Called to Proclaim the Mighty Works of God Isaiah 55:1-3, I Peter 2:9-10; Matthew 5:1-16

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1 Called to Proclaim the Mighty Works of God Isaiah 55:1-3, I Peter 2:9-10; Matthew 5:1-16 January 17, 2016 By Dr. David B. Freeman, Pastor Weatherly Heights Baptist Church Here s why I look forward each year to the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. I don t think I have much direct impact on what happens in Washington, D.C. I watched the State of the Union address Tuesday evening, like many of you. There seems to be intractability in Washington that is damaging to our country, and I don t think I can do much to influence that. I read news about the rise of terrorism across the globe. I feel helpless to do anything substantive about it. Global financial markets have started the year with a free fall. What can we do? Many of the big, important issues of the world seem mostly beyond our reach. Christian unity is an important issue where you and I can have direct, meaningful impact. Tonight we will gather at a Disciples of Christ Church. A non-denominational pastor will speak. Clergy and laity from Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Catholic, Baptist, and other churches will assemble. With a unified voice, we will affirm in this divided and broken world that there is only one Church. It has many names, speaks many languages, meets in many locations, believes many things, and has many looks, but there is only one Church. With a unified voice, we will affirm that we will not allow our many differences to overshadow the fact that we are one body with one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and with one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. (Eph. 4:4-5) Is that important? I surely think so. And we have a direct impact on Christian unity here in our community. Others are responsible for their communities. Here we choose to own our responsibility and model the unity of the Body of Christ. That s why I look forward to this week. Each year the Church in a part of the world is asked to develop the theme for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This year the theme

2 comes from Latvia, on the Baltic Sea adjoining Russia and Belarus. They reached deeply into the New Testament to the little letter of I Peter for the theme: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Our brothers and sister in Latvia, a world away from us and yet as near as our Bibles, challenge us to proclaim the mighty acts of God. Here is their message to us: The churches of Latvia offer Christians throughout the world a fertile ground for reflection on the foundation of all unity, namely baptism and the proclamation of God s Word. Baptism and the proclamation of God s world: that, they say, is the foundation of Christian unity. Scholars think that the letter from which they chose the theme, I Peter, was originally a baptismal sermon. Imagine Peter delivering this sermon standing in the Jordan River. Five or six baptismal candidates are in the water with him. The rest of the congregation stands on the bank watching and singing. The first twenty-one verses are delivered before the candidates are baptized. He talks about them being given new birth into a living hope. He talks about their indescribable and glorious joy. Then in verse twenty-one he says to the candidates, Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God. Then Peter stopped the sermon and baptized the candidates. We don t know if it was by dunking, pouring, or sprinkling. The text doesn t say. Besides, it really doesn t matter. Peter baptized them and then resumed his sermon in verse twenty-two, saying, 2

3 Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. The passage the Latvians chose for our theme comes after the baptism. It appears that Peter is speaking directly to the ones he just baptized. I can picture Peter, and others after him, looking at those baptismal candidates water dripping from their hair and clothes, shivering in the cold water and saying, You are a chosen race. Chosen! By God. You are a royal priesthood. All of you, not just the ones who call themselves priests. You are a holy nation, God s own people. And here is why God chose you. Your job now is to proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Proclaim the mighty acts of God. The One who took you from where you were and brought you into these waters. The One whose grace has been so lavishly bestowed upon you. Proclaim the mighty acts of the One who brought you out of darkness and into these waters of baptism. Then Peter said, Once you were not a people, but now you are God s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. It s a powerful message, and it s his message to us, too. Christians in Latvia use this sermon from Peter to remind us that we are called to proclaim the mighty acts of God. What does that look like for us? Have you ever considered what your life would be like had you never embraced Christian faith and the teachings of the Bible, especially the teachings of Jesus? What would we be like if we had never come under the influence of Jesus? At all? Some of you are inherently just a better person than I am. Some of you might have turned out alright. I don t think I would have. If I had not embraced our faith and the teachings of Jesus, I would be greedy, mean, selfish, and probably a racist. I m just being honest. If I did not have the influence of the teachings of Jesus in my life, I would not be a nice person. I am the man I am now because of the mighty acts of God, and I m not too proud to admit that. In a deep and profound way, he saved me. 3

4 I had never heard of the Latvian Bishop Father Boleslas Sloskans. A museum has been opened recently to honor his suffering and faithfulness. The Bolshevik Revolution broke out shortly after his ordination to the priesthood, and the Communists seized power. Gradually religious instruction was prohibited, churches were closed, and bishops and priests were put in prison. The need for bishops in the Communist land was great, and so were the risks. In a highly secretive service, Father Sloskans was consecrated as a bishop, knowing what would eventually happen. He was only 33 years old. He chose to make it known publically that he had been consecrated as a bishop. He became aware that he was being spied upon by the GPU, the national security police. While on a trip, they entered his house and planted incriminating evidence. When he returned from his trip, the GPU invaded his house and arrested him immediately. He was sentenced to forced labor in the concentration camps of Slovaki. Living conditions were miserable, food rations meager, and the work backbreaking. Many prisoners died. When he was finally able to write his parents, this is what he wrote: After six months, I am finally able to write to you. I received more graces in these last five months of my captivity than during all the last fifteen years of my life put together. The imprisonment is the greatest and most beautiful event of my interior life, even though I regret no longer being able to say Mass. Dear parents, pray for me, but do it without anguish and without sadness. Let your hearts be opened to the greatest love possible. I am so happy, because I have now learned to love all men, without exception, even those who do not seem to deserve this love. They are the most unfortunate. I beg you, do not allow any feeling of vengeance or bitterness to enter your hearts. If we allowed ourselves such a thing, we would no longer be Christians, but fanatics. (From the Spiritual Newsletter of the Abbey of Stint- Joseph de Clairval, May ) Bishop Sloskans survived that imprisonment, fifty years of exile, and lived a remarkable life as a faithful servant of Christ. He died in

5 How do we account for a man like that? That kind of life and faithfulness is evidence of the mighty acts of God. And they are present in your life too. So let us proclaim the mighty acts of God that have called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Let us do it with the Latvians. Let us join our neighbors who are Presbyterian, Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran, Church of God, and others. With one voice, with one God and Father of us all, let us proclaim the mighty acts of God. Closing Prayer God who has called us out of darkness, through the waters of baptism, and in your marvelous light, we praise your name for the mighty acts demonstrated in our lives. Help us to be faithful in proclaiming that to the world. Amen. 5