Talking About the Passion: Sermons from Holy Cross Lutheran Church

Jesus calls Nicodemus-- and all of us-- to enter into a space of holy unknowing: FAITH. Will we step out, forgetting all the things we think we know, and follow him, living in his life-breathing Spirit?

Though in Lent, we focus on saying "no" to the things of this world that might draw us away from God, we only do so in order to say "YES" to God and the amazing things he has for us in Jesus. 

Jesus' demanding call to discipleship only makes sense in the larger Biblical narrative, in which the Lord God  issues commands only AFTER he has delivered us. 

The Mosaic law on Mount Sinai is only given AFTER God has freed the people of Israel from bondage in Egypt and led them with dry feet across the Red Sea.

The 10 commandments are not the pre-condition for salvation. They are a way of life for people who have ALREADY BEEN SAVED. And only God’s abiding presence makes that way of life possible for them.

That is exactly how it is with Jesus’ costly call to discipleship! Only in the presence of the living Lord is his radical demand helpful. 

The gospel writer Matthew tells us at the beginning of his gospel that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us.  And Matthew is the one who at the end of his gospel records the very last words of Jesus on earth to his disciples as: go, make disciples, baptize, teach them everything I’ve commanded and remember I am WITH YOU ALWAYS, even to the end of the age. 

Matthew reminds us that Jesus is both the one who calls us to obedience, AND the one walking with us to make obedience possible. 

As we learn to seek God’s deep intention for our lives and for the life of the world. As we engage with the scriptures and understand them in light of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. We will bring delight and seasoning to a hungry world. 

The evocative and beautiful opening chapter of John’s gospel tells us:

“The word became flesh and dwelt among us”

That word “dwell,” literally means “to pitch a tent.” 

In the greek version of the old testament, that word was the same word used to describe the tent of the tabernacle, the place God told Moses to build, the place God came and lived in and met the people of Israel while they were wandering through the wilderness. 

And though it was a gracious act of God to come down to meet his people in the tabernacle, the lines of separation were still very clear. God is INSIDE. And the people are OUTSIDE. 

But now God has come to dwell with us in a particular person. 

And he invites us into relationship with himself! 

That means that the clear boundaries between God and humanity have been erased. 

The message of the gospel. The good news that God has spoken— and continues to speak to us— through a human person is scandalous and offensive to our innate religious sensibilities.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to think that communion with the capital “D” Divine means shaking off this mortal coil, leaving behind the ordinary, everyday matters of life:
Climbing the mountain, 
going on pilgrimage, 
being a different person.

But the incarnation of God, in Mary’s boy, born under scandalous circumstances, to a couple in conflict, in a world situation about as far from ideal as has ever been in human history.

This is how God comes to us. And the message of the gospel for you and me today is this: God comes to us today in the ordinary beauty of our lives.

Our call as God's people is to cultivate a vision of life transformed by the Lord. Where are the dead and barren places in our lives, and how is God at work bringing new life to these places? What will creation transformed look like? How can we cultivate hope through a holy imagination?

Second in a series titled "Loving Jesus"

First in a series titled "Loving Jesus"