22 January 2017 St. Athanasius Lutheran
Church
Epiphany 3 Vienna,
VA
and Sanctity of Life Sunday
“Seeing Life”
Text:
Matthew 4:12-25; Isaiah 9:1-4
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God
our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
I’m guessing this will
not be news to any of you . . . but we just had an inauguration on Friday. A new president. Some people are happy about that, and some
are angry. Elections and inaugurations are always very partisan and political
times in our nation.
And so, some would say,
to have Sanctity of Life Sunday in such a context, is
in danger of being seen in that context - as the church being partisan and
political. Because it is a political issue in our country and in the world, and
did play a part in the election.
So let me get this out of
the way right away then.
Every life is sacred.
Every life is deserving
of respect, honor, dignity, and is of value.
Every life is holy to God
and a gift from God.
Your life is sacred
whether you are a Republican, a Democrat, a Libertarian, Independent, or
something else.
Your life is sacred
whether you can feed and dress yourself or if you cannot, so whether you are
very young, very old, or anywhere in between.
Your life is sacred
whether or not you’re able to see, hear, speak, or walk.
Your life is sacred
whether you’re male or female or even self-select some other gender.
Your life is sacred
whether your heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or
asexual.
Your life is sacred
whether you’re a Black Lives Matter, an Occupy Wall Street, or an Alt-Right
supporter.
Your life is sacred
whether you’re an immigrant or not, legal or not, pro-immigration or
anti-immigration.
Your life is sacred
whether you’re Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Baha’i, Confusian, some other belief, or no belief at all.
Your life is sacred
whether you’re Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, mainline Protestant,
Charismatic, Pentecostal, Baptist, or something else.
And yes, your life is
sacred whether you’re inside the womb or outside it.
Every life is sacred.
Every life is deserving
of respect, honor, dignity, and is of value.
Every life is holy to God
and a gift from God.
And so every life is
worth our time, worth our energy, worth our effort, and worth our love.
And so Jesus spent time
with the politicals of his day, with Pharisees and
Sadducees. He blessed children and helped the very old. He cared about and
healed those who could not see, hear, speak, or walk. He dealt with zealots. He
loved male and female, Jews and Gentiles, and even Samaritans. And then He died
for them. All of them. For all their sins, all their
wrongness, all their false belief, all their divisiveness, all their anger and
hatred toward Him even - all of it. He died for all of it. Because
these lives were His. He made them, and He wanted them back. Whoever
they were, whatever they did. And so He redeemed them. With
His own blood. Their blood may have boiled against Him, but He poured
out His for them for the forgiveness of their sins.
And
for ours.
For
what we’ve done and failed to do. For
what we’ve spoken and failed to speak. For the hatred
in our hearts. For the demeaning and belittling thoughts that pollute
our minds. For our wrong choices, for our rebellion, for our
selfishness. For that fact that we have not considered
every life worth our time, worth our energy, worth our effort, and worth our
love.
So when Jesus said, Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, He wasn’t just talking to “them.”
Repent, when the only kingdom you care about, the only life you care about, is
your own.
Those are tough words, I
know. But believe me when I say that I had to preach them to myself first
before I preach them to you. Because when people walking in darkness see
a great light, that light hurts your eyes. It hurts when that light
reveals our sin and how dark our hearts and minds really are. How darkened by
sin. How entrenched in death. Ever since that day when God said to Adam: the
day you eat of it you will surely die . . . and we’ve been dying ever
since. Sometimes even choosing death over life because we think that’s better.
Better than having a baby, better than suffering, better than putting up with
someone, better than trying and loving and giving. Better! That a pretty deep
darkness.
But the light that shows
us our sin also shows us something else that we cannot see in the
darkness - life.
That’s sounds funny, for
of course we can see life! But can we? Really? Or
does the light of Jesus reveal life we cannot see?
Life in the dead body we
are lowering into the grave.
Life
in the itty, bitty boy or girl growing in the darkness of the womb.
Life in a person
suffering so much they don’t want to live.
Life in a person caught
up in sin.
Life in a person who
cannot remember what they did five minutes ago.
Life is a person who
cannot speak or eat.
Life in a person severely
handicapped.
Life
given and sustained and loved by God.
Do we see? Can we see?
Can we see as Jesus saw? That all these lives are really worth more than
just His time, His energy, His effort, and His love, but worth His own life?
We can. Because Jesus is
the light of the world, the light no darkness can overcome. The
light that shone forth from the manger. The light that shone forth as
Jesus cared for and healed the sick, those afflcited
with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics,
paralytics, and more. The light that shone forth in His
forgiveness. The light that shone forth from his
cross. And the light that shone in His resurrection, when Jesus defeated
the darkness of death once and for all. To give hope to all
of us. All of us walking in the darkness of sin and
the shadow of death. There’s more than darkness. There’s more than
death. We have light and we have life.
Though
it’s not easy. Life is often messy and difficult. I think of those
we heard about today - Peter and Andrew, James and John, who Jesus called to
follow Him. That day life didn’t get an easier for them, but in fact it got
pretty messy and complicated pretty fast. They saw life and they saw
opposition. They saw life and then they saw that life strung up on a cross to
die. And they saw His tomb. His big, strong, dark, ugly,
final tomb.
And then they saw life
again. Life from the dead. Life that
conquers death.
And then Jesus sent them
to both live that life and give that life to others. To give them eyes to see life. It still wasn’t easy. In
fact, it got harder as it was not Jesus who was suffering and dying, but they
themselves. But they could see now.
Life.
Life when they were being
persecuted.
Life when they were being whipped.
Life when they were being imprisoned.
Life when they were being martyred.
The world said to them: We’re in charge of who lives and who dies.
And they said: No, you’re not! We saw the one who is.
And as long as God gave
them life in this world, they gave that life to others. They preached it. They
gave it in the forgiveness of sins. They baptized it into people, and bodied
and bloodied it into people. The same Body and Blood that
died and rose to life again, now doing the same for us, in us.
And so the early church
called baptism illumination, enlightening. The light going on and being
able to see, really see, life. Another early church father showed how baptism
reverses everything for us. For, he said, by nature we live and then we
die, but in baptism we die with Christ and then we live.
And so Jesus sent those
twelve out into the world and said: go, baptize. Or in other words: go, and
give life. And teach. Teach about this life. This life I give now, and this
life I give forever. Help them to see. Give them eyes to see, as I see. That every life is worth our time, our energy, our effort, our
love, and yes, even our own life.
And they did. And the
church still is. That’s why you’re here. You are baptized and given life. You
repent and are given life. You are fed and given life. To
live and see life. To see life where others do not see life, and so give
hope where others see no hope, to give love where others see nothing to love.
And that’s not partisan or political.
That’s just Jesus.
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+)
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.