Early in our text this morning John tells us, “Whoever does not love does not know God.”  How does one know if they love others according to God’s standards?  If someone does do well in loving others, what happens if they slip up and show an act of un-love? Does that constitute hate?  If so, does one act of un-love negate any previous instance of love shown?  In other words, do I love enough to be counted as a child of God?

When you think about it, selfishness lies at the root of these questions.  In the end, the bottom line becomes all about me.  What is in it for me?  How far do I have to go to earn a reward?  How much do I have to love until I am called a child of God?

For the most part, the reality of human nature is that the only love we are actually capable of is self-serving love.  Any love we show almost always has our own end in mind.  And even if there are times when an act seems to be done out of selfless love, we are drawn back to the original question of whether any act of truly unselfish love is enough to favorably tip the scales of God’s approval.

Scripture, however, tells us which way the scales tip.  Our text from 1 John informs us that we have not loved God.  It is that simple.  We have not loved God.  As John speaks on the subject, the real evidence of not loving God is played out in our selfish un-love of those around us.  We are unable to truly love others and whoever does not love does not know God for God is love.  In the end our actions are self-serving.

I find that my three year old son has a funny way of showing just how sinful and selfish our human nature really is.  As with most three year olds, he wears his true intent on his sleeve.  He hasn’t quite mastered an adult’s capability for deceit.  Though I’m certainly sure he will get there soon.

He has recently become very fond of orange gum.    Now, to be fair, he is quite adept at chewing gum and has done really well with throwing it away after he is done.  So far there have been no gum-in-the-hair incidents.  And he doesn’t really ever swallow it.  But he will do anything he can to get his hands on it.

Sometimes you can almost see the wheels in his mind whir as he concocts glorious plans to achieve total gum domination.  One such plan to gain the prize was to feign concern for his friend Lucas.  What if I can get mommy to give a piece of orange gum to my friend Lucas? Mommy is all about hospitality.  Surely she wouldn’t deny Lucas a piece of orange gum.  And once she gives him a piece of gum she’ll be like clay in my hands and offer me gum too.  Mwahahahaha!  It’s foolproof.  Unfortunately for Jude, the whole plan blew up when mommy, in fact, did not give Lucas any gum.  Many tears ensued after that botched plan.

Three year olds are interesting creatures.  They are pure portraits of our sinful natures.  There are no special effects or tricks of the camera hiding who they are.  What you see is what you get.  They can show us who we truly are.  They can show us how we love… or at least how we think we love.  And unfortunately in our case, we are not like a fine wine.  We do not get better with age.

We are selfish people who ultimately seek after our own ends until our end.  Until our end the question of whether or not we’ve loved enough will be ever before us.  John implies that those who do not love and are therefore not children of God are doomed to a life of fear and anxiety.  Judgment and punishment awaits the person who does not love.

We can’t do anything about it.  Our inability to love is engrained into our very being, our very sinful being.  On our own, we cannot love God, we cannot truly love others, and therefore we cannot know God and we cannot claim to be God’s children.

On our own, we cannot do anything besides sin.  We certainly cannot love.  But we are not on our own. “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.”

We have not loved God, but John reminds us that God has loved us despite being the unloving and unlovable scum that we are.  The proof and demonstration of God’s love for us, was of course revealed and made crystal clear when God sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.  One may wonder what that phrase “atoning sacrifice” means.  Some translations designate it “propitiation”, others “expiation”.  Unless you have a dictionary on you, none of that really clarifies things.  What it comes down to, though, is that God has taken care of our sin through the cross.

And if we didn’t quite get the point, John says it again this way, “that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world.”  Let there be no mistake as to how love is defined.  God showed that God is indeed love by sending his Son to die on the cross for us.  Jesus Christ, in his cross, defines how God is love.

Wonderfully, it didn’t end there.  Christ, after he was raised from the dead, ascended into heaven and sent his Holy Spirit to dwell in those who believe and are baptized into his name.  This is how we know that we remain, abide, or dwell in him and he remains, abides, or dwells in us; because he has given us of his Spirit.

In Holy Baptism, you were crucified with Christ, you were raised to new life with him, you were made a child of God and you were given the Holy Spirit to dwell in you.  Baptism, therefore, is what we look to for assurance of our salvation.  In baptism, you were given God’s promise of salvation.  This was God’s gift to you, done for you completely by God.

In baptism we are reminded and connected to Christ’s cross and his victory over death where love is defined.  In God’s love fulfilled for us on the cross and splashed upon us in baptism we are then given boldness on the day of judgment.  Fear is no longer present because love, having reached its end in Jesus Christ, casts out fear.

On our own we cannot love, but we are not on our own.  Christ has given us his Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit who dwells within us is what enables us to love and to know God.  The Holy Spirit also enables us to love others because we know that God has first loved us.

This is what we are called to do.  To love others in a way that our love reflects the love God has shown to us.  Whatever our acts of love that we do are, whether it is feeding the poor and hungry, fixing houses in Minot, or speaking for the disenfranchised, it should all blatantly testify to the crucified and risen Jesus Christ who first loved us.  The Holy Spirit enables us and gives us the desire to do this and should we fail, Christ stands ready with forgiveness.

In the sending of his Son God says to you, “I love you and I forgive you.  Because of this, I cast out of you all fear and anxiety of punishment.  Through my Son I give you boldness when you stand before me on the day of judgment because I am your Savior.  I claim you as my own, you are my child and I give you my Spirit to dwell in you as a reassurance of this.”

You try to do something nice for a guy, try to proclaim the gospel and pronounce healing and forgiveness over him and what do they do?  They bring you to court.  Being only weeks removed from the death of their beloved Jesus, the experience must have been somewhat overwhelming for Peter and John.  After all, this was the very place where the rulers, elders, and chief priests brought Jesus when he stood trial.  In fact, some of the very same people who tried Jesus then were now presiding over their examination.  They must have wondered if their fate would be the same for them as it was for Christ.

The court had only one question for Peter and John, and it was a fully loaded one.  “By what power or by what name did you do this?”  The proceeding didn’t begin with a debate on whether or not the healing was legitimate.  The healing didn’t matter, though the officials didn’t really care to specifically acknowledge it either.  The fact that a man born lame was now walking about of his own accord didn’t faze or move them at all.  What the court really wanted to know was in connection with what or whom were Peter and John able to do such a thing?

Now, different religious parties made up the court of 70 or so men known as the Sanhedrin.  Some in the court were a class of people known as the Sadducees.  They were the ones who instigated the arrest of Peter and John and it was most likely their party who filled most of the Sanhedrin court room in which Peter and John now stood.

The Sadducees were religious in their following of the Law of Moses, but mostly because they believed that material wealth and power came from close adherence to the Law.  Theirs was the prosperity gospel of the day.  If you do this, then you will receive this.

However, while most Jews believed that at the end of time there would be a resurrection of the dead, the Sadducees didn’t.  For them there was no afterlife.  There was just this life and your success in this life was determined solely by your works according to the Law.

Of course, the court knew Peter and John.  They were specifically arrested and brought before them because they were teaching the people and proclaiming that Jesus was raised from the dead; proclaiming that this man whom this court demanded to be crucified, whose body mysteriously and infuriatingly disappeared three days later, was indeed raised from the dead by God!  They knew these men.  They were a threat to the Sadduceean way of life.

Their way of life may seem ridiculous and perhaps foreign to us, but the idea of our own personal prosperity being connected to God’s favor as a result of our works is not as farfetched as it may seem.  Of course, if one follows that logic through, one must say that any disaster that befalls us must be because of a lack of good works or because of a particular offense against God.

I met an older gentleman who once told me that his son tragically died because he was too prideful of his son.  He believed that God took his son from him in order to put his pride in its rightful place.  Living as though our works alone determined God’s attitude toward us for good or for bad is a fearful way to live, yet we are all helplessly drawn to that kind of thought.  The Old Adam within us will always look inward to what we have done and in the end all we can do is hold our works up as a measure to determine what God’s judgment upon us will be.

When the disciples respond to the Sanhedrin court, Peter uses some subtly nuanced words that get a bit lost in our English translation.  But they strike right at the Old Adams standing in judgment over the disciples.

“If we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ.”

When Peter says that the man had been healed, he uses a word that implies more than that.  The word is often used in Acts to refer to salvation in the spiritual sense.  This man has been more than healed.  He has been saved.  Peter goes on to say that this man stands before the court in good health.  The word he uses for that implies “wholeness.”  His physical healing is part of that, but not all of it.

All of it is because of the resurrected Jesus.  “You want to know by what name we did this deed?  You want to know by what power this man stands before you?  By the power and name of Jesus Christ, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.  This man was saved and made whole and stands as a witness to the living power of the living Jesus Christ.”

Peter went on to tell them, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”  Outside of Christ, one cannot find salvation.  There is no other power, no other name through which one can find salvation.  Salvation only comes through Christ.

The Old Adam in all of us who seeks to please and hold back the wrath of God through his own machinations was exposed by Peter’s words.  The work of those who condemned Jesus to death in order to preserve their way of life – a work that our own sinful nature gives us a share in – had been undone by that very death when God raised Jesus from the dead. Our distorted pursuit of power over our own salvation – one that could only lead to fear and anxiety – was suddenly and wonderfully outmatched by the Son of God we saw executed, whom God saw resurrected.

In the healing of the lame beggar the power of the resurrected Christ was given witness.  In Holy Baptism and in Holy Communion, that same power is testified to and in you.  In water, Word, Body and Blood, Christ draws us into his death and resurrection and offer us forgiveness and life.  The Old Adam is put to death and a new creation is brought to life in us through the New Adam, Jesus Christ.

Christ does this for you because you were unable to do it of your own accord.  Salvation only comes through Christ.  Salvation is found nowhere else and in no one else and that includes you and your own works and plans.

In his death and resurrection Christ says to us, “There is life and salvation only in my name and I give life and salvation to you freely and fully.  In my name, in my cross, in my resurrection, I make you whole.  I have saved you from yourself and from your sins.  There is no other way.  I free you therefore to live in the life I have given you and to be witnesses of salvation given in my name.”  Amen.

Waiting around in the upper room must have been awful for the disciples.  But what do you do after the man you’ve followed and dedicated your life to for the last three years is brutally killed.  After the first few hours, reflecting on the whole event must have been agonizing.  As the reality of Jesus’ death overwhelmed them – despair, hopelessness and fear became overwhelming.  Those who were once caught up in the movement of Jesus, the whispered “Messiah,” now found themselves in hiding, licking their wounds of defeat.

For about three years the disciples followed Jesus.  Some of them left their jobs which was easier for some than others.  A few of them left their parents behind.  And all because this man said to them, “Follow me.”  They invested everything they had – reputation, hope, comfort and time – in Jesus.  And with every miracle, every healing, every demon cast out, every sermon, every confrontation with the Pharisees  and every mercy shown to the lowest of the low pulled them deeper and deeper into the mystique of this man they called the Messiah.

And that title is what they put their hope in, that Jesus was the Messiah, the anointed one of God chosen to bring everlasting glory back to Israel in a very real and political sense.  Of course this meant that the common belief was that the Messiah would live and reign forever over the reestablished kingdom of Israel.  Evil and corruption would cease.  The Lord’s favor would be proclaimed.  It was said that the Messiah couldn’t and wouldn’t die, but would live forever.  All their hopes for a better life and a better nation were attached to this one man.  It all hinged on Jesus.

But Jesus died.  And after he died the disciples were suddenly left leaderless and alone.  They were left wondering, “What now?  Where do we go from here?” What do you do when every facet of your existence was devoted to following a man who is now dead?  Not only dead, but crushed; executed by those very people whom the Messiah was to overthrow and reform.  One might expect there to have been a sense of embarrassment and shame amongst the disciples for having invested so much into a failed cause.

So what should the disciples have done after Jesus was crucified?  After having seen the things they saw – where could they go from there?  In terms of grabbing on to something of worth and value, how could they possibly do better or find better than Jesus?  How does one go back to life as it was, how does one return to the status quo after all hope has been deflated?

In 1804 Meriwether Lewis with his partner, William Clark, traveled through the unexplored wilderness of America.  They began in St. Louis, Missouri and trekked through the virgin wilds of the Great Plains and unexploited countryside of what is now Montana crossing the Rocky Mountains before making it to the northern Pacific coast… and then they made the journey back!  The whole trip covered 8,000 miles and took two years.

To think of spending two years away from civilization is almost impossible for us nowadays.  Some scholars believe that Lewis was so struck by the beauty and wonder of the untamed wilderness and the immense trials of the journey that he could not adjust to living in civilized life again.  It was so much so, that Lewis committed suicide only a few years after the great expedition.  He simply could not return to the status quo and no longer understood the world around him.

While the disciples followed Jesus, they believed themselves to be on a journey to a new future, a new golden age.  But when Jesus was crucified, the journey came to an abrupt halt.  It was as though the disciples essentially had gone nowhere.  The world around them was the same as it always had been.  People were still oppressed, corrupt and lost.  Evil still reigned and sin, humanity’s ancient and incurable disease continued to hold the world captive.

But then, the unexpected happened.  Jesus appeared before them.  And still being distraught over the death of Jesus, they subconsciously tried to keep Jesus framed within the status quo by believing him to be merely a ghost.  The possibility of Jesus being raised from the dead, in the flesh didn’t enter into the equation.  After all, according to the status quo, the dead stay dead.

But the good news for you, me and the disciples is that the status is no longer quo.  In what we can imagine to be somewhat of a humorous scene, Jesus asks the disciples why they are so frightened and why they continue to doubt that it is truly he who stands before them.  “Look at my hands and feet,” he exclaimed.  “Touch me and see!  Ghosts don’t have skin and bones like I do.”  The disciples’ disbelief originally born out of fear now began to turn to a disbelief born out of joy.  What they were seeing wasn’t possible, but they liked it.

But Christ did make it possible and in an effort to drive the point home that he was physically standing there before him, he sat down and ate some fish – obviously.  In my Monty Pythonesque mind I imagine this playing out as an awkward scene where Jesus is sitting at the table hungrily eating the fish, though he is purposely taking his time in order to savor the dumbfounded look on his gawking disciples.

But when Jesus was finished, he told them what it was all about.  “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you — that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”  The phrase, “must be fulfilled,” sounds insignificant, but it picks up on an important theme that runs throughout Luke.

When the women went to the tomb to see Jesus, the angels reminded them of something Christ had said earlier, “that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”  Earlier, at the Last Supper Jesus told his disciples “that this Scripture from Isaiah – ‘he was numbered with the transgressors’ – must be fulfilled in me.” This theme of necessity and divine plan goes on and on and each time it emphasizes that it was necessary, it was ordained that Christ must suffer and die and be raised from the dead.  But the disciples never got it until now when, as verse 45 tells us, Christ “opened their minds to understand the scriptures.”

All this time the disciples, even though they were following Jesus, were hoping in and trying to grab onto in the wrong thing.  We all do this, all the time.  We look at the world around us, we look at the sin that pervades our entire being and try to do something or grasp onto something or someone hoping to make a change and get out of the mire of this world and life of sin.

But the only way out, the only way to gain freedom is for Christ to grab us and reveal himself to us. It wasn’t until Jesus revealed himself to the disciples and opened up their minds that they finally got it and understood what it was all about.  Only then did they comprehend the necessity of Christ’s death and bodily resurrection as the only cure for the disease of our depravity.

Jesus spelled it out for them.  “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.”

No amount of striving or work we do would ever be able to free us from our captivity to sin, let alone the world’s captivity.  Rather it is through Christ’s suffering, through his death, and through his resurrection; it is through the absolutely necessary work Christ was called to do that we are set free.  The new reality established by Christ’s resurrection, the new status quo, is the only hope for an utterly fallen and depraved world.

Christ proclaimed the forgiveness of sins to his disciples in his name and we are given the same forgiveness.  This morning Christ says you, “I love you and I did this for you.  I came for the singular purpose of suffering and dying for you so that you may have forgiveness of sins and live.  It was necessary and it was worth it.  In my resurrection I claim victory over death for you.  There are no ‘ifs’, there are no ‘buts’, there is only me given for you.  I claim you and I make known myself to you so that you may have life.”

