Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text today is the Epistle lesson read, especially these words from St. Peter, “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” Thus far our text.
Dear friends in Christ. Always be prepared to make a defense for the hope that is inside of you. It seems that in our world today, we as Christians are always on the defensive. “How can you believe that ridiculous stuff. There was no one named Jesus. There isn’t a god. The world came about from evolution, and your faith is pointless. Why don’t you spend your time doing something worthwhile instead of at that silly church?” How do you respond? What do you say?
The world wants us not to believe in that hope that we get from Jesus Christ. It doesn’t want us to believe that Jesus really has come, that He really is God, and that in His death we have forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Rather, the world continually bombards us with other messages, messages that don’t point to Jesus, but rather point to ourselves. The world wants us to trust in our own goals and ambitions and desires. And the example that Peter uses is Noah and the world wide flood that destroyed the world during his life time.
Noah, who lived when the world was so evil, that the book of Genesis says, “The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.” Mankind had become so wicked, so evil that God’s only course was to destroy everything through water. But God still showed his mercy to you and me, by deciding to bring one man safely through the deluge in an ark. God told a man named Noah and his 3 sons to build an enormous ark to carry life safely through death.
So Noah and his sons began building a giant ark, far away from water, just as God has commanded him. Can you imagine the things people said to Noah. “Hey Noah, nice boat, where you gonna float it? Hey Noah, why don’t you come eat, drink and be merry with us instead of wasting your time with that God of yours? Hey Noah, there’s a baseball game on TV, Hey Noah, its summer vacation, Hey Noah why don’t you preach a nicer message than that silly flood stuff?”
But Noah was prepared to give a defense, Noah preached to those people, just as God’s ministers have always preached. “Repent, or the world will be overturned with water.” The message is the same as Jonah, “Repent or Nineveh will be overturned,” and John the Baptist, “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand,” and even as we proclaim today, “Repent, for Jesus will return one day soon.” Even as we do not know the day or the hour. Noah preached this message up until God closed him into the ark, for then it was too late, and the ark was closed, and God’s judgment took place. 40 days and 40 nights of rain, and water had destroyed the earth except for Noah and his family, 8 souls in all.
In the same way in our first lesson, St. Paul must make a public defense to all the hoity toities in Athens. Boldly in the center of their public square St. Paul said that Jesus is the known God, the one who has come and redeemed the world. Even as St. Paul was accused of advocating foreign Gods and brought publically before all the people of town, he was ready to give a defense of what his faith meant – that Jesus had overcome the world.
Friends, we are much like St. Paul and Noah in so many ways. All the time, people question our beliefs. “How can God be three persons in one God?” It doesn’t make sense! How can Jesus be completely God and completely man? How can you be a sinner and a saint at the same time? Aren’t you Christians just a bunch of hypocrites? Come! Eat drink and be merry! Enjoy this world and all the carnal pleasures that are here! But St. Peter says we must give a defense, and in giving a defense we will suffer ridicule. We will suffer embarrassment as people laugh and scoff at us and our faith. We are not to laugh and scoff back, we are not to purposely offend, but in gentleness and kindness, we point people to the hope that is with in us.
For Jesus too has suffered. Jesus suffered in your place for your sins. Those things that each of us have committed that would have kept us off the ark, Jesus died for. Those things that cause us to want to skip church and leave behind the faith, Jesus bled for. Any and all sins that you have committed by your fault, your own fault, your own most grievous fault, are all forgiven.
For Jesus is the reason for the hope we have. Jesus is the defense that we boldly proclaim as we say, “Jesus has purchased and won me from all sins, death and the devil. And he did so for me on the cross.” I no longer live, but it is Christ that lives in me. He is the reason that I have hope in this terrible world. He is the reason I can make it through each day because in his glorious resurrection, he proved that he has overcome the world and its suffering and death. I am not longer a slave, I am Christ’s. As our Gospel lesson says, Jesus “will not leave us as orphans, he will come for us.” And “Because Jesus lives, so too will I live.”
These aren’t just some words we say to try and make each other feel good. They aren’t just us spouting nice sounding platitudes, Jesus really has come, and he really has been raised forever and ever amen. And as we proclaim this message, we will join in Jesus own suffering. Just as all of Noah’s friends and perhaps even his own father died in the flood, so too will we lose family and friends. Just as St. Paul was beaten publically again and again in public squares, so too will we face persecution. But just like them, Jesus too will carry us through safely, so that we may enter life and peace with Jesus.
And just as Noah was carried safely through in an ark, so too are you safely carried through the struggles of this life in Baptism. There Jesus came to you in Water and Word. There you were washed in the blood of Jesus. There you have passed safely through this world, and have already entered eternal life.
Be ready to give defense. Be ready to point to Jesus. Not to show off. Not to earn good for yourself. Rather be ready to point to Jesus because he has given you so very much that you could not have on your own. He has carried you through the flood of this world into everlasting life. He has been with you in your struggles, and in Him you have already overcome. Jesus, the hope and the reason for our faith, has bought you with his blood. Amen.
