! The Apostle Paul acknowledges the struggle, 15 writing later in the Book of Romans, I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do this I keep on doing. Sound a lot like me and you. And the Paul cries out: 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? And the 25 answer is clear: Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:15-19; 24-25) I don t understand, my friends, I just don t understand how anyone thinks they can make it through life in a broken, sinful 4 P a g e

5 and dying world without knowing and believing these two life changing words: BUT GOD! His grace is greater than all our setbacks. sorrows and sins; His love, acceptance and forgiveness is more wonderful than anyone s exceptions or exclusions; His overwhelming victory over sin and death through the Cross of Christ is what assures us of strength for today and everlasting hope for tomorrow. How I pray our lives are changed by these two wonderful, Gospel words: BUT GOD shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Thank you God thank you Jesus! AMEN. - Rev. Preston E. Wagner March 29, 2017 Acknowledgements: 1 But God-The Two Words at the Heart of the Gospel, Casey Lute, Cruicifirm Press 2 But God: Changes Everything, 2014, Henry Cooper, Zondervan Press 5 P a g e