This morning’s passage from John has more than its fair share of paradoxes; statements that seem contrary to common understanding.  The most obvious and confusing one is when Jesus tells us that those who love their life will lose it and those who hate it will keep it.  It doesn’t make sense?  Is Jesus asking us to have a low self-esteem?  Are we to treat ourselves poorly?  Since when is loving one’s life so bad?

“Those who love their life lose it.”  What does this mean?  It doesn’t make sense.  It is contrary to common thought; to destroy your life because you loved it.  It reminds me of my son, not that my son’s life is lost or destroyed.  But when my son was two he was as most two year olds are; he hated to share his toys.  When another child would try play with a toy that he wasn’t even using, it was as though that toy were lost forever in the clutches of some hideous monster bent on hoarding all the toys of the world.  So Jude would respond by becoming a monster himself and the two little beasts would become locked in battle over the prize.

In reality, Jude wasn’t losing a toy.  What he was losing was the opportunity to play with another child, to have a friend – something much greater than any toy.  The sinful nature that all of us were born into binds us in a way that we cannot help but be selfish little imps lost in the pursuit of our own desires and it blinds us to the will of God.

Perhaps a book written in the 1890’s about a man named Dorian can help illustrate this.  In the book, “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” the title character Dorian is described as a beautiful, youthful and handsome man who one day receives a painting of himself.  After looking at the portrait, Dorian vainly falls in love with his own beauty and youthfulness.  He decides that he would preserve his own beauty at any cost.  So he makes a wish that the painting would age instead of him.  After callously breaking the heart of a woman due to his own vanity, he noticed that indeed his portrait developed a sneer causing it to become ever so faintly grotesque and a little bit older.

His wish was granted; his life, if you could call it that, would be preserved.  From then on Dorian lived a life of pleasure and experimented with every kind of vice.  All the while it was his picture that aged and showed the effects of his corruption while he remained young and unaffected.  Whatever he wanted he took and enjoyed regardless of the cost to fortune or soul until it no longer fulfilled his desires.  And with every sinful fulfillment of self his portrait grew older and more hideous always revealing his true self and nature.  In the end, Dorian loved his life to the point of losing it to total and utter corruption.

Ultimately, what Jesus is talking about is our fanatical desire to control our lives.  It goes as far back as Adam and Eve reached for that piece of fruit desiring to be like God.  Instead they forever planted a seed of corruption into the human race.  We are all born with an insatiable desire to be like god and hold control over our lives.  We have such a fear of losing that control that we work tirelessly to maintain it and to build our own little kingdoms.

Though Jesus tells us that “those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life,” it isn’t quite that easy.  To hate one’s life in this world means to give up all control or our lives to the will of God.  But, we cannot help but be obsessive and controlling in our love for our life.  It is inherent in us.

Yet we are told to hate our life in this world in order to keep it for everlasting life.  So we have on one hand something we can’t possibly help but do but aren’t supposed to – love our lives to the point of losing them. On the other hand we have a command that we should do, but can’t possibly hope to do – hate our lives so that we can keep it.  What is a person supposed to do?

Thankfully, there is another paradox, another oddity; that is the oddity of Christ’s death which he refers to as his glorification.

Jesus tells his disciples “the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”  But it wouldn’t be an easy glory to obtain.  Christ would be glorified through his horrible and excruciating death on the cross.  It was the only way he could be glorified.

Two thousand years removed from the cross, it is hard for us to read something like this without glossing over it, but the road to glory troubled Jesus, even if only for a moment as John suggests.  He knows what the cost is, but knows without a doubt that this is the reason he has come.  He has not come to love and preserve his own life.  Where our inclination is to live selfishly, His was a life of complete selflessness.  In his selflessness and unswerving obedience, Jesus gave his life over to the will of the Father.

For him, the will of the Father meant death on the cross.  But it wasn’t a meaningless death.  It wasn’t arbitrary.  Christ died for you.  He died for me.  Where we could not hate our lives for the sake of keeping them, Christ could.  Christ hated his life on our behalf.

In this the Father’s name is glorified.  In this Jesus becomes the kernel of wheat that falls into the earth and dies.  In this cross, Christ bears much fruit.  The good news this morning is that you are his fruit.

