MARCH 15, 2009  SERMON ARCHIVE

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

The text for our sermon meditation for this morning is from the Epistle of the Day, 1 Corinthians chapter 1. There we read these words:

(1 Cor 1:22-25 NIV) Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, {23} but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, {24} but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. {25} For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.

Dear Christian friends

Everyone wants assurances.

That is why businessmen need signatures on contracts-so that they may be assured the agreement they reach will be carried out as promised.

That is why you purchase life and health insurance policies, why you purchase Individual Retirement Accounts and even why you stock the freezer in the fall.

It would be very unfair to suggest that assurances are fundamentally wrong. It is not a sin that a child needs to be cradled and hugged, or that those who lie on their death beds want the assurance of someone's hand to hold while facing their departure from this life.

Yes, "Jews demand miraculous signs" (1 Corinthians 1:22), as St. Paul has written in today's epistle, but it has also been God's habit through the ages to provide miraculous signs for His people-and He provides them in order to give them assurances.

In the days of the Judges, for example, the prophet Gideon was called by God to go out to war against Israel's enemy. "'But Lord,'" Gideon asked, 'how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manassah, and I am the least in my family. If now I have found favor in Your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me'" (Judges 6:15, 17).

This is the sign the LORD provided: "Gideon said to God, 'If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised- look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.' And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew-a bowlful of water.

Then Gideon said to God, 'Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.' That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew" (Judges 6:36-40). Gideon in his weakness needed assurances from God, and God in His mercy and strength answered the prayer. Everyone wants assurances.

"Greeks look for wisdom," writes St. Paul, but again, it has also been the habit of God through the ages to open His hand and provide wisdom to those who ask. As it is written in St. James, "If anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask of God, Who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him" (James 1:5).

This was King Soloman's very prayer: "Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong" (1 Kings 3:7-9). In other words, "Give me wisdom, O LORD!"

So what is wrong with the fact that "Jews demand signs and Greeks demand wisdom" (1 Corinthians 1:22)? Asking for the sign and asking for the wisdom is not the problem. Refusing to believe the sign and the wisdom that are given is.

It is undeniable: everyone wants-everyone needs-assurances. What need for assurance draws you together here in worship? What compels you to gather here and what sign do you seek in this place?

Do you seek the wisdom necessary to chart your way through a world thick with temptation and vice?

Do you desire assurance that daily life will not overwhelm and devour you, no matter how difficult things may become?

Do you seek the comfort and assurance that you truly are chosen and holy people, despite that incessant, inescapable knowledge of your sin and depravity?

Know this, dear Christian friends: Asking for the sign and asking for the wisdom is not the problem.

What is wrong is the temptation we all have from time to time, the temptation to refuse to believe the sign and the wisdom that comes in answer to your prayers. The sign and wisdom given you by God is this: "Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles" (1 Corinthians 1:22).

If you want the assurance of God's wisdom, it is found in the crucifixion and death of your Savior Jesus Christ, or as Paul calls Him, "Christ the power and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24).

If you seek comfort and assurance against your fear of death, you need only look to "Christ crucified," the One Who offered His life into death so that as the writer to the Hebrews says, "by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death-that is, the devil-and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death" (Hebrews 2:14-15).

This is the Gospel! This is the center, the heart and the core of your salvation. This is the answer to all of your prayers. That Christ has been crucified! And he was crucified for your sins and for mine. This is why Paul writes to the Romans these words:

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

It may appear foolish to some. What power is there in weakness? What life is there in death? Yet for the children of God, those who themselves have entered into the death and resurrection of Jesus by virtue of their baptism, "Christ [the] crucified" is not stumbling block, but He is the stairway to heaven.

By the baptismal blessing of God, you have been given new eyes to see, new ears to hear, new hearts to believe, and in the cross there is for you no foolishness in this, the highest wisdom of God. As it is written here, "the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength" (1 Corinthians 1:25).

Everyone wants assurances. Your heavenly Father loves you so much that He has given them to you. "Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread. And when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them saying, "Take, eat. This is My body which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me." After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, and He gave it to them saying, "Drink it, all of you. This cup is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the remission of sins. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of Me."

Do not seek any sign or assurance other than those God has given. Do not think this of this holy meal as foolishness. See here in the elements of bread and wine "Christ the power and the wisdom of God." In these things you have your greatest and most complete assurance, this side of heaven, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail.

In this you have all the assurance you will ever need, Christ Is Risen.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

And may the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.