“All for One, One for All”
May 21, 2023
Dear brothers and sisters, grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.
It’s all about Jesus! The reason we gather together every week, the purpose of our worship services, of our donations, our service projects, even our celebrations, everything else we do together as a church, is for one reason it’s all about Jesus. What we’ve been celebrating the last few weeks is Jesus’ ultimate victory over death, by His own death and resurrection – which is why we worship Him, and everything we do ought to be centered around Him. He is what makes our religion unique and different from all others: He is truly God and truly human, who alone is the Son of God, and who alone is how we have access to God the Father. He is the only one who saves us, as we are reminded each time we recall our Baptism, and remember that He makes us clean and forgives our sins by His death; then promising us a new life here in this life, and eternal life after death by His resurrection. Every time we celebrate Communion, we are also reminded of Jesus’ sacrifice of His body and blood, and filled with His power to life a new life committed to Him, and to each other, as He feeds us with His true body and blood. He gives us the Holy Spirit to help us live a new life, committed to Him, every day. Even everything we read in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testament, points directly to who Jesus is and what He does. He is the beginning and the end – the beginning for everything we carry out, because we do it with His blessing, and the end, because helping people experience His power and love directly is to be the end result and goal for everything we do. And if we make that our focus again, we can look forward to an even greater and promising future together. Notice I emphasized together, because we really do need each other more than ever, all for the one – Jesus, and being one united for the One – Jesus.
Every so often, it’s good for us to be reminded about why we’re here. Of course, we probably gather together for an hour every Sunday, and on special days, because it’s something we’ve always done, and we don’t know what we’d do if we didn’t. The problem is, covid put us into survival mode, and many other things took priority over focusing on Jesus. But now God has been blessing us with a more hopeful situation, especially with the pandemic being officially lifted worldwide. He has been giving us more reasons to look forward to the future with optimism, so now it’s time for us to get back to what we’re really all about: Jesus. We have a gift to offer everyone, which we are to give freely to everyone: the power of Jesus. Whether people realize it or not, everyone needs Jesus. Only Jesus can satisfy the needs, large or small, anyone has. Jesus, and Jesus alone, has the power to heal, restore, renew, rescue, relieve, and refresh. Jesus alone can also offer true love, care, acceptance, forgiveness, and another chance to live life. Every time we come to Jesus, just as we are now, we receive everything we need, more than anything else in this world can try to satisfy us.
And all the rest of this week, we have the promise, as we do in today’s Second Reading from First Peter, that Jesus cares for us. As it says in verses 6 and 7, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may life you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” We can give all our anxieties, stresses, worries, and problems to Him, for Him to take out of our hands and resolve. By humbling ourselves before Him, which means giving up all control, especially any control which is causing us anxiety, and letting Him take charge of us and our lives, we can experience even greater peace, calm, and comfort than we know. Everything that comes against us will ultimately be defeated, because Jesus has already defeated it.
That doesn’t mean life is always going to be perfect, though: we still have an enemy in this life, the devil. He is prowling around like a lion, trying to get us to turn away from Jesus, discourage us, kill our morale and our hope again. His greatest weapon nowadays is actually distraction: taking our focus off of Jesus and trying to put it on to problems which cause worry and anxiety. This is especially what happens when we’re forced into survival mode for any reason: the devil attacks us at our most vulnerable and weakest. He stirs up division and competition between people, and breaks up friendship and relationships, even among other Christians, by tempting people to focus on things which cause arguments and conflicts, causing jealousy and envy. He encourages disunity because he knows that if Christians are united together, they will be able to bring Jesus to everyone – which is exactly what he doesn’t want. Unfortunately, over the past few years, because of the conflict produced by covid and other causes of division, the devil has been allowed to run rampant, and he has nearly succeeded in bringing us, and many other Christians, down forever. But now, dear friends, it’s time to resist him, to cast him out! It’s time to call him and his works out, especially everything he’s done to cause us fear and hopelessness. It’s time for us to be united under the power of Jesus once again, and be united against the devil. The devil must not, and he will not, ever be allowed again to weaken or distract us. If any of you here today feel under attack by the devil, if you have been weakened by the problems of life, and have fallen into any kind of harmful temptation; if conflicts with other people have caused you to doubt yourself and your worth; and if you have been tempted to give up, then I encourage you to humble yourself before Jesus in prayer, and ask Him to fight for you. Then believe that He has already won, and no power which comes against you will ever succeed – Jesus has already beaten it for you. You are also not alone: many others are going through the same kinds of things you are. And you have a power on your side which cannot be defeated, because this power will make you strong, firm, and steadfast, and this power belongs to Jesus forever and ever.
As I talked about recently, we unfortunately have been fed many reasons to separate ourselves from each other, or divide people into different groups, even hate and despise each other because of differences. That is itself a work of the devil, which needs to be called out for what it is. So today, I encourage all of you to resist that special temptation of the devil. Your family members, friends, neighbors, other people you meet every day, classmates, co-workers, fellow church members, even your fellow Christians in other churches, are not the enemy. For far too long we have allowed differences over politics, lifestyle, even theology, to divide us, and now it’s time to refocus on the one thing that unites us – Jesus. We share one common faith and belief in one Lord, God, and Savior, and so that’s what we’re to emphasize – not our differences, but our point of unity. It’s time for us to be one, united, and stronger together again. Why? Because it’s really all about Jesus. It’s all about who we really are: people who have been saved by Jesus, loved by Jesus, and given an even greater purpose by Jesus. We will grow as Christians, individually and as a church, if we put aside everything which has divided, and instead seek unity and cooperation on what really unites us – our faith in Jesus. Jesus’ prayer is that we would be one – so it’s time for us to become one. To Him indeed be the power forever and ever, Amen.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment