The New Celebration

1 Corinthians 5:6-8

Your boasting is not good.  Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?  Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened.  For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.  Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Sermon for Easter Sunday                                                                                                                    4/11/04

The New Celebration

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Hallelujah!

Although the celebration of Easter as a special holiday is ancient to us, if the Apostle Paul were to have encountered it, it would have been a new celebration.  The earliest Christians did not have a special Easter holiday.  They did celebrate Easter, but it was not a holiday.  It was every day.  They worshiped on Sundays, instead of the Jewish Sabbath, on Saturday, because Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday.  Every Sunday worship service was, to them, an Easter celebration.

Easter was much more than a holiday to the earliest believers.  It was their entire faith.  They lived in the afterglow of Easter.  They had no battles between Lutherans and Catholics to consider.  They had no family traditions, at least not at first.  They worshiped in the heart of the excitement of the resurrection.  Death was close and intimate in their world.  Life was hard and often dull.  The gods of their society were capricious and silly, and all authority tended to be dictatorial -- at home, in their temples, and from their government.  The sudden reality of love and freedom from God and of the resurrection and glory to come was worth dying for, and so it was worth living for.  So Easter was their entire faith.

We celebrate Easter as a holiday because it is not our entire faith.  It should be, but we have grown content and complacent.  We keep death at arm's reach with hospitals, nursing homes, and funeral parlors.  We only occasionally stare into its face, and usually it is wearing make-up.

Our faith too often is about feeling good.  Our faith is about nervous tension and relative (not real) economic changes.  Only occasionally do we think much about dying, and only now and then do we ponder the resurrection.  Forgiveness is a self-esteem thing, not a spiritual power.  So naturally, Easter is a holiday -- a ‘set aside' for once a year.

But our comfort with this life and our satisfaction with ourselves and how we live is what St. Paul refers to in our text as boasting.  Just prior to our text, Paul was writing about immorality that existed among the Corinthians.  A man had taken his father's wife.  We don't know if his father had died, but it seems unlikely, or she would be called his father's widow.  She was not the man's mother, but probably a second wife - perhaps one of many, or perhaps the second wife after his father had been widowed.

What that man did is called "incest".  If his father and his wife were divorced, such a thing was still totally out of bounds, even among the pagans.  The Corinthian Christians, however, had tolerated this immorality without excommunicating the evildoer.  Paul accused them of arrogance, in their patience with sin, and commanded them to reject such a man.

Then He said, "Your boasting is not good."  Our comfort with our lives, and our contentment with our own immorality is such boasting.  Patience with divorce and adultery and fornication and homosexuality and such is pagan and worldly, not godly or Christian.  Open-mindedness with the rampant immorality of our television shows and movies is ‘boasting'.  Approval of false teaching in the church, and in our society -- like praising the show Touched by an Angel, even though it contradicts Scripture at almost every single turn -- is such boasting.  The boast is that we are so strong, that we can endure such evil among us and not be turned.  We are so righteous that what God vehemently condemns, we can patiently approve.

"Your boasting is not good".  The reality is that "just a little leaven leavens the whole lump".  Proverbs said it too, "bad company corrupts good morals."  If we wink at sin and tolerate sin and patiently endure sin, we will become twisted by sin again and lost.  "Clean out the old leaven", Paul says.  Don't give sin a foothold among you.

But then Paul says something strange -- he says that we are unleavened already!  We are unleavened because Christ is our Passover -- the feast of the unleavened bread -- and He is not just the feast, He is the lamb, sacrificed to remove our guilt and shame.  We have been unleavened by the forgiveness of sins, purchased and won for us by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God on the cross.  That is what we celebrated on Good Friday.

Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.  Paul is inviting us to a new celebration.  He is inviting us to celebrate not just a holiday, but life set free from sin.  And we don't just celebrate it by having a special service once a year, or with the traditional ham dinner at home.  We celebrate this feast with a life of purity and truth!

The feast he is talking about is not a meal, it is life itself in the presence of God for the sake of Jesus Christ.  Jesus referred to eternal salvation and heaven as the wedding feast, but life here in this world, lived by faith in Jesus Christ, is also part of that feast.

Paul says, "Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."  The old leaven is the old evils of life without Christ.  They have been set aside by God on the cross.  The resurrection of Jesus from the grave is God's unmistakable method of telling us that our sins have truly been forgiven.  The leaven of malice and wickedness and deceit has been purged from us.  Now we are invited to the new celebration without malice or any evil intentions.  We are invited to the new celebration without wickedness of any sort.  We are invited to celebrate with sincerity and truth.

