Seventh Sunday after Trinity
July 14th,
Year of Our + Lord 2024
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
Breathe, Drink, Eat
Genesis 2:7-17, Romans 6:19 – 23, Mark 8:1-9
Sermon Audio Available here.
Breathe. Drink.
Eat. The complexity of human life
is incomprehensible. But life also has a
certain simplicity: To live, you must
breathe, drink, and eat. We can endure
the lack of adequate housing, or perfect health. We can survive a long time, naked
and persecuted, although no one should be thus oppressed. But breathing, hydrating, and eating, these
are essential. Without air, we die very quickly. We can last two or three days without water,
and 40 days or more without food. But
without the breath of life, we perish in a few minutes. That most intimate divine gift to the man of
dust, the breath of God Himself, is also the thing without which we die most
quickly.
However, breathing, drinking,
and eating are not the sum total of the life that God wants for us. God gave us this life, he gives us air, water,
and daily bread, so He can be with us, so he can have us as friends, children, family. Clean air, pure water and healthy food are all
gifts from God, all profitable to us. But
they are not in themselves the goal of life. No, they are means to an end. God’s goal for human life is communion, with
Him, and with each other. God created us
to live in close and good relationships, to live the life of love, between God
and men, and between all men.
That is to say, the Lord God,
the author and giver of life, wants us. And not in some abstract sense,
as if we were interesting living artifacts, pleasant to observe from a safe
distance, like animals in a zoo. No, no,
no. God wants to have us close, as dear
friends. He wants to bind his life to
ours, inextricably. He wants to share
his Holy Name with us, forever, to have us sit at His family table, joyful and
secure, God Himself seated at the head, carving the turkey and passing the
mashed potatoes.
Can you believe it? Does your life in this hurtful world seem like
a joyful communion with the Almighty? Considering
our behavior, the many ways we misuse and waste the life we have been given,
doesn't it seem incredible to you that God continues to seek communion with us?
We are blessed to live in a
modern and supposedly advanced world. In
theory, in these United States basic human rights are recognized for everyone:
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, by which Jefferson meant the
pursuit of a worthy life, a blessed existence.
We cherish the blessings of freedom, security, and equality before the
law.
Day-to-day reality is not so
blissful, of course. Depending on where
you go in America, there is a lot of violence.
And, even when we personally live in safety, we have a strange predilection
to bring artificial violence and other hurtful things into our lives, especially
via our screens, tiny and giant. Digital
violence and evil images wound our souls, even if our bodies remain whole.
There is subtle and not so
subtle coercion by the media we take in, and abuses of power by those who
govern. Many of our fellow citizens
routinely violate the law, and fewer and fewer people seem to care. Many people succumb to despair. Lives of pointless idleness, or rage, like
the rage we saw on display at the attempted assassination yesterday in Butler,
PA. Substance abuse and suicide are 21st
century plagues, and nobody seems to know what to do about them.
As here, around the world, there
are bright spots, and there are hell holes.
We tend to think there is no free air in China. But life there can be good, especially if you
are a Han, the dominant ethnic group.
Not so great for the Uighurs, or the Tibetans, or a dozen other ethnic
minorities. In Africa, Muslim attacks against
Christian communities are so common, they only pop-up in our newsfeed when they
are really terrible.
In America and around the world,
millions of babies continue to be killed before they can take their first
breath. Only recently has there begun to
be discussion about the basic demographic fact that the human race needs babies
to survive, let alone thrive. All too
often, this is put forth in the crassest, most selfish terms: “Who is going to pay my social security
benefit, if there are no more younger workers?”
And you and I, what are we doing
about all this? I don't imagine we can
fix everything, but on what do we spend our time, energy and resources? What positive goods are we supporting with our
talents and treasures? What shameful
things do we cultivate in secret? What
do our schedules and activities, our Internet browser history, or our bank
accounts say about our priorities? Can
we show some effort to improve life, if not for everyone, then at least for
someone? Are we more slaves of sin, or
slaves of God? The LORD on His holy
throne sees all things. We can’t hide,
not from God.
And yet, the LORD God loves us. His commitment to us is
revealed in this: before creating us, already knowing how we were going to turn
out, the LORD resolved to do everything necessary to rescue us from our bitter
pilgrimage toward death, the sad journey which began even before we took our
first breath. Even though we don't take
very good care of own life, nor do we care that well for the lives of our
neighbors, even though we tend to blame God Himself for our problems, God
resolved from eternity to rescue us. God
resolved to bring us close to Him, by getting close to us. He came to share our broken way of life, so
that He could share his glorious, infinite life with us.