As the fruit of Jesus Christ things work a little differently for you.  Christ has hated his life for you and as we saw this morning. You are forgiven.  You are cleansed in the waters of Baptism where you were crucified with Christ and raised to new life with him.  You are a new creation.

You are a new creation in which the Holy Spirit dwells and now leads you in orienting your life to the will of the Father who has called you to live a life of sacrifice and good works to the glory of his Name.  For some that may be ministry and the mission field, for most it is not.  Rather it is very likely that God has called you into the very vocation and place in which you already find yourselves, be it in the tractor, in the home, or in the office.  He has given you the venue to do the good in loving your neighbor across the street and across the world as He has called you to do.  And where we fail, (and we will fail), and where we struggle, because there are always challenges when bearing the mark of the cross, God is there to forgive and restore for the sake of his son Jesus Christ.

In his cross and resurrection Jesus declares to you be his, sealed with his cross as we witnessed in Holy Baptism this morning.  He proclaims to you, “You are my fruit.  You are my child.  I love you and I claim you as such.  I have done what you could not do.  Through my death I forgive you and through my resurrection I pass on to you new life.  I give you my Spirit in order that you may do what I have called you to do.”

Today we are going to talk about Jesus Christ and his signs. Signs are very important. Road signs may tell us the legal speed limit or inform us that we must stop at an intersection. Signs on stores give us clues as to what sort of products we might expect to find within them. In the Gospel of John, Jesus gives us signs. Through these signs Jesus reveals to us who He is. Let us take a look today at the first of these “signs.”

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4. And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5. His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Before we proceed much further let us take a quick look at the problem and Mary’s response. The groom is hosting a great wedding party and has run out of wine – an inexcusable offense in a culture that prized hospitality. The problem threatens to bring shame upon the groom’s family during his wedding celebration.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, noticing this problem, responds in the most noble way possible. She turns to Jesus. Let us observe that she does not presume to command Jesus in any way – she merely brings the problem to his attention. Then, being satisfied that Jesus has heard her, says to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” She leaves the situation in Jesus’ hands and the servants at his disposal. Perhaps she remembered the words of the Angel to her when she had conceived. Perhaps she recalled the testimony given by Anna and Simeon in the temple. Certainly at this moment she did what faith does – she presented her problems and concerns to the Lord and left them there in his hands.

6. Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rite of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10. and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now. 11. This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

Let us observe the outcome of this sign – “(Jesus) manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him.”

The sign reveals who Jesus is. Jesus, through this sign, manifests his divine glory. Jesus, through the sign, reveals that he is more than just a ordinary man and an extraordinary teacher. He reveals that He is, as the prologue of this Gospel states, “The one through whom all things were made and without him was not anything made that was made.”

Jesus through this miraculous manifestation reveals himself as the Divine Son of God so that we might believe in Him, as Mary did, and by believing have eternal life.

Through this event Jesus also honors the desire of his mother thus upholding the commandment, “Honor your father and your mother.”

Finally, through this event Jesus honors the God ordained estate of marriage and blesses the celebration of Holy Matrimony.

Blessings to you.

This morning’s text from 2 Kings tells us the story of Naaman, a man for whom almost everything seemed to be going his way.  Almost everything.  He was the patriarch of a household well off enough to have servants.  He was also a mighty and valiant warrior who won great victories for the kingdom of Aram, a country that bordered the northern kingdom of Israel.  Because of his great victories on the battle field, this man Naaman was highly favored by his king.  However, as the NIV states so well, he was all of these things, “but he had leprosy.”

Naaman is presented to us as the epitome of strength, success, power and wealth.  He is the American dream thousands of years before there was an America.  But he had leprosy.  Despite his standing, Naaman is a vulnerable and mortal being suffering from a very visible and quite possibly painful and irritating skin disease.  For someone ranked in the upper echelons of society it must have been quite humiliating and perhaps it was holding him back from even more greatness as it dropped him down the social ladder.  But as we’ll see, his story was about to become even more humbling. And it all begins with a little girl.

