Sermon by Pastor Ronald Brauer used Sunday, August
13, 2006
“Making Effort to Keep Unity”
Series B - 10th Sunday after
Pentecost - Text: Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-16
Pity poor Andrew and Philip! They were stumped with a temporal problem and lost
sight of eternal things! Jesus posed a question to them as to how they were
going to feed the more than 5,000 people that had gathered that day. With no
grocery stores, bakeries, or restaurants nearby, the probability of being able
to purchase food was slim to none, even if eight month’s wages were found in the
disciples’ pockets. And to even think that a boy’s lunch of five barley loaves,
no bigger than the size of my hand, and two small fish, no larger than the size
of two of my fingers held together, would feed even two of the disciples, much
less the approximate 15,000-20,000 people headed to Jerusalem for the Passover.
That’s just a little less than the population of La Porte! The odds were
staggering. Why, we even get uptight when we’re seated in a restaurant holding
50 people with only six wait staff and a slow cook!
Yet Jesus knew what He was going to do. He wasn’t simply
going to feed people. He was going to give them a miraculous sign. Oh, these
people ate and left with full stomachs, but that meal would end, and they would
be hungry tomorrow. So if they could just put the right amount of change into
the Jesus-vending machine, they would have all the food they ever needed. The
ones truly to be pitied were the crowd who would make Jesus a bread king. These
people’s god was their stomach and their focus was on the things of this world,
rather than on things eternal, such as the unity Jesus would bestow upon His
Church.
It is Jesus who gives the Church that unity. We as members
of the Body of Christ by virtue of our baptism do nothing to create that unity.
“In the beginning God…” becomes our reminder here. The unity into which
we are called and gathered has been given to us in Christ; we don’t have to
gather up the fragments and put it into our baskets. The unity of the Church is
God’s gift to the baptized. God does give us the ability to preserve that unity
through the various gifts He gives the Church through the apostles, prophets,
evangelists, pastors and teachers. He gives each of you gifts as He apportions
it, to be used in building up the body of Christ.
You heard last week how Jesus gathered the crowds. He had
compassion on them as they were like sheep without a shepherd. He would teach
them and feed them, He gave them Word and Sacrament. God did the same for His
Old Testament people. He gave them the Bread of the Covenant, the Law of Mount
Sinai, and Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of the Children of
Israel would commune in the very presence of God.
The Children of Israel would vow to keep that unity under
that old covenant when they vowed, “We will do everything the Lord has said;
we will obey.”
Everything?
Moses, what about you? You were instructed to speak to
the Rock for water, but yet you struck it, ignoring the instructions of God.
And what did you get for that? You were forbidden to lead the Israelites into
the Promised Land.
Aaron, what about you? You gave in to the desires of the
people and supervised the making of the Golden Calf, contrary to what God
instructed in the First Commandment and its application, “You shall have no
other gods before Me. You shall not make to yourselves any graven image…” What
did you receive as punishment? You had seen Moses grind up that golden god and
spread the dust on the water and made you drink your god.
Nadab and Abihu, what happened to you? You served as
priests in the tabernacle, yet you used unauthorized fire at the altar, and God
struck you both dead by His fiery judgment.
And what about the elders and the Children of Israel?
Didn’t they murmur and complain in the desert, and didn’t they rebel and were
punished with 40 years of wandering?
Everything the Lord has said? Everything?
What about that crowd who heard Jesus and then were seated
in the fashion to eat a banquet? They turned their eyes to their stomachs and
desired Jesus as Bread King rather than receive Him as the Bread of Life. They
wanted what they could get without the commitment of taking up their cross daily
and following Him.
And what about the disciples? Everything? They each held
a basket of leftover food after being tested about how to feed the crowds, yet
they abandoned Jesus when He was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Everything?
And what about you and me? Have we done everything the
Lord has said? Have we obeyed Him in everything? Have we done everything to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace? Or have we chipped off
pieces with our display of negative attitudes, insisting on our selfish demands,
belittling of others, our use of thoughtless and hateful words and actions?
Have we participated in what Paul would later describe as actions unfitting for
saints?
And aren’t we tossed around by the waves of worldly
influences, being tempted to drag these in to the holy sanctuary of God because
it pleases our sinful flesh? Aren’t we becoming more foolish in the devil’s
scheming rather than becoming mature and growing up in Christ? Have we done
everything possible to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace?
Obviously not. That unity is fragile while the Church
endures these evil days. Your pastor has had to duck and avoid being hit by the
shrapnel that is thrown my way, and I must confess that I fall into temptation
when I pick up a piece of that shrapnel and throw it back. We see the trial and
tribulation and tumult of that holy war fought on the corner of Kingsbury and
Monroe [location of your church]. We, like Philip and Andrew, only know
how to count things from an earthly viewpoint.
God does not place us into His Church to break the unity or
tear it apart. Rather, He draws us into His Church to keep that unity. Satan
and his evil accomplices of the world and even our sinful flesh will all assault
the Church to wear it down, to untie the bonds, to break them asunder.
Separation from the Body of Christ occurs when one grows cold in love for others
or when one dares to commit things unworthy of belonging to that body. Either
way the person cuts himself or herself off from the fullness of Christ. Those in
that camp are the ungodly. They are like chaff that will be blown away in the
wind of God’s holy judgment.
But those who are zealous to preserve the unity do so
because they have been saved by grace. By the Holy Spirit’s calling, gathering,
enlightening, and sanctifying, these redeemed children of God recognize that God
places into His Church the treasures of Word and Sacrament. He also gives His
gifts in order to prepare the redeemed for eternal life, to equip the saints to
be witnesses, and to encourage one another to do good works—those acts of love
done in faith.
