The Evidence of the Love of God
Easter - the Missio Dei • Sermon • Submitted
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Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Motherhood
A small boy invaded the lingerie section of a large department store and shyly presented his problem to a woman clerk in the lingerie department. “I want to buy a slip as a present for my mom,” he said. “But, I don’t know what size she wears.”
“Is she tall or short, fat or skinny?” asked the clerk.
“She’s just perfect,” beamed the small boy. So the clerk wrapped up a size 34 for him.
Two days later, Mom came to the store by herself and changed the slip to a size 52.
In 1914, Pres. Woodrow Wilson signed legislation recognizing the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day, following the efforts of Anna Jarvis to recognize the importance of mothers, beginning with her own, in Grafton, WV., starting in 1905.
To all of our mothers present and watching online, may the Lord bless you for fulfilling your vocation in the life of your children.
Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life. … through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
The Lectionary Commentary, Volume 3: The Gospels (The Third Readings) Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year C (Richard Bauckham)
John’s readers are probably to understand that Jesus has stayed three months in Jerusalem, from the Feast of Booths (7:2) until the Feast of the Dedication (Hanukkah). This latter was the Jewish festival most recently instituted and the only one not prescribed in the Hebrew Bible. But it commemorated an event of potent significance in Jewish memory: the cleansing and rededication of the temple by Judas Maccabeus in 164 B.C.E., following its pagan desecration by Antiochus Epiphanes and Judas’s successful military campaign to liberate it (1 Macc. 4:46–59; 2 Macc. 10:1–8). In the time of Jesus the major temple festivals had acquired eschatological significance, associated in popular celebration with the hope of deliverance from Israel’s pagan oppressors and the blessings of the messianic age to come. This makes it particularly apt for John’s Gospel to depict Jesus’ appropriating the symbolism and significance of these festivals with reference to himself, as he does especially in chapters 6–8. It is not so much, as commentators tend to say, that Jesus supersedes these festivals or the temple itself to which they were attached, but that they find their true, eschatological meaning and fulfillment in Jesus and the salvation he brings.
Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
Jesus said that the works that He does in His Father’s name bear witness about Him. In like manner, He said to those who hear His voice:
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Our good works do not pay for our citizenship in the Kingdom of God; they reflect it in the same way that the fruit of a tree reflects its source. So it is that those who truly are Christ’s witnesses show it by their lives as well as with their words.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
Because Jesus is fully God and fully man, He knows what is the specific outcome of His activity concerning God’s Mission, while we do not. We do believe, according to His Word, that God does not allow His Word to fall to the ground empty, that it is not dead, but alive, and powerful. For that reason alone, we are confident that nothing that we do in Christ’s name will be wasted. The Apostle Paul would later write to the Church:
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
We are “God’s chosen ones,” united to His dear Son through the gift of Holy Baptism, begotten to a new and living Hope by His utterance which is living and powerful - the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We do not understand, in its fulness, how God has done this, but we know that He is faithful and true. Concerning this, the Scripture says:
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Never forget that the Gospel is declared to you, that it does have power, and it is at work in you. For some, that work is sweet as they yield to the presence of the Holy Spirit and bear the fruit of the Spirit in their lives. For others, that work is difficult as they resist the Spirit and even quench it by feeding the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye and the pride of life. Repentance is the beautiful gift of God that strengthens and restores, rather than quenches, that fire that came with the Spirit when you were born anew by God.
Mother’s Day celebrates those women who gave birth to us and nurtured our biological life. In like manner, the Church nurtures the life of God in His Children, feeding us both the milk and meat of the Word as we are able to receive it to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Sometimes those relationships are marked by pain, and God brings others into our lives to fill the voids that were created by those who should not have done so. This is also the result of a fallen creation, another tear that will be wiped away by our Lord at His Coming. Jesus has promised this also and showed it to John in the Revelation:
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
This is the promise that we are blessed to share with our neighbor. Who is that, you ask? As Jesus showed in the parable of the Good Samaritan, it is whoever we discover who needs us, as we meet them, as God’s masks through our vocations, at the point of their need, to show them the unsearchable riches of Christ’s love for us. That love took Him to the cross and to the gates of hell, and when He ascended, He brought us with Him into the heavenly places before the Father, and left the foretaste of our eternal reward by the presence of the Holy Spirit with us, as it is written:
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”
Today, we celebrate the Lord’s Word coming to us that declares His love for us, and honor the women who first showed us what that means. We are strengthened to take that love and share it with those around us, to the praise of His glorious grace, knowing that God is working in us, therefore our labor is not in vain in the Lord.
And the peace of God, that passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.