Grace Lutheran Church Sermon The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, January 28, 2007

The Rev. Evan Gaertner

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany “Faith, Hope, and Love”

January 28, 2007 1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13

The space shuttle Challenger exploded during lift off in 1986. This was a shattering moment for many people. It signaled a despair or doubt in the possibilities of what we can accomplish with our own hands. For my generation the Challenger accident indicated a loss of innocence and that science was not going to always provide the answers we need. The o-ring was found to be what failed and what frustrated the engineers so much was that they had actually examined the o-rings before lift off and they appeared to be in fine condition. But the problem was not on the outside. The o-rings failed because of a breakdown on the inside. Under initial examination they passed but when put to the test they failed because their insides were corrupt.

When I was in high school in St. Louis, I joined the cycling club thinking this would be good exercise and a good way to get to know people. I had ridden my bicycle around the neighborhood without much sweat. So my Dad hooked up my bicycle to the back of his car and drove me to the parking lot where everyone was meeting. A few people from my class showed up that I recognized and my anxiety settled down. I did alright till we took a right turn towards a hill and I started to fall further and further behind from the group. Then my chain fell off and I limped over to the side of the road. I found myself on a mountain of despair with little hope that I would catch up. Put to the test at that point in my life I did not have faith I could catch up to the group and I just sat down. Soon a van of one of the parents pulled up. I looked inside and realized with comfort that I was not the only kid she was rescuing. I had the bike shorts, the helmet, the bicycle, but that was just outside stuff. On the inside I could not make it over that mountain of despair.

On the outside we can have the appearances of having everything figured out. Consider how a person, a congregation, or a community can under initial examination all pass the test. If we use as a measuring stick appearances many of us might do well. But when we go beyond what is on our hands and the condition of our front lawns and examine our hearts, we find that we all our sinners in need of forgiveness.

It can take a lot of work to keep up appearances and give everyone the impression that we have everything figured out. The pressure to hide our failures can really push some people to the breaking point. A congregation recently had to go through the trauma of uncovering that a member of 27 years that was the treasurer had over the past few years been writing checks to herself. She began at a time when she was three months behind on the mortgage to her large suburban home. She thought that she would just get out of debt, keep up appearances, and pay the church back, believing that no one would notice.

When starting up the mountain of despair it can appear quite hopeless. On Mount Sinai Moses received the Ten Commandments. The New Testament book of Hebrews says, “The people down below heard the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.”

When we go to the law of God, when we try to go up Mount Sinai, when we try to live our lives by the Ten Commandments, we will find a mountain too high for us to climb. The prospects of a life lived under the stare of Mount Sinai are terrifying. Who can move that mountain?

Certainly for a while we could pretend to keep up the appearance of everything going perfect, but in the end the shadow of Mount Sinai is too great. Life lived under the law of God without rescue is impossible. Not one of us is perfect, without the love of God all our actions add up to nothing, a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Even the heroic action of martyrdom is valueless if it is not an expression of the love of Christ.

When Jesus Christ walked up to Golgotha with his cross, he walked up to the mountain that was too high, insurmountable for any of us. Jesus took upon himself the terror of Mount Sinai. With love Jesus Christ took upon himself the guilt of our broken insides.

So today at this church instead of going to Mount Sinai we go to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.

The love that Paul describes to the Corinthians is not found through slavish obedience to the law. Mount Sinai has been set aside. Neither is the love that Paul describes found in disregard for the law of God, as if Mount Sinai never was. The love that Paul exhorts us to is found through the grace-filled obedience of Jesus Christ.

Out of the mountain of despair Jesus Christ cut a new stone for us to stand upon. We stand in this world for justice because we stand upon the love of Christ. We have a hope that by God things are different because we stand upon the love of Christ. We have faith that we can approach our heavenly Father with confidence because we stand upon the love of Christ.

1 John 3:14-18 states, “We know that we have passes out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s good and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

Those words for St. John the Evangelist are call to bring the love of Jesus Christ from our hearts into our actions. We have passes out of death into life, so why remain in death with hatred, envy, spite, and jealousy. You have been given a pass out of the guilt of your sin, why discard it through loveless action, why trample on that pass by following the paths of injustice and neglect, why crumple up that pass out of death to life by remaining blind to the opportunities God has given you to share the love that he has given you in Jesus Christ.

Lift High The Cross, the love of Christ proclaim. Christ has brought the melody of his love to you. With faith and hope go out into this love trampling on injustice with love.

St. Paul reminds us that if we act apart from love no matter how gifted we may be we are nothing but a noisy gong, or a clanging cymbal. I want this congregation to be a beautiful symphony of love found in action.

I look forward this year to hearing the symphony of your love as we celebrate 100 years of God at work in this congregation. Oh what joyful noise onto the Lord we can make with our love.

Soli Deo Gloria

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