APRIL 20, 2008  SERMON ARCHIVE

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our heavenly Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, AMEN.

The text for this morning¡¯s meditation is the Gospel reading for this 5th Sunday of Easter, John 14:1-10, particularly verses 3 through 6 There we read these words:

Jesus said, ¡®And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.¡¯ Thomas said to Him, ¡®Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?¡¯ Jesus said to him, ¡®I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.¡¯" In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear Friends in Christ! Have you noticed that there are certain things that you just cannot say anymore without reprisal in the current social climate in which we live? I am not talking about racial slurs and the like, things that we should have never learned to say to begin with, rather, I am talking about the new categories of speech that have been coined in our age, wherein we divide words between politically correct and politically incorrect.

Some of the politically correct speech is actually quite humorous. For instance, I was glad to hear that a person who is short can no longer be called short, instead he is to be called "vertically challenged." Other political correctisms are just plain cumbersome. For instance, we are taught that one can no longer use the generic "he" to refer to all of humanity, rather he, and or she, must qualify every reference with the phrase "he and or she."

And still other political correctisms invade and alter our perception of moral standards and moral absolutes. And so, in committed relationships the designations of husband and wife have been replaced with the more encompassing "life partner."

Jesus, of course, would be labeled "politically incorrect" today for saying what He said in John 14 verse 6. "I am the Way, the Truth, and the life" His words are an absolute truth, meaning they are true in every situation and in every age; they do not change. Further, they claim that there is only one Way, one Truth and one Life. As such, His words today would be considered politically incorrect.

To make them acceptable today Jesus would have to have changed the articles in His claim, such that His words would read, "I am a way, a truth and a life." Exclusive claims on anything, you see, are simply forbidden today, particularly when one speaks of the things of faith, which are after-all, the things that are not seen, but believed.

Come to think of it though, Scripture is filled with statements that would be rejected outright today. In fact, the whole of Scripture, as it is the divine revelation of the One True God, the only unchangeable and infallible truth, is rejected outright by an unbelieving or a false believing world. Try these statements of the Word of God in our present social climate.  

"For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due."

How do those words fare in a culture bent on political correctness?

Or these words that are so closely related to the words of Jesus in John 14, "Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father."

My friends, this is the revelation, the truth of God that we have been given. It is a revelation that keeps us on the narrow path by pointing out our sins and by curbing those sins such that we not live in wanton disregard of the will of our creator. It is a revelation that brings the grace of God in the person of Jesus Christ to bear in every circumstance and in every event in life.

In short, it is the Word of Law and Gospel, the Word that tears down and the Word that builds up. It is the Word that condemns the hardened sinner, calling him to repentance, even as it is the Word that consoles the heart of the troubled and trembling believer. It is the Word that stands at odds with the political and social climate of our day, such that its claim to absolute truth is labeled "politically incorrect."

As you take up this mantle of Jesus¡¯ Word, to believe it and to confess it, mark well that you will find yourself persecuted for the sake of it. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews spoke of the price paid by our forefathers in the faith who stood for the word of God, though the culture rejected it. "They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy." Indeed, as you believe and confess this Word of Truth, you will find yourself persecuted for the sake of it.

And yet, the truth never changes, and therefore the same truth that Jesus spoke to a band of trouble disciples some 2,000 years ago, still applies to you and me today. It is a truth that lays before us an exclusive claim on all things good and right. It is a truth that saves the soul and comforts the heart of those who believe it, but that condemns those who reject it.

Jesus says, "I am the Way." Again, all of these individual claims of Jesus are exclusive. I am the Way, He says, meaning He is the only way of salvation. Last week we heard in the Gospel reading that Jesus is the door into the sheep pen. "If anyone enters by Me (Jesus said), he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture."

Forgiveness of sins is the only way into the presence of the God whose eyes are too pure to behold evil. And the only way of forgiveness is the way of the Cross of Jesus Christ. I am the Way (Jesus says), meaning, you needn¡¯t look beyond Him and His Cross. You needn¡¯t strive to earn what He has freely given you. You needn¡¯t suffer under the guilt of sins that He has washed away in His blood. You needn¡¯t amass works to add to the merit of Christ such that by those works you will inherit the mansion that He has prepared for you.

I am the Way (Jesus says), meaning the only Way, the all sufficient Way Further (He says) "I am the Truth." You and I are inundated with this notion that ¡®truth is in the eyes of the beholder.¡¯ We are lead to believe that there is no such thing as absolute truth, that there is no such thing as truth that applies to all generations and all conditions. And yet, Jesus says, "I am the Truth." It is more than a claim about the quality of His words, rather, it is a claim about His person.

Jesus is THE TRUTH. He is incapable of deceit and incapable of lies. He is the source of all that right and good and perfect. As such, He is the One who sets us free from the deceit of world, the deceit of our own sinful flesh and the deceit of the devil Himself. "And you will know the truth (Jesus said elsewhere), and the truth shall make you free, for if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed."

I am the Truth (Jesus says), meaning I am the only Truth, the all sufficient Truth.

And finally He says, "I am the Life." Oh, how many cheap substitutes for life the world offers us. And yet there is only one true Life. "I have come (Jesus said) that they may life and that they may have it abundantly." To live is to live in communion with the God of all creation, it is to be reconciled to Him by the blood of His Son. To live is to know that "..neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." With such great love we gladly believe and confess that in Jesus that we live and move and have our very being.

I am the Life (Jesus says), meaning I am the only Life, the all sufficient Life.

And while it is true that "...no one comes to the Father except through Me," it is conversely true that everyone who is in Me, that is to say, everyone who has been called out of this sinful world by the Word of the Gospel, will come into the eternal presence of the Father. That truth is absolute, it transcends feelings, cultures, times and even the dictates of political correctness. It is the word for which you will be persecuted today, but it is also the word by which you will be saved. And so ask the Lord for the intestinal fortitude to believe and to confess that which you have so graciously been given.

Indeed, May glorious truths that we have heard,

The bright lance of your mighty Word,

Spurn Satan that your Church be strong,

Bold, unified in act and song.

The cause is yours, the glory too.

Then hear us, Lord, and keep us true,

Your Word alone our heart¡¯s defense,

The Church¡¯s glorious confidence.

Christ Is Risen

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.