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A sermon is a manner of oral communication and therefore words and sentence structure/order would be added, altered, or deleted at the moment of delivery. + In Nomine Jesu + The Rev. Evan Gaerther Being lonely or feeling that you are stumbling through life can be very difficult, it can be heartbreaking. It can be a feeling that overtakes a teenager trying to find her way in life, a parent watching her children grow without her, or a senior citizen whose spouse of many years has died. Stumbling in this world happens not just to other people but to all of us in various degrees. How is it possible to live in this world which we have appear so often to have little or no control? Certainly, we have illusionary moments of control, but so much goes on that just well appears random. There are lots of ways to stumble and St. Peter brings them to light. We stumble when we fail to rely on the promises of God and instead try to live based solely on what the past generations have done. He wrote, “As obedient children do not be conformed by the passions of your former ignorance.” (1 Pt. 1:14) In our modern terms this would be the "But we've never done it this way before" problem. It is so easy to be conformed, to fall in line, to do the same old same old, and not examine whether we are relying on the past or setting our hope fully on the grace that is Jesus Christ. Also we trip over ourselves when we seek to serve ourselves instead of giving glory to God. Two left feet do not just appear to be a problem when trying to swing dance, but also when trying to serve ourselves and satisfy our own desires before realizing the pain and heartache of others around us. St. Peter warned his readers, writing, "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul." (1 Pt. 2:11) Another way we stumble is when we try to use the word freedom to justify our actions over against others. St. Peter wrote, "Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God" (1 Pt. 2:16). St. Peter was also critical of women who tried to find their beauty and connection to others through their outward adornments saying, "It should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worthy to God's sight." (1 Pt 3:12) It can be difficult as a7th grade girl and realize that you can get things and make people do things for you because of your looks. One can think of that outward beauty as power and control because it seems to work. St. Peter reminds us that ultimate beauty comes from the inside as we reflect the glory of God. But Peter was not just witnessing women stumbling over their inner beauty by relying on their outward looks, Peter was also critical of men who were not considerate of their wives and did not treat them with the respect they deserve as being fellow receivers of the gift of life. Christ gives to all believers the gift of life, we are all fellow receivers of an amazing inheritance, life. So why do we look at and treat others like they are lower than us, less of us? Because we stumble along and try to make our way in this world apart from the identification we have been given by the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ. You are a baptized child of God washed clean by the blood of the lamb called to live as a member of a holy nation, a royal priesthood. But yet we stumble. When I walk in the woods and stumble, I stumble because I do not see the tree root that suddenly decided to grow in my path? We stumble over ourselves because through a sinful self we do not see. It is dark in our hearts when we do not live as God has called us in our baptisms. Ultimately the problem of stumbling against sin, is that if we do not reach out to Christ, we are filled with shame and wither against the disappointment of loneliness and missteping. Ultimately we must recognize that when we sin, when we stumble, we are stumbling over who God has called us to be.. But we are a chosen people. We have been chosen by the one the world rejected. The stone that has been rejected, has become the chief cornerstone. That stone that we stumble over, God, is in fact good. The Lord is good. You can be pretty down in the dumps, wanting to think that your life must mean something, a part of something larger and yet because of the darkness of sin not able to see what that something larger really is. The second chapter of 1 Peter won't give you more specifics. It is not a horoscope of ridiculous notions. But it does tell me and you that there is something bigger than ourselves, something you are a part of, something that can give you a sense of belonging, a sense of meaning, a sense of purpose. St. Peter did not only write beleagured with disappointment about the stumbling over sin, he also wrote, "You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." (1 Pt. 2:5). Through your baptism you can be confident that no matter what you step on in life, you have been called to be a child of God. God does not oppose us, but proposes to use you and me for his purposes. Another pastor put it this way, "The ice the unbeliever slips on, the believer skates on. The water the unbeliever drowns in, the believer drinks." By faith in the word of God, Jesus Christ, God's grade of you and me goes from being a lump of coal to being more precious than diamonds. Jesus Christ is the difference maker. The very one that was rejected by the world, crucified on the cross, never rejected you and me. He rose again on the third day for you and me and all those slip sliding away. Whoever believes in Christ will not be put to shame. "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." (1 Peter 2:9). God desires to build you up. Through faith trust in God, trust that he is the stone upon which a whole life can be founded upon. Peter put it this way in verse 4, "You yourselves are being built up as a spiritual house." That is God-work. It would be more stumbling if we thought that this was our doing. God nurses us, feeding us spiritual milk so that we may grow into salvation. When you and long for that feeling of connectedness, meaning, purpose trust that it is God's desire to feed you. You have been called. It is a powerful statement to confess joyfully, "Once I was not a part of anything, but now I am a part of God's people. Once in this world I could not know mercy, but now I have received mercy through the love of God." As you live as a child of God you are being built up into the temple of God, a part of God's heavenly house. The Lord promised that he is preparing a place for you. As you and grow, thrive, and last through everything we proclaim not our own goodness but the mighty acts of the one that has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. If we believe Jesus, then we can stop living in a world that we stumble over ourselves and live in the reality of Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Soli Deo Gloria -->> Home |