So how’d you do last week handing out the church business cards with the mission statement on them? Did you get both handed out? There’re more in your boxes today to take with you today, this time 3 each. Any short stories you’d like to share of how that went for you?
This week the gospel lesson puts a sort of spur in our saddles to get the word out that our mission includes sharing Christ. The spur is the reminder in our text about the resurrection. We’ll come back to that before we close.
For now let’s look at what else is taught in the gospel lesson today. Look at Luke 20 verses 35 – 36, two sentences in Jesus’ answer to the Sadducees about the resurrection. Read those verses with me please. "But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection."
There are three things that Jesus teaches us in those two sentences. 1) That there is resurrection from the dead. 2) That there are angels and that people in heaven share with angels immortality. And 3) the resurrection life is proof of being God's child.
So let me put this to you; what difference does what Jesus says here about the resurrection make to you? What difference does knowing that you have new life, eternal life, life forever with God, as His child, make in your day? Let me suggest a few things.
One is that you are no longer tethered to the things of this earth. They can no longer bind your heart and mind when you know that what you are and have in Christ is eternal and that what surrounds you now is temporary. All the stuff of this earth is only ours for a short time and sometimes people put to much value on it.
Like this guy down where I lived in southern California, he was driving down the road in his bright red convertible BMW when suddenly an earthquake hit and split the road he was driving on. His sports car began to be swallowed into the ground. The man jumped out in time to save his life, but before he could get completely away the car rolled over and cut off his left arm. As he sat on the ground looking into the pit, he cried, "Oh no, my car! My car!" A man passing by stopped and said, "How can you be crying about your car? You just lost your arm!" In shock, the man looked down where his arm should be and said, "Oh no, my Rolex! My Rolex!"
That’s a guy who had his mind too focused on the temporal things of this earth. So one difference that knowing you are a child of the resurrection makes is that, you are no longer enslaved by the things of this earth.
Another thing is that you have the presence of God in your life right now. By His grace through faith in the work of Jesus, you are possessed by God and that doesn’t just change you – you are transformed by that because it is from God. The sermon title says child of death / child of life. That is you. Because of your baptism you were made a child of death as St Paul says in Romans 6:4 "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." And according to this same verse our baptism grants us new life. And again in today's gospel lesson as we said, the resurrection life shows us to be children of God, children of life. As God's children He is always with us.
Most of you know that my father died when I was 18. But to this day my dad is with me. I am still his son and not a day goes by that I don’t remember that. The same is true with our heavenly father. Just as my dad is always with me, because I’m his son, so also God is always with me because, by right of my baptism into Jesus Christ I was made a child of God, and so are you.
Ok so, let’s recap, so far, you know that you are a child of God, a child of life, a child of the resurrection and therefore you have the presence of the God of heaven in your life; and,,, you are no longer being tied to the things of this earth. Now, to a third thing that the resurrection can make a difference to in our daily life. You have, each day, in your possession the weapons you need to resist the temptations to sin that come your way.
That is extraordinary power! You have the power to resist temptation! I was talking with the confirmands on Friday about this. What did I have you write down about temptation? Remember, temptation is not… what? Right, temptation is not sin! Temptation is not the same thing as sin. Temptation can lead you to sin, but temptation is not the same as sin.
Temptation has only the power you let it have. Listen to that again… Temptation has only the power you let it have. But being first free of the claims this world tries to put on you and second having God's presence in your life, in those 2 things you have the strength required to live a life that puts up a fight against the temptation to sin. Now this is one real benefit of knowing about eternal life isn’t it? This can truly impact your day.
But for some reason some people try to minimize the effect of God in their life. Some try to hold back the tide of transformation that comes with the presence of God in a person’s daily life. But that holding back God's power to transform us by His presence is not part of who we are here at Mount Olive Lutheran Church. According to our mission statement we are here doing what? Sharing Christ and Serving the Community, right. We do that because we are transformed by the presence of God in our daily life. We don’t want to limit that transformation and power that is ours to resist temptation.
Someone once said. "I would like to buy $5 worth of God, please, just $5 please, I don’t want enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of Him to make me love the outcasts or to go and pick beets with a migrant. I want happiness and bliss, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not the power of a new birth. I want just a pound of the eternal in a paper sack to go. I would like to buy… just $5 worth of God, please."
That is not for us. We have had God explode our lives by granting us the guarantee of eternal life. That guarantee can’t be taken from us or be denied to us by anyone or, as we mentioned, by anything on this earth. Jesus Christ, by His death and especially by His resurrection, is the guarantee of that promise of God to us. And that is not subject to the possibility of change.
As I said at the first, we’d come back to the spur that being a child of the resurrection is to our mission of sharing Christ. Knowing that resurrection power transforms, and brings God's presence and gives us power over temptation, don’t we want others to know and have that also?? Yes we do. The power of the resurrection is for others to have also. Without it they will not have what you have for life now and life everlasting.
Let me suggest this, try sharing John 3:16 in a very personal way. When it says ‘for God so loved the world’, try replacing ‘the world’ with a person’s name. Try it here right now with someone sitting next to you. Turn to them (and if you don’t know them, introduce yourself) and then take the sermon notes you have and where the underlines are with the word, NAME in it, say John 3:16 to them putting their name in the places indicated. Try it now.
“For God so loved Name that he gave his one and only Son, that Name who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
It’s wonderful to hear that God loves you by name. That can have a profound effect on someone who may have never heard it that way before. I’m not suggesting you go down the street and do this with strangers, but you might find you can adapt it and it’s something you can do in quiet moment with a friend or loved one who needs to hear, for their lives, what you know to be true in your life. You don’t have to get the quote exactly word for word, but use their name and let them know why God loves them as you know He loves you.
You know that you are child of death and a child of life. You know you are no longer tethered to this world and that the power of the resurrection is yours through Jesus Christ. You have been transformed by Christ, go and share that; in Jesus' name. Amen.