What s Done in the Body II Corinthians 5:1-10 Pentecost 3 June 14, 2015 Pastor Chip Winter

Transcription

1 What s Done in the Body II Corinthians 5:1-10 Pentecost 3 June 14, 2015 Pastor Chip Winter Grace to you and Peace, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon is the epistle appointed for the day and already read for us. My dear family in Christ, sometimes a pivotal phrase comes at the beginning of a work and it sets the stage for what follows. So it is with the first phrase of John Donne s Meditation XVII Nunc lento sonitu dicunt, Morieris often translated Now this bell, rolling softly for another, says to me, Thou must die. Through the meditation that follows Donne emphasizes again and again how what happens to others has an effect on my life their loss in life diminishes mine. No man is an island, and never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee, are famous passages in this. Other pivotal phrases reveal the culmination of a story line. Such would be the acquiescence of Katharina after all of Petruchio s testing and jousting in The Taming of the Shrew when she willingly places her hand under his boot. Or perhaps a better example would be Tiny Tim s final repetition in A Christmas Carol, God bless us all, everyone, after Ebenezer Scrooge has been brought to that very conclusion through the visit of the nighttime spirits of Christmas. I believe the pivotal phrase for our text this morning is the tenth verse, where we read For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is 1

2 due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. To this a Lutheran of longstanding may ask Really? What we do is of consequence? I mean, of course it is, I know, here and now. But of eternal consequence? Let s back up a bit in this text to get a good run at that final verse. Let s start with Paul s words about the tent we inhabit in this life. For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. We could go through the litany of challenges to tent-camping: rocks beneath you, wind whistling through flaps and zippers, condensation all above you in the morning, not to mention the threat of storms or animals. But the imagery of the tent used by Paul a tent maker emphasizes the temporary, transitory nature of a tent. It s an impermanent dwelling subject to weathering and fraying due to wind, rain and hard use. So it is with our bodies in this world. Long years of use weather the skin, or the sun burns it with cancer. Hard surfaces and the hard knocks of sports or travel result in knee and hip replacements or rotator cuff surgery. Parts and organs deteriorate. The occasional night filled with sleep becomes something to celebrate. We long for an upgrade from this tent to the heavenly mansion, the glorified body that God will give. In contrast to the tent a mansion has beauty, a solid foundation, a feeling of permanence. We long for the days when we no longer face disease, disfigurement and the death of our beloved. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling. (2) we groan, being burdened not that we would be unclothed but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. (4) We groan in this world, feeling the weight, the burden of the sin that is in us. It ages our bodies, slows our steps, puts creaks in our bones, shades over our eyes and mufflers on our ears. 2

3 Then, when we move to the heavenly permanent dwelling this current tent is not stripped away. It is covered, further clothed. It is upgraded, perfected, swallowed up by life eternal, immortal life. It is what will allow us to enjoy the new heaven and the new earth, so called by St. Peter in his epistle (2 Peter 3:13) and earlier prefigured by Isaiah in the great day of the Lord. For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. These glorified bodies will enable us to live in Eden, restored. But there is another phrase that catches on our ears. Not everyone gets a glorious, eternal, permanent dwelling. Paul says: If indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked (3). In eternity we will receive what is due: either a permanent heavenly dwelling, our bodies glorified, or our bodies will be stripped bare of any heavenly glory. Some will be found naked. Why is that the case? Why will some be further clothed and others stripped bare? That takes us to the pivotal phrase with which we started. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. No one is exempt from this. As we all appear before the judgment seat of Christ each will receive what they are due for what has been done in this body in this life. We can imagine that for those premeditated sins of ours there is a penalty to be paid. But what about those unintentional sins? How about when you blurted something out without thinking it through? They hurt someone, but it wasn t on purpose. Do those count? 3

4 What about the sins of neglect? When we know someone in need but we haven t helped them, or we know we should do something but we either ignore it or get lazy about doing it: do they count as something bad done in the body, because we didn t actually do anything bad. If those count against us, as Israel said, O Lord, who could stand? (Ps 130). How will we ever do enough good for the judgment to be in our favor? How can the judgment find a basis in what we do, and if so how can we have any hope? Only in these ways will the judgment take into account our works and we still have hope. (1) We know from Romans that the righteous shall live by faith. It will be faith in the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus for the forgiveness of sin or such a faith s absence on which the verdict will rest. But both of those faith, and its absence are determined by the indisputable public evidence of the works. As Jesus said the tree is known by the fruit it bears. Faith bears good works. Unbelief does not. (2) St. Paul wrote He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. (v 5) Left on our own we cannot do good things. But God can. It is God who does them the One preparing us for the new heavenly dwelling or covering. (3) Christ Jesus does this by taking our sin, our evil deeds, into His body. The One without sin became sin for us. He then conquered that sin within His body on the cross so that all that s left for us is our good deeds the ones done through the Spirit. No inquisition will or can be made into any believer s sins. In their place will be found, on that judgment day, only Christ s blood and righteousness. When the Father looks at you on Judgment Day, all He will see are the good deeds the Spirit has done through you and your body, because Jesus has taken away the evil deeds in His own body. 4

5 (4) And finally we have the words of our Lord Jesus to assure us. (John 6) When we want to know what the truly good thing would be to do in this body, as they did in Capernaum following the marvelous feeding of thousands, Jesus exchange with them says it all, Then they said to him, What must we do, to be doing the works of God? Jesus answered them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. We conclude with that pivotal concept, the one with which we began, the day of judgment when all will stand before the judgment seat of Christ Jesus. It cannot be avoided. Then you will receive what is due you. And what is due? A permanent heavenly dwelling because Christ has taken away the evil deeds in the body, His body. And the Spirit has done good through your body, by faith. This is why we are and can continue to be of good courage. Amen. 5