Sermon for the Festival of St. James, the Elder, Apostle: July 25, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝
“If God is for us, who can be against us?” What confidence, what boldness is in that statement! Something that strong is what you want for a confirmation verse, or as a caption to a poster with a hang-glider flying over the Grand Canyon. It has a pretty heavy initial punch, but I wonder if it always lasts. You say that God is for you and it gives you instant encouragement, but what does it really mean? When you come to think of it, that’s a pretty easy phrase to say, don’t you think? I mean, you would have to be a hard-boiled atheist not to be attracted to the claim that God is on your side.
You hear the idea tossed around a lot, and it can get emphasized a little too far out of hand in some Christian Churches, the mistaken notion that God has an interest in the United States in a different way than He does in other nations of the world. It’s as though He’s building up His glorious heavenly kingdom right here on earth, and sure, He’s given us a unique and special blessing of freedom in our country, but there’s no nation past, present, or future that can replace one, holy Christian Church. And you can misuse any number of Bible verses that in reality either speak of the Old Testament kingdom of Israel in their divine role of preparing for Jesus, or they really talk about the royal priesthood of baptized children of God, citizens, if you will, of an eternal, not an earthly, nation. While pagan religions like Islam demand their subjects to fight for their god’s cause, we just like to think that God, the true God, fights for us. Isn’t that the holy promise you hear in St. Paul’s letter to the Roman church?
The disagreement, of course, lies not in the statement itself, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” but rather in how it came to be that God is for us in the first place. It’s probably the most popular to think that in some way you have or can somehow obtain the right to say such a thing. Like you’ve earned it by what you’ve done or the kind of life you lead. And this can get pretty sneaky, where you don’t realize that you’re falling for a favorite deception that the devil uses. Sure you’re saved only because of Jesus and His death on the cross, your sins are forgiven and Christ is your Savior. But then, so the reasoning goes, it is your decision to make Him your Lord, meaning, you have to lead a better, moral life so that God will be pleased with you, bless you with various benefits, give you a harmonious family, provide you with means to get ahead and take away your suffering. People fall for that trap every day. If you feel abandoned or condemned by God, then the false reasoning goes, you are abandoned and condemned. Try harder. Just commit yourself to God in a more meaningful way, you’ve got to pray longer prayers about more and more people whom you don’t know, and demonstrate in public how dedicated to the Lord’s work you are.
If that describes you, then you’re in good company. Because I just described the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, the Catholic monks of Luther’s day, and the popular evangelicals of every denomination of our own time. And God’s holy Law accuses you the same way it always has: God is not pleased with you because of what you do. He despises your self-pride and sinful human nature. Apart from Jesus, the good deeds that you take pleasure in are worse than waste. Because you insist on extolling your own virtues especially over against others, you have a fouled-up image of the glory of Jesus, just like the Apostle St. James and his brother did—at one time.
The disciples’ three-year seminary education with Jesus was nearly over. They were walking on the last journey that would lead up to Jerusalem, right before Palm Sunday and the extremely important events of Holy Week. The Lord Christ has the cross and His suffering in mind, and He is taking every opportunity to explain this unique, once-in-all-history sacrifice to His followers, and what it will mean for them, and what it means for you. And in a total interruption, like they were not paying any attention to what Jesus was saying, James and John came up to Him (Matthew says it was their mother) and asked Him to grant them the right- and left- hand places in His glory.
Jesus Himself said that James and John did not know what they were asking, because they had the wrong idea of His glory. That same false idea of glory is what is most attractive to you, and it’s what most often makes you think that God is for you because of something you have done. But the glory that Jesus enters and the glory He hands out to you today is the glory of the cross. Suffering, being weak and in need, having others persecute you or treat you unfairly because of your Lord, these are the true glorious things. Take a look at the Beatitudes of Matthew 5 again to refresh your memory of Christ’s real glory.
It was a cup of suffering that Jesus drank in your place, a chalice that you filled to the top with your sins, your rebellion against God, your self-centered attitude. It was a cup that He even prayed that the Father take it away, but He obeyed with no regard to the pain and death He would later undergo. That cup of punishment He drank all the way down to the bottom, when He was baptized with the fire and brimstone of God’s anger that should have been directed at you. He endured it, though. You are no longer condemned. You walk away completely free! The cup of the glory of suffering that He drank He then fills up with His precious blood for you to drink after Him. And as you drink His chalice with your fellow confessors of the faith in remembrance of Your Lord, be reminded also of His glory, not only of the future, sinless and eternal glory of heaven, but the glory you possess right now, the glory of suffering and the cross.
For this cross is what assures you that God is for you. The cross on which your Savior died is truly precious and Holy to you because you were reconciled to your Creator there. Your sins, especially your evil and self-centered nature were killed there with Christ, but He alone rose from the dead on the third day. Your sins stayed buried. The holy cross was placed upon you when you were baptized for two reasons: first, because the washing of new birth was won for you on the cross, and second, because the rest of your entire life will be under the glorious suffering of the cross that God gives you. Those two reasons are a good reason to wear a cross as a public testimony to others, or put it up on the wall of your house, or to make the sign of the cross before prayer or during a blessing as a reminder to yourself. And as you gather up front at the foot of that cross, you eat and drink the true Body and Blood that Jesus gave for you to forgive and strengthen you in body and soul.
That is how you know God is for you: His rock-solid promise, spoken from a certain man, the pastor called, ordained, and standing in His stead, and the actual, physical things of Baptism and Holy Communion that He has set aside especially to assure you. These real things turn you away from relying on yourself, your moral life, or your emotions for the assurance you need every day.
But be assured also when you go through your times of suffering, when it is your turn to drink the cup of Jesus’ true glory, the glory of suffering that everyone else thinks is foolishness. Don’t be discouraged, you’re in good company: St. James drank that cup, as did his brother John although in another way, all those ancient Christians who met together when Christianity was declared illegal by the government and their lives were continually in danger. Remember Martin Luther and everyone else who rediscovered the Gospel, and all Christians today in all parts of the world who are beaten nearly to death simply because of Jesus. They all know, as you know, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” And that phrase means so much more to the one, holy Christian and apostolic Church than merely a throwaway encouragement or sound bite. Through this Scripture truth, backed up with the real, history-changing way that Jesus accomplished to make it come true, you can have that same confidence, that boldness to confess the Christian faith without fear.
God’s promise is absolute: you will not be separated from Him! The glory of heaven is yours, because you believe in the one who suffered the glory of the cross, a glory of suffering you endure now as your privilege. Do not lose heart! Be bold in your confession of the true faith: God is for you! Who can be against you?
In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Readings:
Acts 11:27—12:5 he killed James the brother of John with the sword.
Psalm 56 You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle
Rom. 8:28–39 If God be for us, who can be against us?
Mark 10:35–45 whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant