{"id":163,"date":"2019-03-10T18:56:01","date_gmt":"2019-03-10T18:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=163"},"modified":"2019-03-10T22:57:46","modified_gmt":"2019-03-10T22:57:46","slug":"first-sunday-in-lent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2019\/03\/10\/first-sunday-in-lent\/","title":{"rendered":"First Sunday in Lent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Romans 10:8b-13<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace to you and peace\nfrom God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If\nI had a nickel for every time a person made a promise to me and didn\u2019t keep it,\nI wouldn\u2019t be rich, but I would have a lot of nickels. Sadly, we live in a time\nwhen a person\u2019s word, alone, doesn\u2019t really mean a whole lot. If the promise is\nnot put in writing, signed and witnessed, it is not seen as carrying any\nweight. But we here, are the church; we\u2019re different; you would think; but, honestly,\neven here at church we are not as committed to our promises as, you would think.\nThe most important promises that we as individuals make in the church, baptismal\npromises are often forgotten by the child\u2019s parents, before the parents are\neven out the church doors. And, confirmation promises are made by the youths often\nwith only a modest intention of fulfilling them. Beyond these, many of us\ncommit to support the church financially, based upon our income, but very often\nwe let our commitment depend on whether we are in church on a particular Sunday\nor whether we want to purchase the newest and best toys. A promise, is not a\npromise anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our\npromises are all contingent upon convenience, our wants and our moods. This was\nnot how God intended things to be, all the way back to the time of Moses God\nintended for his people to obey his Law and be faithful to God\u2019s will and share\ntheir bounty. Jesus, in today\u2019s Gospel demonstrates a commitment of the best\nkind as he remained faithful to the Lord God, even as he was hungry, alone and\ntempted by Satan. Jesus\u2019 faithfulness, was true, he stood alone against the\nforces that rebelled against the will of God, not knowing what would become of\nhim; not knowing that his example would become known to others. Jesus\u2019 word\nwas\/is his bond, and we are the beneficiaries of his promises, even when our word<\/strong> is subject to the limits of\nour willingness to struggle and sometimes convenience. Jesus is so much better\nthan we seem to be able to be; thank God. We do not deserve Jesus\u2019 love,\nforgiveness and salvation and we never will. That doesn\u2019t mean we shouldn\u2019t\ntry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nApostle Paul wrote, \u201cif you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and\nbelieve in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For\none believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the\nmouth and so is saved.\u201d We, as Lutherans, speak of the gift of forgiveness and\nwe argue that salvation comes through God\u2019s grace, alone. With this understanding\nwe take all the responsibility out of Christianity. The Apostle Paul is the\nchampion of the phrase, we are justified by grace through faith, but Paul\ncontinually drawls us back to responsibilities and commitments and proper behavior\nfor a member of the Body of Christ. Paul, reminds me of the main character from\nthe Big Bang Theory, TV show. Sheldon Cooper, the stars of the show, might be described\nas socially inept though brilliant. Sheldon doesn\u2019t see gifts as an expression\nof someone\u2019s generosity and love, but as an obligation, so he doesn\u2019t want them.\nIn his mindset a gift received, requires a gift given in return. To punish a\nperson for giving him a gift, he buys the person an even greater gift, imposing\non the person a greater obligation. So, what does this have to do with Paul\u2019s explanation\nof God\u2019s forgiveness and salvation, given through Jesus? Even Paul, as hard as\nhe tried not to do so, found a way to turn Jesus\u2019 gifts into an obligation for all\nthose who receive them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond\nthe required belief and confession of faith, Christianity, for Paul, is\nchallenging and carries with it a heavy burden. Jesus himself speaks of his\nfollowers, as having to pick up their crosses and follow him. Paul is bold to\ndemand that we confess Jesus with our lips in order to be saved, though it\ncontradicts his own message of Salvation by God\u2019s grace alone. Paul is like a teacher,\nwho cares for his class, and tells the class on the very first day of the school\nyear that they have already received an \u201cA\u201d for the course? But, even if it is\ntruly the intention of the teacher to give each of them an \u201cA\u201d, the teacher\nwill likely withhold that information, so that the class will benefit from his\nteaching, otherwise what reason would the students have to attend, listen,\nstudy and do the work. Paul couldn\u2019t help himself, even as he was saying that\nGod\u2019s grace is all that matters, he insisted that every one of those to whom he\nwrote, needed to fulfill their commitments and responsibilities of faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nstand with Paul in this inconsistency. And, in truth I do not fully understand\nhow we can be forgiven and saved by Christ crucified, requiring of us nothing,\nyet needing to pick up our crosses to follow Jesus. The standard explanation is\nthat, all that we do, we do in response to Jesus\u2019 death and resurrection, but\nas soon as we make it a responsibility, a commitment, we are thinking a little\nlike Sheldon Cooper, and turning our thankful response to the grace of God in\nJesus, into an obligation. And Lent, does not make our understanding of this\nany easier, since we call upon each of the faithful to repent, to fast and to\nconcentrate on Jesus\u2019s sacrifice and suffering for us. Granted these are not\nrequired, but it is mostly expected. Obligation? Kind of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two\nor three times each week I am told by church members their reasons why they did\nnot or could not attend a worship service or event and almost as often I am\ngiven explanations of why people give or don\u2019t give. In each instance, I have\nto make it clear that they need to make their own decisions as best they can,\nthat they are not obligated to attend or tithe though it is, for them, beneficial.\nThat is not always what I want to say, but it is the right thing for me to say;\nI am not called to judge. We are, as hard as it may be for us to be such, a no\nexcuses church. What we do is subject only to the judgment of our Lord, who has\nalready promised to forgive us. All, I can say, is that I hope that all of you\nwill, in thanksgiving to the love of God, in Jesus, want to do and commit to do,\nall that you can to support the ministry of Jesus Christ and share the love of Jesus\nwith others; Jesus\u2019 gifts are given to you freely and without obligation; what\nwill you do?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 10:8b-13 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ If I had a nickel for every time a person made a promise to me and didn\u2019t keep it, I wouldn\u2019t be rich, but I would have a lot of nickels. Sadly, we live Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163\/revisions\/164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}