Choose life

Benjamin Snyder

RCL - Epiphanytide • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago • Presented 4 years ago • 20:38

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This sermon explores the paradox in each of these Epiphany texts, that is, that there are no appearances. Rather the emphasis falls on the people's response to having experienced an epiphany of some kind. It draws attention to how we "work out our salvation," so to speak, in collaboration with God as we engage in practices that create space for the Holy Spirit to flourish life among us.

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Introduction

Today is the second to last Sunday of Epiphany and in a little over a week, we will be celebrating Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. Some of you might be thinking,

“Oh great, it’s time to fast again!”

In a little over a week, we will be celebrating Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. Some of you might be thinking, “Oh great, it’s time to fast again!” Or, “Oh great, it’s time to be guilt tripped into fasting again!” While my homily is not directly about Lent or fasting, I hope by the end of it you will be much more eager to lean into all practices that create space for us to grow in the Lord.

Or,

While my homily is not directly about Lent or fasting, I trust that by the end you will be eager to lean into all practices that create space for us to grow in the Lord. We’ll see.

While my homily is not directly about Lent or fasting, I am trusting that by the end of it you will be eager to lean into all practices that create space for us to grow in the Lord.

You’ll remember that the season of Epiphany, which means, “appearing,” is about the Lord’s surprising appearances in the midst of “ordinary” life. Of course, God is always present, but in an epiphany we suddenly recognize his manifest presence in a tangible way.

His presence, then, evokes a response from us, awe, wonder, repentance, worship.

We suddenly forget that we were consumed by our problems and that he was far from our minds just minutes prior.

The problem with epiphanies is that they resemble mountain top experiences.

The glory and amazement comes and goes with the wonder of the moment; soon we are back in normal life.

The problem with epiphanies is that they resemble mountain top experiences. The glory and amazement comes and goes with the wonder of the moment. Why can’t we just be perpetually in glory. This was Peter’s motivation during the transfiguration and he was right!

Soon we are back in normal life.

Why can’t we just be perpetually in glory?

Do you resonate with this at all?

Do you wonder when God will show up again and what to do in the meantime?

An unusual feature of the texts for today is that none of them seem to fit Epiphany.

There are no appearances in our texts.

But there are no appearances in our texts. In fact, the focus has shifted cleanly from God’s appearance to our response to his presence.

In fact, the focus has shifted cleanly from God’s appearance to our response to his presence.

Another unusual feature of our texts is that they involve startling paradoxes.

For example, in , God through Moses sets before the people “life and good, death and evil” but the people must choose.

Why doesn’t God just offer life and good? Why would God also offer death and evil?

Or in , if God can keep us from straying from his commands, as the Psalmist states, why do we need to guard our lives according to his commands?

If God can keep us from straying from his commands, why do we need to guard our lives according to his commands? What’s the point of planting and watering if they are “nothing” and God brings the growth? If we are saved because of Jesus’ redemption through the cross, why does it matter what the deeper intent of the law is?

Why doesn’t God just offer life? If God can keep us from straying from his commands, why do we need to guard our lives according to his commands? What’s the point of planting and watering if they are “nothing” and God brings the growth? If we are saved because of Jesus’ redemption through the cross, why does it matter what the deeper intent of the law is?

In , what’s the point of us planting and watering if they are “nothing” and God brings the growth?

And in our Gospel reading (), if we are saved through Jesus’s redemption through the cross, how can we be guilty for punishment in the fire of Gehenna for saying “You fool” or for looking lustfully at a woman?

The gracious Savior of the world has impossibly high standards and we are all in big trouble!

And in our Gospel reading (), if we are saved because of Jesus’ redemption through the cross, how can we be guilty for punishment in the fire of Gehenna for saying “You fool” or for looking lustfully at a woman? The gracious Savior of the world has impossibly high standards! We are all in big trouble friends!

These are not texts about God’s appearing, but about our response to his appearance.

What this tells us, is that God’s appearing is not for his benefit, but ours.

These are not texts about God’s appearing, but about our response to his appearance.

**The good news Wilmore Anglican is that God invites us to experience the salvation he offers.**

Yes, we have all had past moments of God’s salvation, and yes, there is a future day when our salvation will be fully realized. But God desires that we experience his salvation in the present.

Let’s briefly unpack these paradoxes and see where and how the Lord wants us to experience his kingdom in the present.

In , we must remember that their epiphany happen at Sinai. Israel had been wandering for 40 years until the unfaithful generation had died off.

Many Christians have incorrectly read this contrast between life and death as works based salvation, where somehow the Israelites had to earn God’s grace. God had already chosen Israel and had already delivered them from Egypt. It was in response to God’s grace that they were invited live in obedience to him.

Let’s have a look.

Interestingly, the words translated by the NRSV as “prosperity” and “adversity” in Hebrew are the words, “good” and “evil.” It is probable that the Garden of Eden is echoed here with its tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the contrasting pair of life and death (Alter, Five Books of Moses, 1029).

Life is not found in merely entering the covenant, but in continually living by it. There is an inherent cooperation between us and God. Life flourishes when God makes himself known to us and we respond appropriately to his presence. In other words, living by the covenant is us creating space for God’s spirit to flourish life in his people.

Once again, the people are invited to live in God’s presence and goodness, but to do so required a choice between doing their own will, which would lead to exile, or to choose God’s will, which would lead to life.

In , in speaking for the Lord, Moses sets before the people “life and death.” Life is not found in merely entering the covenant, but in continually living by it. There is an inherent cooperation between us and God. Life flourishes when God makes himself known to us and we respond appropriately to his presence. In other words, living by the covenant is us creating space for God’s spirit to flourish life in his people.

