Sermon: 2/9/2025

Grace, mercy, and peace are yours, from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, in the terms I preach to you the gospel, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast.

Salvation is a free gift from God, but it’s not a one-time event.

It’s a journey, a lifelong pilgrimage.

Let’s talk about that journey.

This year, we are challenged by our bishop to seek unity in all that we do.

And one great truth of this unity is that we are to all live our individual callings, fueled and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, to shine Christ’s hope in the world.

The journey through life can be a struggle, and we all know that there are times of difficulty and anxiety in life.

Then the church comes along and asks you to add this dynamic of faith to your already complicated life.

Some people, at that point, find the call to holiness too cumbersome, and they deny the faith outright.

But it is in working through the call of Jesus and in walking the way of Christ where we find that the Christian faith does not add a difficult path to our journey, but one of peace and joy that becomes our strength.

We all want to live the fullness of all our life’s possibilities.

And the things of God, the blessings of God’s economy and His ways are far better and greater than anything we can have or do or even think about on earth.

The free gift of salvation in Jesus comes with some real gifts, gifts that are special promises and blessings to our path.

And one day, as we stand in God’s nearer presence in eternity, we will finally understand that we held too strongly onto the things of this world when we should have been seeking God’s things all along.

He makes us spiritually alive to live a physical life with Him at every turn, holding Him at the center.

And all of this out of His compassion and care for you and me, as once we were dead in our trespasses and sins.

And that was met by God making us alive in Jesus Christ to do and to want His ways and His path toward eternity.

We are changed for the better in Jesus.

Now it is the holy task and the privilege for those who stand before you and preach the gospel message, whether from a pulpit like this or in our daily conversations, that we particularly and intentionally and carefully and rightly divide law and gospel.

And this truth is often misunderstood as being a call to assault the listener, the seeker, with the law, pointing out the person’s specific sins or calling them to be better or more godly so that Christ will accept and love them.

But this is not the gospel.

This is not our Jesus.

Balancing law and gospel is an art, an art that takes refined dedication and reliance on God, because we never go out to do the work of Jesus in our own power nor in our human understanding.

We rely on Him in the power of the blessed Holy Spirit to see His work in the hearts of others we encounter along the path.

I say, balance law and gospel.

Refine the art.

Help those know that we are sinners and need a God to save us.

But forget not the peace of the gospel that says, when we fall, He is there to pick us up.

The art of balancing law and gospel takes practice.

It takes time to intentionally not trust in our own human understanding, and it takes great love for the neighbor, the one that God has called you to reach, especially when that neighbor is most difficult to love.

But the point of today’s gospel proclamation from St.

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church is that we don’t simply preach the gospel for God to work salvation in the hearts of people, but we must commit to discipleship, walking with the believer, helping the new believer to understand forgiveness and mercy in Jesus, things that we can never fully understand or even experience in our worldly relationships.

For example, we all know people who say, I hate this person or that thing.

Maybe they hate a person or a different race or a lifestyle.

Maybe they hate people of other cultures or even specific people that they have encountered along the way.

It seems easy for these people to express their hate, and often it comes out of ignorance or fear and comes from never having met or attempted to understand the other.

All my friends, we are all good at othering people, pointing out how others are different or how their actions are contrary to what they think that we think they should be.

But I can tell you that the very opposite of that hatred that comes so easy to some is to love everyone.

This is the call of God.

We are to sacrificially love.

If someone can hate you without even taking the time to know you and understand you, then I as a Christian can love you whether I know you or not.

This is foundational in our faith.

This is living the gospel.

The law is there as a plumb line, a light to our path and a standard to which we should aim to maintain.

The law is a mirror to help us see the sin in ourselves, not a mirror or a light to help you see the sins of others.

Your goal as a Christian is to be the best Christian you can be and love your neighbor.

We too often get that confused and love ourselves while picking at the sins of others.

And our passage from the gospel today shows us that salvation is not a one-time thing.

It is so true that we have been saved by Jesus, we are being saved by Jesus, and one day we will be saved by Jesus.

The salvation in which we stand, if you are a Christian, is a salvation that causes you to grow in love of God and neighbor, and we are to work toward being better at both of those each and every day.

So the practical application of all this is the truth that the moment that you are saved, the moment that you have salvation in Jesus, when your sins are forgiven and you are securely planted in God’s vineyard, you then begin to grow.

It is through scripture study, listening to God’s word, praying, staying close to God and taking your cares and your sins to him often, and humbly walking the path you are called to walk, being a missionary in the mission field of your life.

This is how you walk out your salvation, not in your own strength, not in your own deeds, not in your own doing, and not as a tiresome slug through different experiences, difficult times, boredom and lack, but in the fullness of Christ’s peace and joy.

The great author A.

W.

Tozer once wrote in his book The Pursuit of God, Has it ever occurred to you that 100 pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other?

They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard, to which each one must individually bow.

So 100 worshipers met together, each one looking to Christ as in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become unity conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for a closer fellowship.

In God, we are tuned to the right.

Remember that in Jesus you have work to do, and as we work together, as we help our sisters and brothers along the path, as we continue to grow in faith and our relationship with Jesus, we will have true unity.

So today, may his peace continue to lead you along life’s holy pilgrimage.

Amen.