1 Samuel 3:1-20 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 John 1:43-51
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text today comes from the Old Testament and Gospel lessons,
especially these words spoken by Jesus, “Follow me.”
Dear friends in
Christ. We all believe and confess in
the small catechism, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength
believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but that he has called me by
the gospel…” Dear friends that’s what
happens in both our Old Testament and our Gospel texts for today. In the OT lesson, God calls Samuel to be his
prophet as he slept in the courts of the temple. In the Gospel lesson, Jesus calls Phillip to
be a disciple, saying to him, “Follow me.”
And finally, in that same Gospel lesson, Jesus calls Nathanael in the
same way that he calls you and me – through the preaching of His word.
This method of
calling is consistent throughout all the pages of scripture. Wherever God’s word is proclaimed in its
truth and purity, it works faith, it brings people to God. Every person in the pages of scripture comes
to faith after having heard the word of God. Take Abraham, who left his home of Haran to
travel in faith to an unknown place, when God’s word told him, “I will make you
a great nation.” (Genesis 12:2) Jacob
came to faith when God’s word came to him, “I am with you and will watch over
you wherever you go.” (Genesis 28:15)
Noah built the ark in response to God’s Word, Moses went to Pharaoh
having heard the bush, Joshua led Israel around the walls of Jericho because
God’s Word told him to. There is not one
person in Scripture who came to faith apart from God’s word.
And yet, dear
friends, that’s not the way we act in our world today. We have this idea that God is lost out there
somewhere, and that we have to go and find him.
And once we find him we have this ridiculous idea that we have to ask
him to come, and to live in our hearts and to be our God. That we have to invite him to be our God.
Yes at times, even
we Lutherans are guilty of thinking this crazy “Find God” idea. After all we are surrounded by it. All the so called “Christian movies” and
television shows have this idea built into them. Even at the end of television sermons we hear
the words, “Come up and invite Jesus to be your personal Lord and Savior.” And so we sinfully believe that’s the way
faith works. And so we don’t bring our children
to church to hear God’s word, instead we say “I’ll let them make their own
decision about faith” as if their decision was more important than hearing God’s
Word.
And what’s more,
we don’t’ believe that God’s word will do what it says it will – create
faith. We think we need to add to it, to
make it to be something more than it is.
For example, there’s a Church in England that every year in February has
a clown service – where the pastor and members dress up as clowns. Or what about the churches here in the United
States– plural churches – where the pastor rides up into the altar area on a
motorcycle? All of it predicated on the
idea that we need something more than the call of God’s holy word. Or any other sort of dog and pony show that
we feel we need to have in church to make people Christians?
Dear friends,
Scripture is clear – the clear word of Jesus is sufficient. As Paul says about the simpleness of his
message, “We preach Christ crucified.”
Nothing more, nothing less. Look
at the call of Phillip – “Follow me” spoken by Jesus. Or Abraham – “follow me”. OR the preaching of Peter on Pentecost –
“Jesus was crucified for you – believe and be baptized.” Or the sermons of Paul “Jesus is the unkown
God who is revealed upon the cross.”
And that message
is for you as well. Your sins, even your
sins of doubt in the power of his word are taken care of by Jesus
crucified. He died on your behalf, for
every sin you’ve ever committed. You are
a forgiven child of God. You were made
that child when God’s word came to you in and with water in the words of God
“You are baptized in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Those words come to you in the words of our
liturgy – almost every one of which are taken directly from scripture. That word comes to you in the preaching of
your pastor. It comes to you in bible
study. It comes to you in your reading
of your bible. It comes to you
externally – as God calls you by the Gospel, sanctifies you with his gifts, and
keeps you in the one true faith.
There in all of
those ways, the Word of God makes you Christians by pointing you to the grace
earned by a bloody death on the cross, by Jesus Christ. The word does it without your decision, he
does it without your consent, he does it without your understanding, and he
does it without your ridiculous add-ons.
God creates faith in his word, pointing you to Jesus Christ
crucified. In that word spoken, God has
built his church throughout all time, from Abraham, to Samuel in our Old Testament
lesson, and even in our Gospel lesson, calling the disciples. And dear friends, the call is the same to
you, trust God’s word, that Jesus died and rose again for your sins.
In the name of
Jesus. Amen.
