{"id":10488,"date":"2025-01-13T12:44:01","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T19:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=10488"},"modified":"2025-01-13T12:44:01","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T19:44:01","slug":"god-works-in-spite-of-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=10488","title":{"rendered":"God works in spite of us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Select here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

John 2:1-11<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Sermon for the Second Sunday after Epiphany<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the season of Epiphany, the season of the coming of the light. There\u2019s a problem with this and the problem is like the line you know from the poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: \u201cWater, water everywhere but not a drop to drink.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s light, light everywhere, but who\u2019s got the light?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This comes out in two major ways. There are about 40,000 Christian denominations in the United States, although they can be grouped in about seven major groupings. Why is this? In part it\u2019s because every single verse in the Bible has all multiple interpretations so there is no way to say: \u201cAh, yes, this verse is self-evident.\u201d Or: \u201cThat verse is clear.\u201d There is tremendous variation in terms of how things are interpreted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the first problem: Is every interpretation throughout history right so it\u2019s O.K. to say that everybody has his view and every view is fine? Then what? I have the light? This church is right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second problem has to do with language and how language works. Language is about metaphor and picture. We say: \u201cMy love is like a red, red rose,\u201d but she doesn\u2019t have green leaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it says in Scripture that we are to hear, then we think that we can hear the word, however, in fact, we\u2019re deaf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or when it says: \u201cSee and look,\u201d we assume we can see and look, not facing the fact that spiritually speaking, we\u2019re blind, lost, and in darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it says in Scripture repent because of sin, we say O.K. we can do that, not realizing that in spiritual terms we rebel, we run the other way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In looking in this season of Epiphany at how the light works, something throughout the Bible tells us that God works in spite of us. The light comes in spite of our blindness, and we are able to hear in spite of being deaf because God makes it so, and that even though we don\u2019t repent but rebel, he gives us life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this may seem counter-intuitive to us. In order to show that throughout Scripture it says that God works in spite of us, and he gives us light and life in spite of us, let\u2019s look at a series of verses that say this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isaiah 55:11: \u201cSo shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.\u201d In other words: It works because I do it, says the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeremiah 1:12: \u201c. . . I am watching over my word to perform it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark 4:28: This is from the parable about the seed which is sown, it says the seed grows automat\u00e9, automatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John 1:13: \u201c. . . born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John 2:1-11, which is the text for today about turning water into wine. It says this is the first sign that Jesus did to manifest his glory. This is the way God comes and makes evident who he is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romans 10:17: \u201cFaith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the preaching of Christ.\u201c It\u2019s not our doing, it is not up to us to hear carefully and rightly. Rather, the preaching produces the hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 Thess 2:9, 13: \u201cWe preached to you the gospel of God . . . and when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James 1:18: We know that the book of James is a misunderstanding of Paul, but there in 1:18 it says: \u201cOf his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth . . .\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 Peter 1:23, 25: \u201cYou have been born anew, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God . . . that word is the good news which was preached to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout Scripture it says God works through his word to do what is good for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We talk about this word both as visible and audible. His word comes to us visibly in Baptism and the Lord\u2019s Supper, and audibly in the preaching and the declaration of forgiveness that we have at the beginning of the service. This is how God works, most strikingly of course in infant Baptism where that little one doesn\u2019t understand, doesn\u2019t decide, and yet that one becomes a child of God and receives the Holy Spirit and eternal life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may say to me: \u201cPastor, I\u2019m not convinced. You haven\u2019t proven things for me. You haven\u2019t solved for me the problem of all the different preachers and the different points of view. Moreover, Pastor, you haven\u2019t solved the problems of language and language that can be understood differently.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To which the answer is: \u201cIt\u2019s not my problem. It\u2019s not my problem because it\u2019s my task to declare to you that your sins are forgiven for Jesus\u2019 sake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when you ask: \u201cHow do you know that\u2019s truth?\u201d My response is: \u201cYour sins are forgiven for Jesus\u2019 sake.\u201d Because the problem isn\u2019t relativism and all different kinds of points of view. The problem is that you are caught in sin and death and the answer is to proclaim this word that is effective, that your sins are forgiven for Jesus\u2019 sake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what? So what does that mean for walking out of church today with your feet on the ground?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What it means is summed up in Romans 1:16: \u201cThe gospel is the power of God for salvation.\u201d That comes in the proclamation of this gospel. As it says in John 1:4: \u201cIn him was life and the life was the light of men.\u201d It is his life that comes to us in this light, this word that comes to us. It doesn\u2019t come elsewhere. It\u2019s not a light in nature. It\u2019s not a light in which I understand that I know that. It comes in the doing of it, in the preaching of it, in the declaration of forgiveness, in Baptism and the Lord\u2019s Supper and not elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two illustrations. To be sure, words break down, metaphors and illustrations break down, but here are two which may help us to see what is at stake. The first one is about organ transplants\u2014kidney, liver, lung, heart\u2014and when you get an organ transplant, for the rest of your life you take anti-rejection medicine and you go in for regular check-ups. You can\u2019t say to yourself: \u201cI feel O.K. I\u2019ll take those anti-rejection medicines when I feel like it.\u201d You can\u2019t say: \u201cI\u2019m too busy this week to bother with those medicines and to bother with going for a check-up.\u201d That\u2019s deadly! Your life is at stake. And you don\u2019t say to yourself: \u201cI feel fine. I\u2019ll decide when to go depending on how I feel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s what the word received through preaching, absolution, Baptism, the Lord\u2019s Supper is like. Baptism is like getting an organ transplant, and going to church regularly is like taking those anti-rejection medicines and going for those regular check-ups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second illustration is about loving someone, not necessarily \u201cbeing in love,\u201d although that, too, but even loving a child, a parent, a friend. When you love somebody, you want to be connected to them, talk with them, hear from them. You don\u2019t say: \u201cI love you, and who knows if we\u2019ll ever talk again?\u201d You want to hear from them, and you know it\u2019s a matter of the reality of the tie between you. It\u2019s not a matter of: She knows that. I know that. It\u2019s in the doing of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what the word of God is like, the light that is the life. It comes to us this way, and it produces life; it produces life now and life forever. Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John 2:1-11<\/p>\n

A Sermon for the Second Sunday after Epiphany<\/p>\n

We are in the season of Epiphany, the season of the coming of the light. There\u2019s a problem with this and the problem is like the line you know from the poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: \u201cWater, water everywhere but not a drop to drink.\u201d
\nThere\u2019s light, light everywhere, but who\u2019s got the light?<\/p>\n

This comes out in two major ways. There are about 40,000 Christian denominations in the United States, although they can be grouped in about seven major groupings. Why is this? In part it\u2019s because every single verse in the Bible has all multiple interpretations so there is no way to say: \u201cAh, yes, this verse is self-evident.\u201d Or: \u201cThat verse is clear.\u201d There is tremendous variation in terms of how things are interpreted.<\/p>\n

Select here<\/a> to read more or here <\/a>for a pdf document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10488"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10494,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10488\/revisions\/10494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}