We are invited to celebrate the new celebration of living a new life in Christ.  That life is a life of honest worship.  Not just singing hymns in a church, but living our lives in the knowledge of the resurrection and the sincere expectation that we shall rise too.  Such worship is lived in the light of forgiveness.  That means that we set aside sin, for we have been unleavened.  Just as the Jews cleaned out all the leaven in their homes for the Passover, we must clean out all of the dishonesty and evil from our lives so that we may remain unleavened, unpolluted as best we are able by the pollution of sin.

It means humbling yourself.  Boasting is living in sin as though you can handle it, as though you are master over sin.  But if we do what is not right, if we lie and gossip and entertain ourselves with the lives and sins of others, that little bit of leaven gets in us and works in us to produce sinful desires and sinful thoughts, which lead inevitably to sinful actions.

Every day is to be a celebration that we have been set free from our guilt.  We celebrate with thanksgiving.  We celebrate by choosing to see the hand of God in all our blessings and opportunities, and trusting in and expecting the hand of God even in those things which trouble us and tempt us.  Like those actors on Television who shout and leap for joy that they have kicked the habit of smoking, or lost all that weight, we should celebrate our forgiveness and salvation.

                                          

Jesus' resurrection means that we, too, shall rise from the grave.  Our resurrection will be just like His, because it is tied to His and, in a sense, is His resurrection.  We will rise because He paid for our sins, and death has no claim on us.  We will rise suddenly and with the same sort of glory and excitement as we witness in the Biblical accounts of the first Easter.

We celebrate that resurrection now with faith and with a life which does not participate in the fear and frantic pursuit of hollow, sinful pleasures of this world.  There are enough good and sincere and wholesome pleasures.  We have no need for the private sins, the secret lusts, the sleazy, sinful passions.  We don't need to do them, and we do not need to wink at them in our entertainments, or among our families and friends.  Rather we need to hold up the love of God toward us.  We need to remind one another of God's grace and forgiveness.  We need to encourage one another in prayer and faith.

Jesus said, "I am the Bread of life."  He is the unleavened bread with which we shall satisfy ourselves in the new celebration of the feast.  His resurrection means that the promises made to us are true.  There is life, even beyond death.  There is so much that is so good, so much that it is well worth waiting for, and for which it is well worth disciplining ourselves.

Our boasting is not good, so let us set aside the boast, and humbly repent, knowing our forgiveness is as certain as the resurrection of Christ.  And let us not presume that we have wisdom to righteously live our life as it seems good to us, but let us resolve to humbly seek His guidance and wisdom.  Then we will celebrate the new celebration, where Easter is every day, because we look back at Jesus on the first Easter, and because we see what He has done and we hear what He has promised us if we live in Him, we can confidently look forward to our personal Easters.

He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Hallelujah!

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)

True Humility / True Glory

 Philippians 2:5-11

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in
Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but
emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and
being made in the likeness of men.  And being found in
appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on
Him the name which is above every name, that at the name
of Jesus EVERY KNEE SHOULD BOW, of those who are in
heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of
God the Father.

Sermon for Palm Sunday                                                       4/13/25

                                    True Humility / True Glory
                                                 
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

There are a number of ways to
approach this text.  One could talk about
suffering.  This is the Sunday of the
Passion in the modern church-year
calendar, and that would follow the theme
of the day.  I could talk about obedience,
which is certainly well-modeled by Jesus.  I
could focus particularly on the love of
Jesus.  Or I could talk about all of them.
What I would like you to focus your
attention on, this morning, is the nature of
Glory - and its connection to humility.  We
consider these in Paul's message to the
Philippian Christians this morning, with
the theme, "True Humility/True Glory."

Paul writes:  Have this attitude in
yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who,
although He existed in the form of God, did not
regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied Himself.  That is humility.   Jesus
Christ was God   is God.  Whatever it is to
be God, with all the power and glory and
whatever, Jesus had it.  He could do
anything, anywhere, anytime.  There is no
way for us to appreciate what Jesus had or
what He gave up.  What we can appreciate
is that He did not count whatever that is as
too precious or too important to let go of.
He did not hold His own glory such as we
cannot actually even imagine and power
beyond our comprehension and
prerogatives of divinity as more significant
or desirable than our salvation.  He
counted obedience to the Father and
redeeming us as more importance than the
enjoyment of His own participation is the
glories of the Holy Trinity for a time.   That
is true Humility.

Jesus didn't give up being God, or all
of the powers and glory of God forever.  He
merely (as though that word could actually
apply to God and His power) merely set
them aside for a time.  He laid aside the
use of His power and took on human
frailty.  He laid aside His knowledge and
became an infant in the womb.  He laid
aside His glory and became not merely
human, but a helpless child, in an
insignificant and desperately poor family,
in a backwards region of a poor nation
under military occupation.  That is what
Paul means when he says that Jesus
"emptied Himself."  That is humility,
humbling Himself beyond all reason and
setting aside His own comfort, glory and
prerogatives for the well-being and
salvation of His enemies   us   sinful man.
He set aside what He deserved from us on
our behalf and He counted nothing as "too
much" to give in order to accomplish His
purpose which is our redemption from sin
and death and hell.

