Sermon 2-7-16 Pastor Ray Lorthioir Trinity Lutheran Church W. Hempstead, NY God s People Last week I mentioned that the most powerful type of persuasion is that of identity. I m going to read you a portion of a speech made by a famous politician. See if you can figure out who it is. A new community is being built and it is our most beautiful goal and aim. Those who can t even see past their own nose deserve our pity more than anything else. Our social welfare system is so much more than just charity because we do not say to the rich people: Please give something to the poor. Instead we say: people, help one another! Everyone must help, whether you are rich or poor! Everyone must have the belief that there s always someone in a much worse situation than I am, and I want to help this person. If one should say: Yes, but do I have to sacrifice a lot? That is the glory of giving! When you sacrifice for your community, then you can walk with your head held up high. Our belief is unshakeable! And our will is overwhelming! And when will and belief combine so ardently, then not even the heavens will deny you. And I expect [everyone] with a sense of character and decency to march with us. Do you feel the power of persuasion in that speech? Does it give you a sense of identity? Does it make you feel like you want to have those goals and belong to that kind of society? OK. Let me add a few words I left out and see if you can guess who it is. A new community is being built in Germany and it is our most beautiful goal and aim. Those who can t even see past their own nose deserve our pity more than anything else. Our social welfare system is so much more than just charity because we do not say to the rich people: Please give something to the poor. Instead we say: German people, help one another! Everyone must help, whether you are rich or poor! Everyone must have the belief that there s always someone in a much worse situation than I am, and I want to help this person as a comrade. If one should say: Yes, but do I have to sacrifice a lot? That is the glory of giving! When you sacrifice for your community, then you can walk with your head held up high. Our belief in Germany is unshakeable! And our will is overwhelming! And when will and belief combine so ardently, then not even the heavens will deny you. And I expect every German with a sense of character and decency to march with us in our columns. If you guessed Adolf Hitler, you are correct. Remember, Hitler was head of the National Socialist party. This is the kind of a speech that a socialist and nationalist would make. Stunning isn t it? Until you understood who was giving the speech it may have swayed you. Do you understand now how Hitler became the leader of Germany? Identity. Identity. Identity. In the name of German identity anything could be done even a world war and a holocaust. This is the power of identity in the negative. But it s the power of identity. 1
Right now Germany, Europe and even the U.S. are in an identity crisis because of the mass of Muslim refugees. It would be one thing if these people were coming to escape Islam. True, they re fleeing the hideous mess Islam has made of their own countries. But they re not coming to escape Islam. They re coming to plant it. Therefore, the historic self-identity of the Christian nations is being shaken. Indeed, this election is revealing that the future of American identity is very much on people s minds. News from around the world also indicates that identity is a big issue everywhere in 2016. We must pray that we aren t headed for a massive war or many internal civil wars. Christians in the U.S. are also going through a huge identity crisis. We once were the identity of the country. But the Supreme Court formally ended the alliance between church and state with the redefinition of marriage in June 2015. Who are we now, church? Identity is still crucial. For pagans continue to push their sexual identity agenda way beyond marriage. Right now California is considering a law to eliminate single sex public bathrooms so that those with sexual identity disorders are not discriminated against. Wouldn t it be cheaper and easier to help people with those disorders? But, wait. Did I say disorder? Isn t it discrimination to call it a disorder? Or is it the truth? Who are we now, church? Identity is crucial. This sexual identity crisis that has been fomented by pagan ideologies is having great impact. Our school and college age people are experiencing increasing peer pressure to deny the categories of male and female. It s cool to have an undefined sexuality. And there s increasing pressure toward homosexual and bi-sexual experimentation. Why shouldn t we embrace it? Who are we now, church? Identity is crucial. Islam will soon factor into the whole sexual mess with polygamy and child brides. Is it discriminatory to oppose this? Perhaps the courts will eventually decide that it is discrimination. So, just who are we in the midst of this pluralistic mess? At the very beginning of the church age the Apostles had to deal with the pagan pluralism of the Roman Empire. Therefore, they can teach us much about Christian identity. The Apostles understood from Scripture that Jesus is Messiah of the Jews. But they also understood from Scripture that Jesus is Messiah of all nations and peoples. Therefore, as they brought the gospel out of Israel and into the pluralistic pagan gentile world of the Roman Empire they needed to help new gentile believers carve a new identity for themselves over against paganism. What is different about one who has believed in the Messiah as opposed to an unbeliever? The Apostles answered this question time and again in their letters to churches. Let s see how so. Both the Law and the Gospel have one major feature: righteousness. Yahweh, Creator of everything, is Himself righteous. Yahweh created Adam and Eve to participate in His divine characteristics. Like Yahweh, they were to be blessed with immortality and righteousness. Yahweh willed that we, their descendants, should also participate in His divine nature through immortality and incorruptible righteousness. 2
