Sermon 14th June 2020 – 2nd
Sunday after Pentecost
Text: Romans 5:1-8 – Saved by grace
Today begins our Pentecost season. Even
though we celebrated Pentecost Sunday a couple weeks ago this is now what we
refer to as the Pentecost “Season”. The Pentecost Season is considered to be
the growing or teaching season of the church – and hence the paraments have
been changed to green this week. Green representing “growth” such as when our
lawns and gardens begin to grow with green shoots. The focus of the Pentecost
season is on the teaching of Jesus’ disciples. Not just the 12 Apostles but all
Christians – you and me. And so we see that in our Gospel reading: Jesus went
about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues. Then Jesus
summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority to go out and preach and
teach.
And our 2nd reading – St Paul’s
letter to the Romans summarises the heart of the Christian teaching: He says:
Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; We
sometimes summarise this teaching as – saved by grace, through faith, for
Christ’s sake. We even summarise that further by calling it “The Gospel” –
saved by grace. We need to keep that teaching at the heart of our understanding
and in everything that we teach because we need to keep coming back to it time
and time again.
Paul teaches us how this
understanding of God’s grace actually helps us in those difficult times to not
only deal with life’s challenges and come through them but to actually grow
through them. He speaks about how our faith and our knowledge that we are saved
by God’s grace enables us to not only endure in times of suffering but to
actually grow in faith through them. He says - that suffering produces
endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and
hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. Isn’t it interesting that at
the heart of our growth is suffering? Usually we might associate suffering with
a decaying of our growth. And we have seen this growth through suffering during
this time of suffering in the church that could have easily have broken our
spirits by being unable to gather for worship. But we have actually rallied
together to support each other. New friendships have been formed as we have
picked up the phone to call one another and check up on each other. What could
have broken our spirits, I believe, has done exactly what St Paul said it would
do – our suffering has produced endurance – our endurance has produced
character and our character has produced hope in us.
In times of suffering it is easy to
give up hope. But our faith in Christ reminds us that suffering is limited only
to this lifetime. Without wanting to downplay suffering which can be extremely
debilitating – our faith reminds us that suffering has a limited effect on our
lives. One of the blessings that God did when evil entered into his perfect
creation was he limited the reach of evil and suffering by removing the tree of
life from the reach of Adam and Eve. One could associate the removal as a
punishment but in reality it is a form of God’s protection and blessing to
ensure we didn’t become exposed to evil and suffering eternally. And so death
became not a punishment for sin but an end time for all suffering and evil
which extends only for this life time. So our focus turns to what God has
planned for after this lifetime where we are told that there will be no more
suffering or death which are the old order of things as we hear in Revelation
21. And St Paul even says in chapter 8 of Romans that he considers the present
suffering of this life is not worth comparing to the glory that awaits us in
heaven. And even to the point of saying he rejoices in his suffering. Not
because he enjoys suffering but because it reminds him that this life is not
where true joy is to be found but in heaven.
And since he is saved by grace – he
rejoices knowing that his rest and glory are soon coming.
Jesus also said that: As you go,
proclaim Gospel, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near. In fact, in 2nd
Corinthians, through his suffering Paul is able to gain strength in faith
saying “when I am weak then I am strong” because his reliance on God is made
even more clear.
Jesus also teaches in our Gospel
reading a very real issue that faces Christians in the world and a reassurance
so we do not lose hope. Jesus makes no secret that as we go out into the world
as his disciples that we will not always be welcomed. He says: I am sending you
out like sheep into the midst of wolves; So the first thing we learn from this
statement by Jesus is that we should not be surprised or disheartened at the
attacks and rejection. We should not see it as a failure of the church to connect
with the world but rather a rejection of God because of the evil that has been
released into the world that is against God and all who put their faith in him.
So often the church has been afraid to speak out against sin and error in the
world because it doesn’t want to be rejected by the world as antiquated and
irrelevant. So often we have softened our message because we have wanted to be
accepted and liked by the world. But that goes against what Jesus has warned us
against when he said - you will be hated by all because of my name.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not
saying that we should look for ways for the world to hate us. But we should not
be afraid to speak out where we see the world going off the rails. And we
should not be afraid to be rejected or ridiculed for speaking the truth. But on
the other hand too often the church has spoken out against issues without
offering God’s word of grace and forgiveness but rather only judgment. Remember
the Pentecost message that Jesus asked us to proclaim – that repentance and
forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed to the entire world. In doing that we
are reminded that we are all well off the mark when it comes to obedience
before God. And, as Paul reminds us, this is how God has shown just how much he
loves us:
He says: God proves his love for us
in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Can we honestly say
that we have always dealt with people in the same way? That we have “while they
were yet sinners” that we have shown love towards them?
That’s what being saved by grace
means. Knowing that God has shown his grace to us that we have been freed to
show grace towards others. This is the freedom that the Gospel brings us. That
our one and only concern is getting the message out to all people that God
loves them. And even if sometimes life doesn’t seem to be for us all that we
hope for – our Christian hope reassures us that it’s okay because our life in
heaven is guaranteed. And sometimes it’s in those disappointments – those times
of suffering – those times of rejection – that we are redirected towards our
faith because there is nothing else. And it is that faith – that hope that does
not disappoint us, as St Paul said. Suffering produces endurance, and endurance
produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint
us. And why doesn’t hope disappoint us? Because God's love has been poured into
our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
What a wonderful and freeing Gospel
that has been given to us. That our life’s destiny has been written and assured
through Jesus Christ our Lord. That God’s love is proven to us that even while
we were and still are sinners, Christ Jesus our Lord has given his life for us.
Let us continue to cling to that hope
in all that we are going through and let us be prepared to give the reason for
the hope that we have with anyone who asks so they too may know the comfort
that God brings through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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