Easter 6B – May 10, 2015
Acts
10:44-48; Psalm 98; 1 John 5:1-6; John 15:9-17
St Stephen Lutheran Church, Pittsburgh, PA
The Rev. Maurice C Frontz III, STS
Alleluia!
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Can
you remember the best sermon you ever heard?
It
might have been a wedding sermon,
although
I would be surprised if it was your wedding sermon.
Most
couples are too nervous to listen very closely
to
the sermon at their wedding,
although
I remember some couples
that
hung on my every word,
their
faces filled with joy and hope
and
awe and reverence for the moment.
Perhaps
it was as you buried your loved one,
when
you most needed to hear the consoling Word of God
that
all the baptized are joined to the death and resurrection of Christ,
that
our death becomes his death,
and
his eternal life becomes our eternal life;
and
so those who have gone before us
are
indeed still with us by faith,
and
that when Christ is revealed,
we
will see them again as well.
Perhaps
it was a sermon on Christmas or Easter.
Your
parents dragged you to church
or
you dragged your kids to church.
You
were expecting to sing a few hymns
and
take home your flowers
and
suddenly the words of a man or a woman standing before you
transported
you into a world which was not hustle and bustle
but
a world which was full of God.
Or
maybe it was a sermon on a ‘normal’ Sunday,
which
caught you by surprise,
telling
you something about God – or yourself –
that
you did not know before,
and
which made a difference.
Perhaps
it was not a sermon preached by a pastor,
but
by your mother.
Not
one of those sermons that told you what to do
and
how to do it,
although
those too can sometimes be valuable.
No,
I’m talking about the sermons that a mother preaches
that
speak of God and his love,
and
maybe not with words.
Maybe
it was just that she got you to church every Sunday.
Perhaps
it was what happened to her there.
The
author Walt Wangerin
writes
of the days when children did not commune until their confirmation,
and
they were not even invited to the altar rail
to
receive a blessing,
but
waited in the pew
while
the adults went forward to receive the Lord’s Supper.
He
began to understand the reality and power of God’s love
as
he watched his mother return from the altar
after
receiving the Sacrament.
Her
face was radiant,
suffused
with an otherworldly peace and joy
which
he came to understand was God’s Holy Spirit at work in her,
creating
faith and love by the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
Today’s
first reading picks up in the middle of a sermon.
The
whole story is very neat –
I
recommend that when you go home this afternoon
you
should open your Bibles and read all of Acts chapter 10.
But
to summarize: in response to a vision,
Peter
has gone to the house of Cornelius, a Roman soldier,
a
non-Jew; a Gentile,
and
Cornelius invites Peter to speak to him
and
the relatives and friends whom Cornelius has invited to hear him.
What
does Peter say in his sermon?
He
does not preach ‘On Breaking Through to the Blessed Life.’
He
does not preach on politics or social issues.
He
does not preach on how Cornelius and his family and friends
should
become better and more moral people.
He
does not even preach on the blessing and vocation of motherhood.
Instead,
he tells the story of Jesus Christ.
He
tells of his life among the people and his merciful acts.
He
tells of his death and his resurrection,
and
of the risen Christ’s command that the good news be preached.
‘All
the prophets testify about him
that
everyone who believes in him
receives
forgiveness of sins through his name.’
Well,
now.
This
was the best sermon that Cornelius
and
his relatives and friends had ever heard.
But
it wasn’t because Peter preached with beautiful words.
After
all, Peter was a working-class guy from Galilee
and
he had never taken Preaching 101.
It
was the content of the sermon.
Peter
said ‘God has done this for you,’
not
‘You must do this for God.’
He
said ‘God has done this for you,’
and
not just for someone else.
He
said, ‘God has done this for you;’
dying
for you, rising for you, forgiving your sins.
Martin Luther Preaching - Workshop of Lucas Cranach, the Elder - 1547
It
is the content of the sermon that makes it worthwhile.
The
preacher can preach in simple, untutored words
or
with great theological depth and erudition,
with
great feeling or without.
But
every worthwhile sermon is simply a variation on a theme,
Jesus
Christ, crucified and risen,
with
the power to forgive, redeem, and save.
Apparently
Peter’s hearers
couldn’t
even wait for the end of his sermon,
for
in the proclamation of the Gospel
the
Holy Spirit had so broken open their hearts
that
the praise of God welled up from them:
the
springs of living water from the hearts of new believers,
the
faith in Jesus Christ that conquers the world.
In
the words of the hymn we will soon sing,
Their despair he turned
to blazing joy.
And
though they were Gentiles,
not
members of God’s people,
the
Holy Spirit which fell upon them
anointed
them as members of God’s people.
They
were baptized as children of the heavenly Father,
and
brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Chapter
10 concludes with the observation
that
after Cornelius and his family and friends were baptized,
they
invited Peter to stay with them for several days.
Obviously
they couldn’t get enough.
Baptism
was not the end of their conversion,
but
it was only the beginning.
Once
the Holy Spirit comes by the preaching of the Word,
it
wants to stay.
It
needs to stay.
Over
and over again we need to hear it,
this
message of the forgiveness of sins,
redemption
from death and the devil,
and
eternal salvation to all who believe,
so
that it roots itself so deeply in our lives
that
we can’t imagine ourselves or the world without it.
The
year was 1938,
and
a young couple, just three weeks married,
went
to First Lutheran Church in Leechburg for worship.
The
husband had been brought up a Lutheran
and
the wife had been brought up in another Protestant church.
It
just happened to be Reformation Day,
and
Pastor William F. Pfeiffer
preached
a standard Reformation sermon:
justification
by grace through faith in Christ
apart
from all works.
After
the service, the husband told his wife
that
the next week they would go to a church in her tradition,
to
which she responded,
‘Nothin’
doin.’ We’re staying right here!’
When,
many years later,
her
grown son asked her why she said this,
she
told him,
‘First
of all, they handed me a worship bulletin
when
I walked in the door
and
expected me to be bright enough
to
figure it out for myself.
And
second,
it
was the first time I’d ever heard in church
that
if I’m at all salvageable
it’s
because God is good,
and
not because I’m good.’
The
best sermon she had ever heard.
And
so it was that Pr. Bob Hawk’s mom and dad
began
their Christian life together;
a
life of hearing the Word of Christ
which
broke open their lives
and
made room for the Holy Spirit
of
love, hope and faith.
And
that Word comes to you now,
whether
for the first or the thousandth time,
and
the Holy Spirit wells up inside of us
and
brings forth praise to the Father
who
has done great things for us in Jesus Christ.
Come,
Holy Spirit, and kindle in us the fire of your love. Amen.
Alleluia!
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