In healings and preaching, and in
miraculous bread, this was the message of Jesus, when he had compassion on the
great crowd that had followed Him out into the wilderness. They were drawn to the desert to feel the
breath of God, the message of divine love, which Jesus shared, healing diseases
and teaching the Word. But there was no
bodily food for them there. When He fed
the 5,000, and again the 4,000, from just a few loaves and fish, Jesus was revealing God’s loving heart, and
foreshadowing His way of giving true life to dying sinners.
As much as we should improve the
conduct of our lives, avoiding shameful things and seeking profitable things, this
instruction is not the main thing God wants to give us. If this were the case, Jesus
would have only given us commands and exhortations to improve, as in the Sermon
on the Mount. Then He would have returned
to the right hand of God, to observe our performance, to see how we did. Or, I suppose He could have remained visible
on earth, to serve as our trainer, a divine “life-coach,” constantly correcting
and encouraging us to get it right. But
there's a simple problem with both approaches: us.
Our problem is not that we do
not understand our need to improve. Nor
has God failed to give us sufficient instructions and exhortations. It gets distorted and ignored, but the Law of
God is written on every human heart. And
we Christians have the 10 Commandments, and the Sermon on the Mount, plus much
more.
But, even when we try, our best
efforts to live out the life God has given us fall far short. Try as we should, try as we might, we do not live
life as it should be lived, which reveals we are sinners. And the wages of sin is death.
Thankfully, Jesus did not
become a man to be merely a new Law Giver.
Nor is He our Life Coach. No,
because He truly wants us with Him, forever, He embarked on a radical project,
a plan to recreate the human being, in Himself.
The eternal Son of the Father
came, uniting his divine life with our mortal flesh, drawing breath, drinking
water, and eating, just like anyone else, except with one difference.
Not being a sinner, Jesus could
have avoided death. He could have
continued forever enjoying pure water, healthy food, and clean air. But He
chose to forego drink, to satisfy His thirst for justice, for righteousness. He chose to suffer hunger, so that he could
give us the true Bread of Heaven. He
chose to breathe his last breath on a Roman cross, to offer His sinless death
to His Father, for us. Jesus poured out
His lifeblood, to destroy the power that sin and death and the devil wield over
us. In His resurrected breath there is
new life for all. Now, all people united
to Christ by faith can enjoy heavenly air, drink and food, today, and forever
and ever.
This is both how, and how much,
the Lord God loves you. Can you believe
it?
Yes, you can believe it, by the work
of the Holy Spirit, who breathes the Truth of Christ into you, through your
ears. Your faith is the gift of the One
who gave you rebirth in baptismal waters.
Because Christ is in you, you are in Christ, and so you hunger to eat
and drink of immortality here, at the Table of the Lord. Our Lord Jesus gives thanks to share with you
the broken Bread and the blessed Cup, His true Body and Blood. Here there is heavenly nourishment for all
who faithfully breath out their confession of sin, and their trust in Christ Jesus, who died and rose, to forgive sinners.
Jesus is your breath of life. He is your living water, bubbling up to
eternal glory. He is the bread of
heaven, for you. And so, you know how to
live, forever. You also know how to live
differently, today. You do not stay
connected to God through His Word and Sacrament as an obligation, but rather
because He makes you alive through these blessings. You do not flee from evil, love your family,
or choose to live as a Christian because “God will get you if you don’t.” No, you know the difference between death and
life. And so, you rejoice to walk in the
new way of life that God has created, for you.
We are still sinners, but we
trust in the Sinless One. So also, we
are not stupidly resigned to be enslaved to impurity. Rather, we are children of God, growing up in
His grace, by hearing His Word, and seeking His Way. And so, as children of the heavenly Father, we
do not continually choose to fill our lives with foolish, hurtful things. Rather, we rejoice to breath God’s good
breath, splash around in the water of our Baptism, and eat His heavenly food. And so, joined to Christ, we live differently.
Not perfectly. Not yet are we able to totally defeat the sin
that clings to us. But, daily fleeing to
Jesus, confessing our sins and seeking His grace, we see His
perfection, and, eyes fixed on Him, we strive towards that day when He will
perfect us.
The wages of sin is death, but the free gift
of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Come, receive the gift, and live the life,
in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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