We don’t know the young girl’s name, but we do know that she came into Naaman’s service when she was carried off as spoil from a raid against Israel.  She was robbed from her home and family and taken to a foreign land forced into the service of her captor.  But this little girl over whom Naaman exercised authority and power was the one who first directed Naaman towards the prophet Elisha for healing.  It was a reversal of power with the weak aiding the strong and it was the beginning of the breakdown of Naaman’s pride.

Armed with the words of a young girl Naaman approached the king of Aram and told him of the prophet who supposedly had the power to heal him.  And the king with whom Naaman was highly favored did Naaman a favor and sent him to Israel with a letter addressed to the king of Israel.  Perhaps this pleased Naaman that his king should care for his welfare so.

But then when Naaman arrives and deliver the letter to the king of Israel, we find out the nature of its contents and see the true intent of Naaman’s king, the king he supposedly has favor with.  Naaman’s king doesn’t really care if Naaman is healed.  Rather he saw this as an opportunity to have something against the inferior Israel.  One wonders if he even believed Naaman had a chance to be healed.  Perhaps Naaman’s king was looking for reasonable cause for war and this was his open door.  This, at least, seems to be the opinion of the king of Israel.  If Naaman’s king was really concerned with his healing, why didn’t he mention the prophet?  Why didn’t he send him directly to Elisha?  No, it appears that Naaman, the favored and valiant knight was really nothing more than a pawn in a game of thrones.

After delivering the letter to the king of Israel he is eventually invited to Elisha’s house.  Of course, Naaman, who came to Israel with a fair amount of money, goes to Elisha’s house with his entourage in great fashion showing off his wealth and position with his horses and chariots.  The spectacle of his arrival must have really been something.  But the humbling nature of Naaman’s journey continued when Elisha didn’t even come out to greet him but rather sent a messenger to tell Naaman to go and wash in the Jordan seven times and be healed.

Wait, that’s it?  At this, Naaman had enough.  It’s one thing to be given advice by an insignificant little girl in the privacy of your own home and to follow out the commands of a king no matter his intention; but it is another thing entirely to not even be given the dignity of a proper greeting by the prophet you have come to see not to mention the indignity of being told to wash in the inferior waters of a second-rate country but his lowly messenger.

Naaman was a great man and great men have great diseases that require the most intense attention a prophet can give.  One doesn’t go to a doctor full of malignant tumors only to be told to “take two of these and call me in the morning.”  Naaman wanted none of this “wash and be clean” nonsense!  There must be more too it!  “Elisha should come out to me,” he said, “he should stand out here and call upon the name of his God and wave his hands over the spot.”  Naaman’s rank commands a show and his pride demanded a say in his own healing.

We don’t like being told what to do, do we?  Like Naaman we all have this innate desire to hold on to some semblance of control, to have some say in how things are done and to have something of our own that we can tie to the results.  This is the way of our sinful nature and it was exactly what happened in the Garden of Eden as Adam and Eve sought to be like God.

You cannot believe how well three year old boys exhibit the pride of our sinful nature.  They constantly have this desire to do things they are simply incapable of doing on their own.  Just the other night, we were making tacos and the way we make tacos is to first fry the tortilla in some oil in a pan.  (By the way, I’ve learned that this is the only way you make tacos.)  Without us even knowing, Jude reached up and threw a piece of his tortilla into the frying pan of hot oil.  He couldn’t be content with asking mommy or I to do it for him he had to do it himself.  I cringe to think of what might have happened had he bumped the pan in the wrong way or if there had been more oil in there to cause some splatter.  Our sinful nature causes us all to behave like rebellious little three year olds.  We want things done our own way and on our own terms always to our own detriment.

Eventually, Naaman relented after hearing the pleas of his servants and he did what Elisha told him to do and he was healed and the promise of God’s Word through the prophet was fulfilled in the action.  But Naaman couldn’t yet accept that a gift had been given to him freely.  After being cleansed he returned to Elisha and offered a present in return for the healing, but Elisha refused it.  Nothing about his healing was done according to Naaman’s terms and Elisha’s refusal prevented any possible way for Naaman to pin his merit on the healing he had received.  There was nothing of Naaman’s own doing attached to the healing.  He was simply given the promise, “wash and be clean.”

