Sixth Sunday After Epiphany
Deuteronomy 30: 15-20 Psalm 119:1-8 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 Matthew 5:21-26 "Baby Steps" Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from God who gives the growth. Amen Life with God is a process, a journey that is only completed when we are commended to God at our death and because it is a journey that we are on there is always room for improvement, for growth. Life with God takes practice. Our texts for today make it very clear that life with God, as a child of God is never a one and done event, God saved the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and brought them to freedom and the promised land but that was only the start of their life with God. God knew that after being slaves for so long they didn’t know how to live freely and peacefully with one another so God gave the people leaders in Moses, Aaron and Miriam and the commandments, a guide for peaceful prosperous life together and God gave the Israelites time to practice this way of life without distractions while wandering in the desert before entering the promised land, they couldn’t handle it all at once, they had to take baby steps to get there. Our reading from Deuteronomy this morning is Moses’ last address to the people before they enter the promised land, full of riches and opportunity and other people with their own gods and way of living and one last time Moses calls the people to follow the way of life that they have been practicing, that God has laid out before them he puts it in stark terms, life and death, the way of God is life any other way is death. Choose life Moses says! Practice life by living according to the guide God has given you, it will lead you to life. Choose life! By the time Jesus comes on the scene the people have been practicing the law of Moses, with varying degrees of success for a long time, and in the sermon on the mount Jesus joins the group of rabbis who say, it’s time to take it to the next level, ‘I didn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill it’ Jesus tells the crowd life is even more complex than the law and the interpretation of the law have been, now it is no longer good enough to follow the exact letter of the law but one must look at the intent behind the law, what is at the root of murder? It is anger, we’ve established that murder is bad Jesus says, now let’s work on what leads to murder. It’s the next step on the way to the abundant life that Jesus came to bring, and if all of this seems overwhelming and impossible The truth is that it is but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, it means we are aware of how much we need the grace of God given to us through the cross of Christ God both expects us to follow the law of love of God and neighbor and God knows we will fail and need the grace of Christ. Life with God takes practice Paul points out in our reading from 1 Corinthians that it’s okay, necessary even to take baby steps in our practice, he calls the Corinthians infants in Christ and says that he fed them with milk because they were not ready for solid food. The life of faith is a life of growth in faith, growth that takes time, nourishment and practice. One of the main ways we nourish and practice our life in faith is through worship. When we gather for worship we gather to praise God, yes and to be nourished yes but also to practice, in the time and space of worship we practice for the rest of life, we practice how God calls us to live beyond worship. We start with confession and forgiveness, practicing mending the inevitable broken relationships that go along with being human. We give thanks in worship, practicing humility, acknowledging that all we have in this life are gifts from God, We listen to the word of God, in the readings and sermon, practicing listening for what God is saying to us in our daily lives. We pray for others and ourselves practicing communicating with God on a personal level. We offer one another peace practicing for the times of conflict when it will be necessary in life to cross the aisle and take the hand of someone you profoundly disagree with and make peace. We give in worship practicing living materially God and neighbor centered lives, acknowledging that we are dependent on God and not on ourselves for our lives and livelihoods and that we are called to share what God has given us. We eat a meal together at a table where all are welcome and there is enough for everyone, practicing God’s truth for the world, preparing us to know that it is a lie when we are told there is not enough for everyone and that some are better than others. We bless one another and receive blessings practicing offering affirming words to one another in a world that most often offers criticism. And then we are sent out into the world as servants of God to spread this way of life We go out taking baby steps, a kind word here, a radical welcome there, a small moment of peace making, a word of blessing, and God takes our baby steps and uses them to give the growth, to make the kingdom of God a reality. Paul planted, Apollos watered but God gave the growth. Paul reminds the Corinthians Whatever we do However we contribute Ultimately growth is up to God And for that I say thanks be to God.
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AboutPastor Emily Johnson preaches weekly at Christ Lutheran. These are manuscripts of her sermons given at Christ Lutheran. Feel free to engage with them in the comments section of the blog. Archives
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