REFORMATION SUNDAY, A – October 26, 2008

SCRIPTURES – Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18; 1 Thess. 2:1-13; Matt. 22:34-46

Last Wednesday I accompanied Wendy Orban and Janel Cassara of our Evangelism Board to the Norwalk Police Station to drop off some goodies for the officers. Wendy and I arrived there first and waited in the parking lot for Janel, who arrived with her kids, Michael and Anna. I called to them as they were walking across the parking lot, and when Anna saw me, she cried out, “It’s Jesus!” Whoa, there! “No,”

I told her, “I’m not Jesus. He’s God! I’m just pastor.”

One thing I love about children is that they are often such great theologians. They put in simple terms what God tells us but we adults don’t seem to get. Am I Jesus? Of course not. But, I do represent Him. I wear a white robe on Sunday’s and stand before you to forgive your sins, speak God’s words to you and give you Christ’s body and blood. It’s understandable how a young child could confuse her pastor with Jesus. People are to look at me and see Jesus.

Is this boasting? No, it’s what God says; and He says it about you as well as about me. God tells Moses in Leviticus 19: “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” You are to be like God! People are to look at you and see Jesus. Now, that’s a tall order. And, it is an order: not my order or the church’s order, but God’s order. “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” This is what God requires of you.

“You shall be holy.” What does this mean? What is holiness? God doesn’t leave us in the dark. In Leviticus 19 He tells us that being holy means:

q   Not showing partiality, to the great or the poor, and so perverting justice. Don’t vote for O’Bama because he’s black, or McCain because he’s white. Such things do not matter to God, who has made us all. They are not to matter to you.

q   Not slandering people, spreading stories about others that hurt their reputations, for this is harming their very lives.

q   Not hating others in your heart or holding grudges.

Holiness can be boiled down into one word: love. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” Jesus  emphasizes this when He says: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Love, for God and for others – this is what our God is all about. Love that fills us and focuses our every thought, word, and action outward, upon our God and then upon our neighbor and his needs. This is what God requires of you, what He demands of you. For, this is what your God does.

Are you up to this? Well, you better be, for the children are watching you. They will learn from you and emulate you. Above all, God is watching you, and He is your judge. His judgment will not be on the basis of your sincere efforts, nor on the basis of your own standards.

q   Trying to purify your body by eating only certain foods and avoiding fats, or taking vitamins and supplements, or fasting periodically, or exercising, will not cut it. Such things may help your personally, but that’s just the point: they are for you. Such things will not fill you with love for God and for others.

q   Trying to purify your mind by avoiding TV, or meditating, or reading popular self-help books like “The Secret” and visualizing success – a very selfish thing, really, and a denial of how God uses sufferings to mold us – will not work. God calls us to focus outward, upon Him and others, and not within, upon ourselves.

God calls us to His standard, not our own. You must not simply try to be a better person. No, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” You must love. You must be like God. Your love, for God above all but for others as well, must so fill you and be so evident that when people look at you they can say, “It’s Jesus!” If such love, such holiness, does not fill you and is not evident in your heart and your life, then you are not like God and have no right to be with Him.

If this makes you uncomfortable, if this makes you feel bad about yourself because you know you don’t love as God loves: good! Now, you must look away from yourself to where God points you, to where Jesus Himself directs you.

You see, it’s not enough to know what God requires. You don’t love like God, as He requires! If you are relying on your love and goodness to gain God’s approval and the promise of heaven, then you are lost. Punishment in hell for all who fall short is what lies before you. You must look elsewhere than yourself. Look unto your God! Psalm 9 promises, “The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.” God wants you to rely upon Him; and, that we might do so, He has sent us His Son.

Jesus came, not to be a lawgiver, but our stronghold, our salvation. He came to be our love. He answers the Pharisees’ question about the greatest commandment by pointing out that God commands us to love Him with our whole heart and our neighbors as ourselves. But, He then goes on to speak of where this great love of God, this love which fulfills God’s every command and overcomes every sin, is found. “What do you think about the Christ?” He asks. “Whose son is he?” He teaches that the Christ, the Savior God promised to send, is David’s son: a man, a descendant of King David. But, He is also one greater than David, for David calls him his Lord:

“The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.”

Pay careful attention to what ‘Lord’ means. It means ruler. But, when we hear the word, ‘Lord,’ we usually think of God being in charge, ruling over us. David here speaks of his Lord as the one who rules over his enemies. One who rules over your enemies, who puts under his feet all that threatens you, is one who rules for you. He is your savior.

In Jesus we have a Savior. He is our Savior, the Savior of sinners, because He is God come down from heaven with love. He came in love to be a human being, weak and mortal like us. Then, on the cross He took our sins upon Himself and became us – sinners – before God. He swallowed up our sins in His body, that by His death, and then His resurrection from the dead, He might rule over our sin for us. Your sin is forgiven, because the Son of God in love died for your sins! All that sin brings, then – fear, worry, despondency, guilt, judgment, death, separation from God – all this and more Jesus bore for us and triumphed over by His death. They are now under His feet, and He now rules over them. In Jesus you are holy! All of this He did because He loves us.

Where is there hope for us sinners? It is not in the law of God but in the love of God for sinners. Your hope, your stronghold, is Jesus! Listen to Him. Believe in Him. Love Him.

God gave you His Son to change everything for you. His command now in Christ becomes His promise: “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” By baptizing you into His Son, who lived, died, and rose from the dead for you; by speaking to you and assuring you of His love; by giving Himself to you in His very body and blood; God triumphs over your sin and fulfills His command. “You shall be holy, [as] the Lord your God [is] holy,” for in His Son God makes you holy. He covers you with His Son, so that when He looks at you who believe in His Son, God does not see your sin. He sees Jesus!

“Look! It’s Jesus!” Thanks be to God, it’s Jesus: Jesus for you; Jesus with you; Jesus in you; Jesus filling you; Jesus loving you, and loving through you. To the glory of God, our Father, and with love for Him forever. Amen.