Just as there was no work of Naaman’s attached to his healing, so there is no work of ours attached to our healing.  There is only the work of Christ done for us in the cross and resurrection of Christ.  And just as Naaman received the promise to “wash and be clean,” so too we receive the promise and are cleansed in Holy Baptism where we are joined to Christ’s death and resurrection to new life.

The cross and resurrection is Christ’s work done for us and given freely to us through no merit of our own.  Focusing on the work of Christ done for you is the eternal focus of our message at Park River Bible Camp.  It is so much so that this year’s theme verse from Ephesians 2 sums it up really well.  “For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

The circumstances leading to Naaman’s healing, though they were a humbling course of events for such a man of rank and power, were in fact a mercy.  And so it is the same for us.  Just as Naaman wasn’t greeted or treated like he wanted to be or as he felt he should be, so God does not greet us we should be.  And thank God for that!  You and I are sinners assaulted by the same pride and sinful condition that Naaman had and for God to greet us as such would be a terrifying thing!  For just as Naaman was afflicted by disease so are we afflicted by the misery of our sin.   And like Naaman our desire is to refuse to be healed except by our own terms and in our own way.  We are so desperate to have a part in our own salvation.

But God doesn’t greet us as God should.  Rather our gracious Lord greets us through his crucified and risen Son, Jesus Christ.  Through Christ, God sees in us Christ’s righteousness, imparted to us in Holy Baptism where we too are given the promise, “wash and be clean.”  God is able to look past our pride and past our sins for his son’s sake.  “God views us in Baptism as people who have already died and been raised, put to death with His beloved Son on Golgotha and raised from the dead on Easter morning.” In this we are given the promise of salvation and are welcomed as sons and daughters of God.

Christ went to the cross on your behalf.  Christ died for you and through his resurrection Christ earned new life for you.  You have been given God’s promise of salvation and you are God’s child.  None of this was done on any account of your own doing, but rather God has given you this gift freely and abundantly.  It is yours.  Just as Naaman couldn’t attach a blessing or payment for the healing done to him, we are also unable to offer payment for our salvation.  It is utterly and completely the gift of God given and done for you.  “By grace you have been saved… and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God.”

Life has been rather busy at the Bible Camp lately and so my ability to write a good theological blog is temporarily diminished. Therefore, you will receive a snapshot of how our 6-9 grade ski/snowboard retreat went this weekend.

“We will be studying two stories this weekend” I said to our counseling staff. “The first lesson is from John chapter four. The second is from John chapter 6. In both lessons Jesus shows us who He is and what He has come to do. In the first lesson Jesus reveals Himself as the Divine Son of God who knows everything we do and gives living water. In the second Jesus reveals Himself as the Divine Son of God who richly provides for us and gives Himself to us as the bread of life. Both stories were written so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ and by believing have eternal life in His name.”

“What will we be doing tonight” asked an 8th grade boy? “First we will have a rally in which we praise God, learn a Bible verse, and have a short sermon. Then we will have Bible study, followed by some time to buy snacks and beverages from our camp store, play games in the gym and finally have a campfire before bed,” I said in response.

“Tomorrow we will have breakfast and then load the bus at 8:30 to go to FrostFire. Remember to bring money for lunch and to stick with a friend during our time at the ski hill.” “We will” said the 42 excited youth/children. While at FrostFire many of the youth learned how to ski or snowboard while others improved their skills and/or displayed them for all to see. Some of the snowboarders sustained injuries. With a few exceptions they all got stiff and sore by the end of the day or switched to skiing. None of the skiers got injured, or stiff, or sore. I am not saying skiing is better, I’m just saying…

That night we sold a lot of pizza at our camp store and had some time to relax and play games or to run around in the gym followed by an epic game of “Pirates and Raiders.” Pirates and Raiders is a game of adventure and sneakiness played inside a large building in the dark. No injuries occurred.

At the end of the retreat I was thoroughly tired but very well pleased. Our kids and staff had a great time. Christ was proclaimed. Faith was created. It was a good, Christ centered, fun time. That night the entire country celebrated with a big super bowl party. It was an awesome ending to an awesome weekend

Blessings to you today.