The greatest act of love was God’s mercy upon His fallen
creatures. Through the prophet Moses, God would show His mercy through the act
of atonement through the shed blood of sacrificial animals. Moses would take
blood and sprinkle it on the people and pronounce, “This is the blood of the
covenant.” The sprinkling of blood signified two things. First, it gave
the people cleansing from previous defilement. Secondly, it consecrated the
people to a holy purpose, enabling them to say, “We will do everything the
Lord has said; we will obey.”
But it is not by the blood of bulls and goats and sheep
that would accomplish the complete atonement for sin. The Old Testament
sacrifices would simply remind the people of their sin and of their total
reliance on God to be merciful and forgive their sins. It would take the blood
of a perfect Lamb, God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to take away the sin
of the world and to give us peace.
When we say these words of the Agnus Dei, we are made
mindful of who we are and who Jesus Christ is, and what we become because of His
sacrificial death and resurrection. We are forgiven by His blood and given
peace with God. We have new life now and eternal salvation in heaven. The Good
Shepherd speaks His words of comfort with accents persuasive and tender. He
would make us lie down in green pastures as He did for the crowd, and pronounce,
“Take eat, this is My body…Take drink, this is My blood of the new covenant for
the forgiveness of sins.” It is through the shed blood of Jesus on the cross
that we have the full forgiveness of all those sins of disunity.
It is Jesus who joins and holds us together in the Church,
for He is the supporting ligament that supports this body. He came “to bind
up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to
the captives, to open the prison of those who are bound, to proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord, and to
comfort all who mourn.” He binds
your broken and contrite hearts, He restores your soul, cleansing you from the
unrighteous thoughts, words, and deeds committed against others.
He came to teach and
feed, to give Word and Sacrament, to His redeemed, until that day when we will
feast eternally at His banquet table, not with simple bread and fish, but with
the best of meats and the finest of wines. It is what our Savior does best, and
we as the Church of God, one in hope and doctrine and love, continue to receive
in His service to us.
It is true that while we are in the Church of God, this
body of Christ on earth, we will experience growing pains. There will be the
physical pains of growing old as our bodies ache and hurt with the effects of
this sin-fallen and imperfect world. We will also have growing pains of faith,
having to trust God for things of the future where we only see in a dark glass.
Growing pains are also experienced as we work together on boards and committees,
planning and carrying out those plans that would glorify God in all we do.
Parents especially know of the growing pains of faith as they bring their
children to the Lord’s house each week to worship and learn the language of
liturgy, hymns, and prayer.
As a congregation, we encounter growing pains as we
instruct and welcome new members into the fold, thus helping them prepare for
their eternal life in heaven. As a congregation, we have growing pains when we
become more mature in Christ, studying His Word, receiving His Body and Blood in
the blessed Sacrament, exercising our faith in active deeds in service to the
Church. While our comfort zone is stretched just a little and we sense that
discomfort, we also know God’s grace supplies the balm to heal that tenderness
and gives us strength in our time of weakness.
Just as God knows the needs of His Church, He also knows
your individual needs. Imagine those times when you open the checkbook to pay
the bills, and all you see are loaves and fish. What are they among so many?
The answer is seen when Jesus takes what is seemingly small and outnumbered,
blesses them, and distributes them. Then they become a blessing to others.
Your heavenly Father knows you need food and clothing and shelter. The Lord of
the Church knows what temporal, earthly things are needed to accomplish His
will. He will supply the loaves and fish. He puts them into your basket,
showing you that He provides for your needs and the needs of the Church. In
faith and thanksgiving you bring a portion of those gifts back to Him to receive
His blessing, that they may be multiplied and used to teach and feed others.
He gives you His grace by which you are saved. He teaches
and feeds you in Word and Sacrament. He prepares you for works of service by
joining you with other believers in the Church to do His work. Even babies
share in the work of the church. “How?” you may ask. When a child is baptized
we say, “We welcome you into the Lord’s family. We receive you as a fellow
member of the Body of Christ, a child of the same heavenly Father, to work with
us in His kingdom.” While that child grows, we are preparing to instruct
that child to know about Jesus, to confess His Name, and to grow in grace and
become mature. The child is on the receiving end of God’s grace, and we band
together as the Church to provide for instruction in God’s Word, that Word which
is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.
That child is baptized in the same baptism by which we
were baptized, joining the prophets and apostles before us who walked the way of
faith. One day, we will join the saints and angels at the feast of heaven,
tasting things sweeter than honey our mouths.
That is the unity in the church, knowing there are others
who join us, having had growing pains like ours, experiencing the hurts and
temptations in this life, and shedding the sympathizing tear for each other. It
is in the unity of the church where, as St. Paul writes, “Therefore,
as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with
compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other
and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as
the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them
all together in perfect unity” (Colossians 3:12-14 NIV).
Each Divine Service
offers a time of healing and reconciliation when we confess those times when we
have not done everything the Lord has said and when we have broken the unity of
the Spirit. It is a time to receive God’s holy absolution and receive His
forgiveness, poured out for you to enable you make every effort to keep the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. It is when you join others with whom
you have shared growing pains, and come together for healing.
Because of salvation
by grace alone and clinging by faith alone, the members of the body of Christ
move onward with the cross of Jesus going on before, always bearing witness to
the truth of the Gospel. Doing everything that the Lord has said and obeying
Him is living a life worthy of the calling you have received. You have been
sprinkled by Christ’s atoning sacrifice, setting you apart to be in the unity of
the Spirit and having redeemed you in order to stand in the presence of God to
eat and drink. May you pass through things temporal that you may not lose the
things eternal, clinging by faith alone to the grace alone by which God saved
you through Jesus Christ alone, making every effort to keep the unity of the
Spirit through the bond of peace. Amen.
Now to Him who is able
to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the
power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all
generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21 NKJV) <>< <><