Please don’t miss this, the choice of life was

neither bound up in a confession of faith

nor located in entering the covenant, but in continually living by it.

nor it is not found solely in entering the covenant, but in continually living by it. There is an inherent cooperation between us and God. Life flourishes when God makes himself known to us and we respond appropriately to his presence. In other words, living by the covenant is us creating space for God’s spirit to flourish life in his people.

There is an inherent cooperation between us and God. Life flourishes when God makes himself known to us and we appropriately respond to his presence. In other words, living by the covenant created space for God’s spirit to flourish life in his people.

Imagine with me now the vision of salvation that God placed before them, God’s dream for them.

They are invited

Imagine with me now the vision of salvation that God placed before them. They are invited to live in the land, to enjoy life with one another, to enjoy God‘s presence among them, to enjoy the fruit of the land, to live in whole and healthy relationships with one another. The covenant was God‘s explanation of how to live in his fullness.

to live in the land

to enjoy life with their families and one another

to enjoy God‘s presence among them

to enjoy the fruit of the land

to live in whole and healthy relationships with one another.

The covenant was God‘s explanation of how to live in his fullness.

God’s vision of salvation for Israel did not include world domination or to become the biggest or greatest nation. In fact, they were discouraged from amassing forces and putting their trust in their own power.

But what they were called to was deeply satisfying and rewarding. So much so that they would be a light to the nations.

They were invited to experience fully and daily the salvation of God offered them. This was the path of life.

But if they rejected the invitation they would experience a destruction of their own making.

So, no matter which direction we choose, we are ultimately participating in our own destruction or salvation. And this is a choice that we make daily in the midst of mundane and ordinary life just as the people of Israel did.

C. S. Lewis captures the point so well in Mere Christianity when he says,

“Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state of the other.”

**The good news Wilmore Anglican is that God invites us to experience the salvation he offers.**

When the Psalmist asks God to prevent him from straying from his commandments, he recognizes that knowing the commandments by heart is a necessity.

God’s salvation comes in the interworking and cooperation between God and the Psalmist.

Similarly, Paul reminds us in that his planting and Apollo‘s watering are again born out of their respective epiphanies and create space for God to work among his people.

The epiphany has a domino effect when we participate in the salvation God is working in us!

Paul underscores that the growth belongs to God because the Corinthians have placed their focus on humans, but note that God intentionally works through people like Paul and Apollos. They are, after all, receiving correction through Paul’s letter!

In , Jesus is getting to the heart of the covenant and highlighting the precise way that God’s Spirit flourishes life among us, that is, when our heart is in tune with the intent of the commandment.

God is not concerned with our rule keeping for its own sake, he is concerned with our flourishing, and that can only happen when we are living life as he intends it.

No universalism here.

So what does this look like in my own life?

The season of Epiphany (“appearance”) is about the Lord’s surprising appearances in the midst of “ordinary” life. He is always present, but in an epiphany we suddenly recognize his manifest presence in a tangible way. His presence then evokes a response from us, usually awe and wonder. We suddenly forget that we were just asking, “Are you there Lord?” or that he was far from our minds just minutes prior.

A few weeks ago, I went to our regular ministry team meeting. I was feeling numb and disconnected that particular day and almost didn’t go. Even as we sat around the table in prayer, I was wondering how and what I could pray. Hule often invites us to pray for one another and as the prayers went around, Sadie prayed for me.

Unlike the other scriptures for Epiphany, the texts for this Sunday do not focus on the Lord’s appearance but rather on the other side of the equation, our response or cooperation with him in response to his epiphany.

While she prayed, I was cut to the heart. Her prayer was an epiphany experience where God met me through her. Sadie knows me, of course, but the specific things for which she prayed, the specific words she used pierced my soul and while it was Sadie speaking, the Holy Spirit was staring me right in the face saying to me, Ben, I know all about your numbness, I’m here, and you are not alone.

When it was my turn to pray I was just full out weeping at the touch of God I had just experienced.

Now there are two things I want to highlight from this.

Paul reminds us in that his planting and Apollo‘s watering are again born out their epiphanies and create space for God to work among his people. The epiphany has a domino effect! Paul underscores that the growth belongs to God, but also note that God depends on the work of people like Paul and Apollos among his people.

First, my circumstances hadn’t changed in the slightest, but I had a fresh sense of God’s presence that transformed my perspective.

And second, I experienced that presence through Sadie.

What we do each week in our ministry meetings is to create space for God to show up, we are living into the salvation that God offers us.

This Sunday we are responding to God’s epiphany in our midst as we celebrate the baptism of Jubilee Lindemann. This is one way that we are planting and watering, creating space for God to bring growth in our midst!

There is no doubt that it is God who brings the growth, but that growth comes because we are planting and watering one another.

**The good news Wilmore Anglican is that God invites us to experience the salvation he offers.**

We are invited to experience his salvation today, and tomorrow, and the next day.

Will you choosing life?

Will you cooperate and participate in what He’s already doing in your midst?

In that light, it is entirely fitting that we will be joining with the Lindemann family in celebrating the baptism of their daughter Jubilee.

In this light, it is entirely fitting that we will be joining with the Lindemann family in celebrating the baptism of their daughter Jubilee. Before I invite the family to come up, I want to circle back to Deuteronomy for one last comment.

In the preceding context, Moses says in ,

“I am making this covenant . . . not only with you who stand here with us today before the Lord our God, but also with those who are not here with us today.”

Friends, in a similar way, God is meeting little Jubilee this morning before she fully understands that she is his daughter. Her parents, David and Jenn are watering Jubilee in this moment, creating space for God to show up for her to experience his salvation. Of course, that will one day involve her owning her faith in Jesus, but remember, our salvation is past, present, and future.

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