Easter 4
1
Pt 2:11-20
5/7/17
When I stop and think about it, it
really is surprising that I am content and happy to live in Marion, IL. The reality is that I am a sojourner and an
exile here. For starters, I am a
Hoosier. I grew up in Indiana, and while
I live in Illinois I will always consider the state of Indiana to be home. My perfect scenario would be to take Marion
and move it to Indiana. That’s true for
many sentimental reasons and also because … let’s face it, Indiana actually
passes a state budget each year.
Next, I am a Lutheran. I had no idea what I was getting into when I
accepted the call to come this part of southern Illinois. I left the Chicago area which is full of
Lutherans – I mean the convention to found the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod
was held in Chicago - and came to far southern Illinois where people don’t even
know what one is. An hour northwest of
us that is not the case, but that hour makes all the difference in the world,
and we might as well be on a different planet.
And then, of course, I am a Cubs
fan. I left Chicago, the very location
of Wrigley Field, and came to southern Illinois. Once again, I had absolutely no idea what I
was getting into – no idea that this is rabid St. Louis Cardinals territory.
The Cardinals go almost a quarter century without winning the World
Series. And of course I arrive in the very
year when they win it in 2006 – and then also have to endure a complete fluke
run in 2011. Thankfully the last two years have brought great relief and so I
now know that I will be able to continue on as a pastor in Marion, IL.
In the epistle lesson this morning
Peter calls the Christians in western Asia Minor – modern day Turkey -
sojourners and exiles. He isn’t
referring to the geography of where they live, but instead to their spiritual
status. They belong not to a fallen
world but to God who in Christ has won salvation for them. That’s why Peter
begins the letter by saying: “Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy,
he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled,
and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded
through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
To be
honest, there really isn’t any explicit Gospel in our text today. The Gospel that is there is all quite
implicit. But the reason for this is
that as Scripture so often does, Peter here is drawing out the implications for
life of the Gospel he has just extolled.
As we just heard, he had begun the previous chapter by saying that we
have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead.
Next, Peter
had told the Christians that God had purchased them as his own in Christ. He wrote that they were to live, “knowing
that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers,
not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood
of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” It is this text that provided Martin Luther
with some of the language for the explanation of the Second Article of the
Creed which says that Jesus is our Lord “who
has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all
sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but
with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.”
This is what God has done for you in
Christ. And in Holy Baptism he applied
this to you. In this chapter Peter uses
the language of baptism when he tells the readers that like
newborn infants they are to long for the pure spiritual milk. And then immediately before our text Peter
announces what God has done through baptism.
He says, “But
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. Once you were not a people, but now you are
God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received
mercy.”
This is
what you are: a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s
own possession. But that also means that
now you don’t fit in with a fallen world – or at least, you shouldn’t. And so Peter says at the beginning of our
text, “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the
passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.”
This is not
your world. I don’t mean this creation.
This creation will indeed be renewed when Jesus Christ returns and raises the
dead. You belong here because this is
the very good home God made for you in the beginning.
No, you
don’t belong in the culture ruled by sin and the devil. You don’t belong in a setting where the
forces around you – the education system, the media, the entertainment
industry, the government, the internet – are all leading you away from faith in
Jesus Christ and toward every possible perversion of God’s will. You don’t belong in the world that my
pastoral letter to you this week describes. It’s not your home.
But until
our Lord returns, like sojourners and exiles this is the setting in which
Christians will live. This is the setting in which you live. And so Peter says, “Beloved, I urge you as
sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war
against your soul.” Peter tells us to
live as what we are. We have been ransomed – forgiven – through the precious
blood of Jesus Christ. We have been born
again through the work of the Spirit in the water and the Word of Holy Baptism.
So Peter
exhorts us: Live like you don’t belong to the sinful world. He tells us to abstain from passions of the
flesh because they wage war against the soul.
Now passions of the flesh include all of the ways that sin disorders our
desires. But it certainly includes the
thing that I am willing to bet this language calls to mind: sex. And since it does, let’s talk about it.
As
Christians we know that sex is God’s good gift.
It is the one flesh union that joins husband and wife together in
marriage. It creates life from the union
of husband and wife, and provides the most profound intimacy that helps to
continue to bind together the couple emotionally. And it is enjoyable - really enjoyable. Now
within marriage, that fact leads right back to sex producing life and sex
bonding a couple together – all of which are very good things.
But because
of sin, people have since the Fall been tempted to use sex outside of marriage.
They have wanted to use sex in ways the violate God’s ordering of
creation. The world in which the first
Christians lived was one in which this happened in every imaginable way. The use of prostitutes was legal and
considered normal. It was assumed that
masters had sex with their slaves.
Pornographic art could be seen in many places. Sexual sin ran rampant with almost no
restrictions.
Christianity
was completely different. It said that
sex was to take place only between
husband and wife, and that any other
use of sex outside of marriage is a sin that brings God’s eternal judgment.
The Lord Jesus taught that it’s not just the act that it is sinful, but that
even the lustful thoughts are sinful.
And so as Christianity transformed society, our culture
created expectations about marriage and conduct that were meant to hinder
sexual sin. For two thousand years, that’s how things worked.
And then in
fifty year during the second half of the twentieth century the birth control
pill changed everything. Technology
provided people with means to use sex as they wished, and western society ran
with it. The result is that the world you now live in is no different than the
one to which Peter wrote.
So more than
ever, we need to hear Peter’s words: “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and
exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your
soul.” Sexual intercourse with someone
who is not your spouse is sin. Living
together when you are not married is sin.
Fantasizing –intentionally dwelling on lustful thoughts – is sin.
And that
brings me to the part of our world that is actually worse than the first
century. Looking at pornography in order
to produce lustful thoughts and physical reactions is sin. And as sin, it is destructive. The pornography that you look at on all your
different devices rewires your brain in ways that will hinder you from
functioning in marriage as you were intended to do so.
The world
says that having sex in any way you want and looking at pornography is just
fine. God’s Word says that is it sin. We
will listen to God’s Word. One of the
things that pains me most as a pastor is the knowledge of people who would be
here if they had not decided to adopt the world’s view of sex. Yet, the Church
cannot be Christ’s Church if she does
not listen to God’s Word.
You listen
to God’s Word. You know the ways that
you don’t abstain from the passions of the flesh. You know how those are true, not only for the
Sixth Commandment, but also for every other commandment. Because of this continuing presence of sin in
your life, you repent. You confess. One of the most direct ways you can do this
is by coming to your pastor for Private Confession. Just as we heard for the last couple of weeks
in our Learn by Heart text before the service, in Confession we confess the
sins we know and feel in our heart. And
then something remarkable happens. In absolution
Jesus Christ speaks directly to you alone through his called servant and says:
“I forgive you all your sins.” You can’t
get the Gospel in a more direct way than that!
Through the
Means of Grace faith receives forgiveness. The Spirit works through those means
to build up and strengthen faith.
Forgiven, we are what God made us to be in baptism. We are part of that chosen race; that royal
priesthood; that holy nation; that people for God’s own possession.
And the
Spirit leads us to take up again that struggle against the old Adam still
present in us. We remember that we don’t
belong to this world, and so of course, no, we don’t live like they do. Instead we are those whom God according to
his great mercy has caused to be born again to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
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