That is the attitude that we are
challenged to imitate and emulate and
make our own.  If you want to think like
Jesus   and believe me, if you are a
Christian YOU DO   then this is what you
are called to imitate, humility.  Nothing
should be too much to lose for the sake of
Christ, or for the sake of His Gospel, or for
the sake of His people.  No indignity should
be more than you can bear.  No insult
should be too much to take.  No embarrass
ment should be enough to stop you, and no
loss, even to the point of your life, should
be beyond what you are willing to give.

You do not "have the attitude of Jesus in
yourselves" by merely permitting injustices
and declining to exercise your right to
escape.  The attitude of Jesus was more
than just enduring torment for the
advantage of others because it was what
was expected of Him.  You can force
yourself to endure the unpleasant and
embarrassing, but that is not the attitude,
that is merely the behavior of Jesus.

The attitude of Jesus is love.  He loved
His Father, and He loved us so much that
He faced shame and ridicule, suffering,
torture, and finally death on our behalf and
in our place so that we might never have to
face them as a consequence of our sins.  He
faced them particularly so that we might be
spared eternal death and torment in Hell.
When He had the power to do something
else, He did this.

That was the "mind of Christ"   humility
which permitted Him to become one of us,
and to die so violently and shamefully for
us.  We are to partake of that humility too.
We are to humble ourselves in our own
minds so that our interests and our
comfort can take second place to the
welfare and spiritual health of others!  This
is not about allowing someone to make you
do something, it is about doing it yourself,
because it is right, setting others and their
needs first before our comforts, our
preferences, our personal pride, and even
our own needs simply because it is the will
of God that we do so.

Of course, that means that we have to
stop the silly talk that often happens in
American churches about "rights".  Jesus
set aside not only what He had a right to,
but what He flat out deserved, and what
was already His.  He set aside what He
already possessed and counted His natural
equality with God as something He could
do without to accomplish His purpose of
salvation for you, and for you, and for me.
So, if you want to follow Jesus, you must
seek and learn and follow His humility.
You have the right to do what you want to  
politically, as an American  but not as a
Christian and not as a member of the
Church and not as a slave of God in
Jesus Christ.  At the door of the house of
God, talk about rights and what we deserve
and what we can do if we want to stops,
and humility must rule.  This life is not
lived in a democracy   it is lived in a
monarchy, and Jesus Christ is the King.

Of course, this humility toward others
is all aimed first at "one another."  This is not
about society in general.  There are other
places in Scripture where that issue is
addressed, but here it is not about the
world around us, it is about one another  
fellow believers   members of the body of
Christ, particularly those we are connected
to, fellow members of the congregation.
And then, just as in our outreach missions,
this circle of care and agape love grows
wider and wider by steps.  Our fellow
members here, then fellow believers in the
area, who may not be members of our
congregation, then the Church in the larger
area - circuit, district, nation, world.

Is all of this Law?  Yes, but not in the
sense that you must do it or you cannot be
saved.  This is the response of the heart to
the truth of the Gospel.  This is what
happens when you have been saved, and
you believe the goodness of God and you
witness for yourself what Jesus did to
redeem and save you.  This is the fruit of
faith.  This is how we are encouraged to
respond to the knowledge of Christ and His
humility on our behalf.

Jesus did not just give up glory and
power.  He gave up His life. [He] emptied
Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and
being made in the likeness of men.  And being
found in appearance as a man, He humbled
Himself by becoming obedient to the point of
death, even death on a cross.  He became one
of us.  He took on the form and nature of
those He had created to be His servants -
His slaves.  He became everything you are,
except for sin.  He carried the aches and
pains.  He carried the troubles of life.  He
carried emotions and joys and griefs.  He
endured not being able to have it His way
at every moment, of having others decide
for Him.  He was a normal guy, except that
He was also God, enduring this normalcy
and humbling Himself to submerge His
power and glory in this human nature.

Tacitus, a Roman writer and
philosopher, who hated Christians and
strongly encouraged their persecution,
wrote in abject wonder in the second
century of the Christian Church, "See how
those Christians love one another."  How
long has it been since anyone, friend of foe,
said something like that about us?  But
that kind of care for one another is what
the humility of Christ is all about.  When
you look at the task, it seems too big.  Who
could care for others like that?  How could
you take care of yourself and do this?
Doing this would consume all of our time
and energy and our resources!  We would
be left with nothing!

And the answer of God would be -
"Precisely!"  The mind of Christ is the
attitude of humility marked by love.  He
loved us so much that He endured the loss
of all things.  He was willing to even set
aside the glory of being God to take on our
human flesh and blood and human nature.
He loved us so much that He was willing to
endure the assault of human sinfulness
while He lived a perfect and sinless life.  His
love was so deep that He was willing to take
our sin on Himself and endure the wrath of
God against us, so that we will never need
to.  The passion and the cross were truly
terrible, and the wrath of God which
caused Him to abandon His only-begotten
Son to bleed and die on the cross alone is
beyond our comprehension, and the
humility of Jesus Christ led Him to do all of
that so that we might be forgiven, justified,
and brought into the love of God by grace,
and adopted into His family as not merely
slaves, but as brothers!  His resurrection
and eternal life are also ours.  It is won for
all men, and poured out on all and truly
possessed by those that trust God and
believe His Word and love.  "He that believes
and is baptized, shall be saved!

And Paul exhorts us to have the same
attitude   the True Humility of Jesus.  Paul
is inspired to remind us of the reward for
Jesus, for His humility and obedience to
the will and plan of the Father;  Therefore
also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him
the name which is above every name, that at the
name of Jesus EVERY KNEE SHOULD BOW, of
those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under
the earth, and that every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father.

His glory was increased, and His joy,
by enduring the things God set before Him
on the path of the will of God.  And what is
the will of God?

Just as it was for Jesus, it will be for
us as well.  We will not lose by imitating
His humility.  It is true, you may well be
left with nothing, but that would be nothing
of this world, not nothing at all   and you
will be leaving behind everything of this
world one day soon, anyhow.  Imitating the
attitude of Jesus receives the same good
pleasure of God.  The blessings are not the
same, of course, just as the tasks we will
perform are not the same.  But God will
also reward our true humility with a true
glory of our own and bless us each with life
eternal   and that in glory beyond our
comprehension.  Whatever we may have is
what God has given us to use in His
service.  The truth is that He may not
require every blessing and every treasure be
given up and poured out for Him upon our
neighbor.  But even if He did, it would be
well worth it.  Jesus said so, in Matthew
19, and in Mark 10, "Truly I say to you, there
is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters
or mother or father or children or farms, for My
sake and for the gospel's sake,  but that he shall
receive a hundred times as much now in the
present age, houses and brothers and sisters and
mothers and children and farms, along with
persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life."

We will not lose treasures, we will not
lose joys, we will not lose our lives, but gain
them, and far more.  Any loss we may
suffer now is but for a time, and the reward
and the joys will be forever.  God has
promised to return and repay all of our
losses.  We will not lose a thing, only,
perhaps, delay the enjoyment for a time.
And it is all so that God may work through
us just as He did through Jesus   that His
will might be fully accomplished for us and
those to whom God would have us bring
the good news.

But this attitude is not something you
or I can do on our own.  I am not telling
you to grit your teeth and work it up in
yourself and do the unpleasant.  I am
encouraging you to live in the light of the
truth of the Gospel.  God loves you, and He
will provide.  He knows everything you
need, and everything you do.  And to
strengthen us and encourage us and
enable us to possess the mind of Christ, He
has left us this meal.  Here we receive the
very body and the true blood of our Lord
Jesus.  We take Him into us and are
cleansed and forgiven and strengthened
and renewed so that we might walk before
Him as faithful children and diligent
servants.  Here, in this Holy Supper, is the
will and the ability to think like Jesus.  The
power and the humility are here too.  Here
God would feed us with this precious and
life-giving food and strengthen our faith,
and increase our love, and enable us to do
His will from the heart.

So, come, eat and drink and be
strengthened and cleansed and prepared.
Let God feed your souls as He does your
bodies, and make you able to change your
mind, by the power of the Holy Spirit, so
that you will be able to think like Jesus.
You cannot outrun God's goodness or out-
give His generosity or overestimate the care
and concern which God has for you.  What
God is saying through Paul, and through
me this morning, is walk in the light of the
love of God, and live true Humility.  Trust
God to be your supply, and take care of one
another.  Live as though God has given you
everything you need, and He has placed
you here to love and take care of one
another, and to share His love with those
who have not yet believed.  Then you will
also find true Glory, for the glory of God is
that He did all that He accomplished in
Jesus Christ -  for sinners - for you and for
me.   Have this attitude in yourselves which was
also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in
the form of God, did not regard equality with God
a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking
the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the
likeness of men.  And being found in appearance
as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death, even death on a
cross.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost.

                                                                           (Let the people say Amen)