Second Sunday After Pentecost - Proper 5
June 10, 2012 - Pastor Adam Moline
Genesis
3:8-15 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 Mark 3:20-35
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God our Father through our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Our text today comes from our Epistle lesson
that was just read, especially these words, “So we do not lose
heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner
self is being renewed day by day.”
Thus far our text today.
Dear friends in
Christ. It was several years ago, I
remember it well. I woke up one morning
while serving on vicarage in Brookings South Dakota, and there it was staring
at me in the mirror. Well, it wasn’t in
the mirror so much as attached to my head.
At 25 years old, there was my very first (of many by the way) gray
hair. It was a sign that I wasn’t the
young high school kid I used to be, but was a quickly aging person. Its something I imagine many of you have
experienced as well. Our bodies age,
they begin to fall apart, they wrinkle and hurt.
It is in the face
of this great issue that Paul writes, “Do not lose heart”, even though your
body is falling apart, even though your knees give way, even though cancer
ravages your body. Do not lose hope, for this
light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory
beyond all comparison. Or so says St.
Paul in our text for today – boldly and without reservation! For these words aren’t just wishful
thinking, but they are a bold truth proclaimed in a world that doesn’t believe
this to be the case. Paul preaches
eternal life in a world of death.
It is easy for us
to lose hope isn’t it? In our own
congregations we have seen people whom we love dearly whose health has
deteriorated. We have had loved ones who
have passed away – 11 funerals in our parish over the last year and a
half. We ourselves know our bodies are
not as good as they once were. Our
joints hurt, our limbs are weak. Our
balance is off center. Wrinkles are
creeping into our face as are gray hairs into our heads.
The signs are
there, look at your body and compare it with 5 years ago, with ten years
ago. Its dying. Its falling apart. Unless you are a child your body will not get
any better than it is today. It will
slowly, ever so slowly get worse and worse until one day it will no longer be
able to keep itself alive. It will no
longer be able to keep your heart beating, and your lungs breathing. And it will stop, and you, yes each of you,
will finally be dead.
It is exactly what
God promised would happen to sinners in the beginning, and we are ashamed of
the fact that it has affected us. In our
Old Testament lesson we see that dreadful moment, right after sin entered the
world. Adam and Eve hiding in the
bushes, their bodies already deteriorating.
Their fate is already certain.
Adam will die. Eve will die. Their children will die – even murder one
another. Their fate is certain and they
are ashamed.
We feel that same
pang within our own lives. We dread that
same fate as Adam and Eve did. We too
are doomed to die, and we see that fate drawing ever nearer in our own lives as
we look to our own body. No doctor can
stop it, no medical intervention can prevent it forever – yes maybe delay it,
but not prevent.
Alzheimer’s, Lou
Gehrig’s, blindness, cataracts, cancer, strokes, heart attacks, pain and
suffering. These only the tip of the ice
berg for us. All of them, leading to our
death, to our end, to the grave where our body will decay, our bones will
collapse, until finally there is no remnant of us left on this earth except for
dust. For you are dust, and to dust you
shall return! What hope is there in the
face of this? What comfort comes to the
lost sinner, to the dead, to those whose fate is sealed?
It is in the face
of this question that Paul preaches in our epistle. Do not lose hope. Do not lose hope, though our outer
self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by
day. For this light momentary affliction
is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we
look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the
things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
You are being
renewed, even as your body falls apart.
Your spirit which once was dead in sin has been revived. How?
It is connected to the death and resurrection of Jesus. In baptism that which was dead is made alive,
the blood of God means the stain of sin is removed from you forever. Even as your body crumbles and dies, your
soul is promised to live forever, renewed in the life giving blood of the
lamb.
Paul even calls
the struggles of this world “light, momentary afflictions.” As we deal with cancer and sickness, we would
hardly call them light momentary afflictions, yet Paul knows the truth and
preaches it faithfully. That if Christ
is risen from the dead forever, so too will those who believe in him. If Christ lives and reigns in heaven for
eternity, those who follow him shall as well.
If you have cancer, or Alzheimer’s even for 20 years, it is nothing
compared to the eternal joy that awaits, for years without end in heaven.
Your sin is
forgiven. Your death averted. Jesus paid the price for you in his suffering
and death on the cross. For we know that
if the tent that is our earthly body is destroyed, we have a building
from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. That is what we await. That is where we hope. Do not lose heart, Though our outer
self is wasting away, our eternal self is just beginning. Amen.
