6th Sunday of Easter (B), May 21, 2006

Texts: 1 John 4:1-11; John 15:9-17

Get With the Spiritual Program!

Next Sunday evening will be the opening of the East District Convention in Ancaster, near Hamilton. Two delegates, one pastoral and one lay delegate, from each congregation in the East District of Lutheran Church-Canada will take part in the convention business.

One of the challenges facing our East District, and Canadian church as a whole, is lack of growth in overall membership. At the same time, the amount that our District receives to carry out mission work decreases each year. This past year, in celebration of its 125th anniversary, our District initiated a rather modest campaign to raise $1.25 million, designated primarily for starting new mission work. The good news is that this campaign will be officially over next Sunday with the opening of the convention. The bad news is that so far we have just barely passed the half-way mark in reaching our goal.

Since the Church is Christ’ Body and we are all members of His body through faith in Jesus, we are concerned that our church is not growing and reaching out effectively. A big part of the reason for this failure is a lack of vision. Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, an important leader of allied troops during World War II, wrote that “every single soldier must know, before he goes into battle, how the little battle he is to fight fits into the larger picture, and how the success of his fighting will influence the battle as a whole.” Soldiers need to know exactly how their efforts are going to contribute to the overall victory! Otherwise the team gets into trouble.

Do you know what God’ plan is for your life? Can you describe God’ purpose for you? If not, you may be like a soldier going into battle without knowing who the enemy is or what his instructions are. If you do not realize that God has an important task for you to carry out, there is a failure in your communication with your headquarters. If we do not know what job God has for us, then we are what the Bible calls spiritual infants in Christ who have failed to grow up and mature. Then we are, and please forgive my language, “spiritual retards.” As such we may be wasting our time and resources with efforts that do not accomplish the goal God has set before us and we may be in danger of forfeiting the reward awaiting us.

How can we know God’ purpose for us? For that, we need to be in communication with our leader, with our Lord. We do that by paying attention to what He has to tell us when we hear His Word. We do that by studying the Bible, seeking to understand God’ will, and prayerfully applying it to our lives. Knowing God’ will we learn to trust Him for what we need. God’ will is that you recognize Him as your heavenly Father who loves you and provides you with everything you need for a truly satisfying life. That you may experience this God even became one of us, as we heard in our Epistle reading: “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live though Him” (1 John 4:9). The apostle John goes on to state the mission Jesus has given his Church: “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

Knowing God’ Word, we will also become aware of the spiritual battle we are engaged in. Our second reading identifies our enemies as “false prophets and the spirit of the antichrist.” The one behind these is Satan. Satan’ most successful strategy is to make us believe that there is no spiritual war going on and to make us live as if we had only this life to live. His aim is to draw people away from trusting in Jesus and to look for personal fulfillment and meaning in life that does not include Christ crucified and risen from the dead. And if they call themselves “Christians,” he wants them to believe they don’t need the Church, or any kind of spiritual accountability in their lives. For a lone-ranger Christian is like a soldier separated from his company in enemy-occupied territory. Cut off from the Church and the fellowship of Christ’ body one cannot remain a real Christian for long.

The vision God gives us is one of victory. John encourages us: “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them [i.e., the false prophets (v.1) and the spirit of the antichrist who is in the world (v.3)], because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). God gives us instructions on how to fight this spiritual battle: “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). The weapons we have are the Word of God, the apostolic testimony of the Scriptures: “This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth - Whoever knows God listens to us” says the apostle John. (1 John 4:6). We are also taught how to engage in spiritual battle: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God” (4:11).
The Bible and love are certainly strange weapons and battle tactics, even as this is a strange battle. However, because it is a spiritual and not a physical battle does not make it any less dangerous or significant. For the worst that can happen in physical warfare is the killing of a mortal body, that is, a body that is going to die anyway. In contrast, with spiritual warfare the eternal destiny of both, the body and the soul are at stake. That is why we cannot afford to fail at spiritual warfare!

The spiritual battle we are in is truly an epic battle. It is somewhat like a David and Goliath struggle. When King Saul and his Israelite army faced the Philistines with Goliath in their ranks, it seemed hopeless - until David appeared and miraculously took down the giant. That young man with a slingshot and a strong faith in God changed certain defeat into a victory rout.

The battle between David and Goliath mirrors the spiritual battle that is taking place right now. We are like the Israelites facing the Philistine ranks with Goliath mocking our spiritual weakness and cowardice. And we are helpless. Our strength is sapped by sin and our weapons are dull and our skills are rusty from lack of use of God’ Word. On our own we are faced with certain annihilation. But then an unimpressive man comes along to fight our spiritual Goliath, and He defeats him! He defeats him because He was not just a man, but God disguised in our likeness. By His death on the cross and resurrection to life Jesus defeated our “Goliath” who is Satan, our accuser.

Now that our spiritual enemy is defeated, we join the Israelites in the victory rout against the Philistines, except, we’re not fighting Philistines. Rather, our job is to raid the prison cells of Satan; to release those who are being held captive by his lies of deception. We do this with the message of the Gospel demonstrated by a life characterized by God’ love.
Even though this epic battle has already been won by Jesus, there are still prisoners who need to be set free and enemies to be won over to the truth. It is this mopping up operation that we are now engaged in. We are called to gather up the spoils of the war, to bring in the harvest of souls into God’ Kingdom.

It is really exciting that God has entrusted us with such an important task. He has given us a job that will bear eternal fruit - fruit that we will enjoy forever. What we do in this life may play a part in bringing someone who is lost into God’ Kingdom. And we know that for every lost soul that is brought into the Kingdom, there will be a huge party in Heaven. For Jesus said, “There will be more rejoicing in Heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Luke 15:7).

Some of us may feel uncomfortable with this message. We may not feel that we have been instrumental in leading anyone to Christ. While it is true that conversion is the desired result of our labour, it is not ours to take credit for. It is God alone who converts the hearts of sinners. We can only point people to God and trust God to do the rest. Our responsibility is to be faithful in love. Love is the true fruit of a Christian life and not how many people we may claim to have “converted.”

Nevertheless, I believe that we will all be surprised when we get to Heaven by how many people we will encounter who will thank us for how we have helped them on their spiritual journey. From our own children to those from other continents who were touched by a missionary whom we have supported. The vast majority of our Christian witness happens quite apart from our own knowledge and that is exactly how it should be. Yes, there will be some wonderful surprises waiting for each of you in Heaven.

In the Scriptures God lays out a very clear vision for His people: To see all peoples come to an experience of His love for them in Christ Jesus. And He gives us a mission: To build up the body of Christ and to share His love with each other. We are also given everything we need for victory in the battles we face, His living Word and Holy Spirit. That is why we come to church on Sunday’, in order to be equipped for spiritual battle with God’ Word of grace and to be nourished with the spiritual food of Christ’ Body and Blood, being united with Him in His sufferings that we may also share in His resurrection victory.

I believe it is truly amazing the task which God has entrusted to us, of bringing in the harvest into His Kingdom. I find it so amazing, because God has put so much on the line. It seems that He has entrusted us with much more than we can truly be trusted with. I know that my own track record is not that bright, and yet, God does not give up on me. And neither does He give up with any of you. Even though we have failed the Lord more often than we have been an asset in this spiritual war, we need not despair. For our God has a way of turning our liabilities into His greatest assets. That is why we press on towards the goal that God has called us heavenward: To love each other as He has loved us (1 John 4:11).
Jesus gives us the reason why God has chosen us as His trusted partners in His Father’ business: So that we may “go and bear fruit -- fruit that will last” (John 15:16); and Jesus promises, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). Amen.