But in love Yahweh also created a way for Adam and Eve to freely opt out of His plan. They did so. And here we are very mortal and very corruptible and our world is a continuous wreck of one kind or another. But Yahweh was not to be denied. Therefore, He called Israel to Himself and gave them His Law. The Law called upon sinners to righteously relate to both Yahweh and one another. Unfortunately, the Law describes righteousness, but it gives us no power to be righteous. Thus, it only results in condemnation for our failure to be incorruptibly righteous. The law is the source of Yahweh s judgments against us. However, Adam and Eve heard Yahweh make a promise on the day they fell into sin. In Genesis 3:15 Yahweh Himself prophesied that a male descendant of Eve would one day be born to put an end once and for all to the problems of evil, sin and rebellion. The prophets of Israel later reiterated this promise. And in fulfillment of that prophecy Messiah Jesus was born. Therefore, as we read once more in 2 Corinthians 5:21, God made him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him [Jesus] we might become the righteousness of God. Yahweh the Father sent Yahweh the Son so that humanity might be restored to Yahweh s incorruptible righteousness and be thereby restored to Yahweh s immortality, so that we might live with Yahweh in immortal resurrected bodies on an uncorrupted re-created earth. The Son was sent so that all judgment and penalty for the rebellion might be removed and so that Yahweh might dwell forever with us, His precious human beings made in His image. This is the goal of salvation. Incorruptible righteousness in Messiah is the inheritance promised to all who will receive it. This is the everlasting identity of those called to receive new birth in Jesus Christ. If incorruptible righteousness is our identity in the coming Kingdom of God, then Yahweh s righteousness is also our identity as long as the present age continues. Jesus expressed this well in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:6, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:8, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Godliness, righteousness and purity are Yahweh s gift for us in the present age. But how can those who are mortal and corrupt operate in such gifts? How can those living in a corrupt creation subject to the power of sin, death and the devil even receive God s gift? The righteous identity proclaimed by the Apostles is desperately out of our reach on account of the sinful nature. And as Scripture declares, the sinful nature is more powerful than the Law. But the Apostles also proclaimed that Jesus Christ is more powerful than the sinful nature. Yahweh s Holy Spirit whom we are baptized with in Jesus Christ is more powerful than our sinful nature. Therefore, in Christ by the power of Yahweh s Spirit it is possible to think, live and act righteously. And through the forgiveness of sins Jesus Christ is there to make up the measure we fall short of Yahweh s incorruptible righteousness. As it says in 1 Peter 2:24-25, 24 He [Jesus] himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. Therefore, even when we fall miserably short of righteousness, by grace we 3
still have a righteous identity in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Repentance, confession and absolution make Yahweh s power for righteousness a reality. And through His grace in Jesus Yahweh has prepared for us something beyond comprehension in this world. Listen to 2 Peter 1:4, he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. In Christ we can participate in Yahweh s divine righteous nature even now and here. This is our identity. It is an incredible gift. But it has a price. Peter wrote this to gentile Christians. 1 Peter 4:3-4, 3 For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. 4 They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. We know what has been discovered in the ruins of ancient Pompeii. The walls of homes, cups, plates and even street lamps and paving stones are covered with first century hardcore pornography. From these depictions we can see that the society was thoroughly debauched. All classes and both sexes openly indulged in prostitution, orgies, bi-sexuality and homosexuality. Unbridled lust was the normal way of life for those who worshiped the old pagan gods. And because the debauchery was intimately connected with religion it was considered righteous and normal. It s no surprise, then, that the Apostles had to deal extensively with issues of human sexuality in their letters to the new gentile Christians. In the West a few modern pagans have re-introduced idols like the earth goddess Gaia. However, most modern pagans have no god or gods. Still others have some kind of spiritual path that they follow. Some even call themselves Christians. But all of them have this one thing in common. In life they follow a righteousness of their own imagining. And in this respect they are identical with the pagans of the first century. Now, pagan righteousness comes straight from the sinful nature, but don t dare tell a pagan that. They believe their so-called righteousness is of a high order, and no one likes to be forced onto a lower moral ground. That s why in the present struggle over human sexuality pagans are using the high moral ground of civil rights to oppose Christians. They know they can t win on the lower moral ground of the deviant or immoral behaviors themselves. In the first century it was a similar thing. Sexual debauchery was promoted as righteousness by the old idolatrous religions. Therefore, who did these Christians think they were saying they had a higher righteousness from this God, Yahweh? Thus, the abuse they faced. Thus, the abuse we are facing. Participating in Yahweh s righteousness has a stiff price in this world. Nevertheless, Yahweh s righteousness is our identity. Peter teaches in 1 Peter 2:11-12, 11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. This means that Christians are strangers in a world of false righteousness. We re just passing through on our way to real righteousness. And on the way Lord 4
Holy Spirit provides us with power over the sinful nature for godly living and good deeds in our daily vocations. All this is in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, because of the sinful nature we can easily fail. I m only ever a couple of computer clicks away from breaking my participation in the divine nature. So are you. But we are so greatly loved that God s Spirit within us will urge us back into intimate fellowship with righteous Yahweh through confession and forgiveness of sins. Christ alone is our righteousness and goodness in this life. Justified in His Name, sooner or later we will escape this place bound for resurrected incorruptible righteousness with Him. This is our identity. Peter addressed the gentile church this way in 1 Peter 2:9-10, 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. The terms chosen people, royal priesthood and holy nation are all culled from the Torah. Therefore, the gentiles the people who once were not a people now are called the people of God along with Israel. This is our identity. In His mercy Yahweh has called us to this great identity. Today being Transfiguration Sunday we should note that Peter was privileged to see into the future world of the resurrection twice in this life. With many other disciples he saw Jesus in His resurrected majesty. But on Mount Tabor along with James and John he was privileged to look into the age to come when Moses and Elijah stood alongside Jesus in righteousness and conversed with Him in brilliant uncorrupted glory. It s true that Peter denied the suffering Messiah three times. But the resurrected victorious Messiah restored Peter three times. And for the rest of Peter s life, Jesus was his identity. On the day Jesus returns all who identify with and look for Christ s righteousness will receive. And we, with the Apostles and other believers, will be together forever, our identity never more to be separated from our Lord. Amen. All Bible quotes are from the NIV. 5