Monday, March 23, 2015

Sermon Mar. 21-22, 2015

Title: Christ came to serve your needs unto salvation!
Text: Mark 10:35-45

43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Dear friends,

In 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. According to Leon Jaroff in Time, the satellite's primary mission was to reach Jupiter, photograph the planet and its moons, and beam data to earth about Jupiter's magnetic field, radiation belts, and atmosphere. Scientists regarded this as a bold plan, for at that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond Mars, and they feared the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it could reach its target. But Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and much, much more. Swinging past the giant planet in November 1973, Jupiter's immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a higher rate of speed toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles from the sun, Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles, it hurtled past Uranus; Neptune at nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost four billion miles. By 1997, twenty-five years after its launch, Pioneer 10 was more than six billion miles from the sun.

And despite that immense distance, Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals to scientists on Earth. "Perhaps most remarkable," writes Jaroff, "those signals emanate from an 8-watt transmitter, which radiates about as much power as a bedroom night light, and takes more than nine hours to reach Earth.'" The Little Satellite That Could was not qualified to do what it did. Engineers designed Pioneer 10 with a useful life of just three years. But it kept going and going, [lasting 31 years before going dead in 2003 8 billion miles from earth]. By simple longevity, its tiny 8-watt transmitter radio accomplished more than anyone thought possible.

So it is when we [are brought to faith and called] to serve the Lord. God can work even through [you and me and our] 8-watt abilities. God cannot work, however, through someone who remains silent.

 Craig Brian Larson, Pastoral Grit: the Strength to Stand and to Stay, Bethany.

Christ came to serve your needs unto salvation!

James and John, the so called “Son’s of Thunder” by Jesus in Mark 3:17 show a bit here why Jesus had given them this name designation saying:

“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” Seemingly even as a spoiled child might ask for that which they know they don’t deserve or shouldn't expect to get.

This same James and John in another memorable gospel moment in Luke Chapter 9 had inquired of Jesus:

“Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”

This after the Samaritan village had not received Jesus seeing that he was steadfast set to go to Jerusalem. The Lord’s, all knowing mind, seems to have given James and John a proper title – for they were these young followers and disciples of Jesus who had left their fathers boat and work to go and follow him.

But here too we see where they are focused.

“Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

Or, in Matthew’s gospel in your Glory is translated as in your Kingdom, spoken by their mother, Salome the wife of Zebedee who intercedes for her two boys who quickly seconded her request. The disciples here didn't understand Christ’s mission, work or glory but were thinking in terms of an earthly kingdom and an earthy ruler and a place of honor for themselves.

Christ came to serve your needs unto salvation!

Humility and servant hood is hard for you and me as well. We too look for the choice seats, to be recognized and to be rewarded. But to be a true servant is to model Christ.

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb. 2:1-2

But can we run the race, can we remain faithful until the end, can we endure the trials in this life? For we too like James and John don’t know what we are asking.

“Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” Jesus said.

Paul in his letter to the Philippians brings peace when he writes:

2 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

As parents of new born children we bring those who are unable to bring themselves to the Lord. In humility we consider them more significant, than ourselves and with life, given into our care, we look to their well being, more than our own - giving them to the Lord - and promising to be the ones who raise them in the faith and instruction of the Lord.

We all fall short to be sure, but just as we wouldn't feed a child once and leave them to fend for themselves; faith also requires an active parental role to keep these precious gifts of God in their baptismal grace, so that they too might grow to know him, Jesus Christ both as Lord and Savior who

“came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45

Christ came to serve your needs unto salvation!

James and John were looking for the earthly glory that a Kingdom of this world provides. They received much more that they or their mother had asked for.

Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” Jesus asks. 39 And they said to him, “We are able.”

Herod had James put to death by the sword as the early church was persecuted remaining focused on Christ by that Holy Spirit he received from Christ in the upper room following the resurrection.

John would remain and live to an old age leaving his thunderous youth behind to become the apostle of love, writing his Gospel and letters in exile on the island of Patmos, and giving a glimpse of the end of the age from visions given in the book of Revelation.

Heeding Christ's command: But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,

Christ came to serve your needs unto salvation!

Ill.

The great violinist, Niccolo Paganini willed his marvelous violin to city of Genoa Italy on condition that it must never be played. The wood of such an instrument, while used and handled, wears only slightly, but set aside, it begins to decay. Paganini's lovely violin has today become worm-eaten and useless [it lives only] as a relic.

J.K. Laney, Marching Orders, p. 34.

Thank the Lord that God has not left us alone but has given us the means of grace – his word and sacraments - for us to be brought to faith and given life in his name so that we in love can and humility serve the needs of others.

It is not always easy to give up ones seat at the table, or to allow another a place in line ahead of you. It is not always easy to see to it that the light of Christ shines forth into a dark world that gets darker every day. It is not always east to stand firm when the even the fabric of our own faith seems weak and unable to endure.

But Christ who is the one who will never leave you nor forsake you, has stood in your place and he has completed the course for you. In him you have everything that you could not earn because he humbled himself for you.

45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Christ came to serve your needs unto salvation!

A man made satellite with 8 watts of power did then what seemed impossible, traveling over 8 billion miles over 31 years.

We might too ask:

How can water do such great things? Luther in our small catechism reminds us.

It is not the water indeed that does them, but the word of God which is in and with the water, and faith, which trusts such word of God in the water. For without the word of God the water is simple water and no baptism. But with the word of God it is a baptism, that is, a gracious water of life and a washing of regeneration in the Holy Ghost, as St. Paul says, Titus, chapter three: By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that, being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit,

Amen


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