3nd Sunday after Pentecost, ??06
In the Name of JESUS!
Sir, we would see JESUS!

Emmanuel (6/25)
John 15: 12-17

The inspired Word of God on which I base today??s sermon is found in John 15, beginning at verse 12, the words of our loving Savior:

?¨This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what His master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it you. These things I command you, so that YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER.?Æ 

Beloved people of Christ, will you pray with me?

Heavenly Father, in the gift of our Savior You have loved us with an everlasting love that will not let us go. Through Christ Jesus, You have told us to love one another as He first loved us. Graciously forgive us wherever we have failed to do so. Help us by the power of the Spirit to trust that Jesus?? love is so perfect that He already has forgiven us. As we meditate upon Your Word this day, help us more readily to be doers of Your Word and not just hearers by showing genuine love and concern for all people whom our lives touch. When we fail, graciously restore us and mend the wounds we have afflicted upon others with our neglect, animosity and lack of love in action; for we pray in Christ??s name. Amen. 
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In the name our dear Savior, beloved children of the Heavenly Father:

I suspect that the vast majority of us, other than our youngest children, have heard the patriotic motto, ?¨United We Stand; Divided We Fall,?Æ more than once in our lifetime. There??s a great deal of truth in that patriotic line for free nations if we quickly add: ?¨We stand under God??s blessing and forgiveness!?Æ For our Lord bluntly states in Proverbs, ?¨Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.?Æ [Proverbs 14:34] It isn??t just the news we read or hear on TV that quickly unmasks sin and wickedness in our beloved country. No, an honest appraisal of our actions or inactions, made with the help of the Holy Spirit, would lead us to confess, ?¨Our own sin is a horrid shame and disgrace. Like God??s people of old we rebel against our holy God and do not deserve His mercy.?Æ It??s relatively easy to mouth the words, ?¨I am a sinner,?Æ without considering the degree of our own sordid corruption. It??s hard to get beyond the surface to the depths of our depravity.

Perhaps this may help. If I were to say to you, ?¨In a moment I??m going to stand there in front of the altar. Everyone who wants to come up and slap Jesus in the face and spit on Him, get in line behind me. We??ll take turns hurting Him.?Æ How many of you would form a line behind me to do just that? I hope no one! I trust your reaction was a thought something like this: GOD FORBID! Yet that is precisely what happens each time we fail to love other people in thoughts, words, and actions, including those who have hurt our friends and us. It occurs each time we sin against our holy and righteous God.

Jesus not only gave us the Golden Rule, which mandates that we treat others in the exact same way we wish to be treated. Remember also our Savior??s clear statement, ?¨Whatsoever you have done to one of the least of these My brothers, you have done to Me.?Æ [Matthew 25:40] When Jesus originally spoke these words, our Savior said He would say them on the Day of Judgment in commendation of the redeemed people of the Lord. Christ will praise His saints because all sinful failings were cleansed by our Savior??s blood. Nevertheless, these very words are also judgment upon our sinful treatment of others. They remind us that it??s more than other people we hurt. We break Jesus?? heart each time we do evil, nasty things. Likewise when we fail to do a loving act of kindness, not do a helpful deed nor speak an edifying word that, too, is like slapping Jesus in the face and nailing Him once again to the cross.

You see, beloved, we need with the Lord??s help to recognize that every Christian ?± young and old ?± is in the midst of a terrible war ?± a spiritual war. In that on-going conflict, Satan and all his cohorts, the fallen world around us, and our own sinful nature are trying their level best to lead us to hurt others and ultimately God Himself. There is a line in a ballad from the days when I was courting my dear wife-to-be that is true all too often, ?¨You always hurt the one you love.?Æ This is so in each failure to love others, for we break the heart of our dear Savior.

Tragically this occurs not only among family and friends or among neighbors and acquaintances at work. It??s also true within Christ??s Church on earth. Mean, ugly words and remarks get spoken to or about other believers. Name calling and labeling of other folks takes place. Instead of going to others who may have wronged us to try to settle things, the gossip mill is active too much of the time. Sometimes our telephone lines are filled with such hot, angry, vindictive words that I wonder why the wires don??t melt. Past hurts are nursed for all their worth, rather than truly forgiving and loving one another in the household of faith. Instead of speaking words that edify one another, which look at things in the best possible light, ?¨putting the best construction on everything,?Æ in keeping with the spirit of the 8th Commandment, we have the tendency to try to make others look their very worst. And all this from us is nothing less that damnable sin. 

Do we ever see this quickly in others! But the problem is not just others. It??s ME, YOU, YOU, AND YOU THAT IS ALSO THE PROBLEM! We so quickly get defensive and full of denial. How true the clich?à that my dear departed Dad used to often repeat as I was growing up, ?¨The devil works the hardest where he has the most to gain ?± in the Church!?Æ Satan doesn??t have to worry about other people. They are already his. No wonder non-believers in their false piety view Christians as being nothing but a bunch of hypocrites.

So, what??s to be done? The place to start is seeking the Spirit??s help to be honest about our own sinfulness and to confess that to our merciful Lord. Stop thinking about other people who should be doing this. Consider your own deep need to confess, just as I must. Jesus who doesn??t break His promises said, ?¨Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.?Æ [Matthew 11: 28] When we turn to Him with sorrow for our sins, Christ has assured us, ?¨Whoever comes to me, I will not cast out.?Æ [John 6: 37b] He will not turn away from you. Wonder of wonders, instead of labeling us as His enemies, our loving Savior, calls us ?± sinners that we are, ?¨Friends!?Æ And well He can, for the very purpose of His suffering and dying was to wash all of our sins away ?± for time and eternity! Why, now Scripture even calls us sons and daughters of the King of heaven!

How did all this come to be? Jesus told His disciples and us in our text today, ?¨You did not choose Me, but I chose you.?Æ [john 15: 16a] The Bible consistently depicts our salvation as being 100% God??s work and the Lord??s deliverance. It was Jesus ?± all alone, who gave up His life for us. He gained the victory over hell and death through His resurrection without any human help. Even our coming to trust Jesus as our Savior and Friend started with God??s changing our minds and heart. St. Paul put it this way, ?¨No one can say JESUS IS LORD, but by the Holy Spirit.?Æ [1 Corinthians 12: 3b] What an amazing God we have who loves us so very much and doesn??t give up on His wayward friends!

Our loving Savior told us that He not only has chosen us to be His forgiven friends, He went on to say, ?¨I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear much fruit and that your fruit remains.?Æ [John 15: 16b] How do we do that? We need to pause to humbly thank God for what He has already accomplished among us in enabling us to love others in our own families and elsewhere ?± especially here at Emmanuel. Our congregation is indeed a caring gathering of the saints of God on earth. There??s our Prayer Chain and Prayer Lists, Helping Hands, meals prepared for ABCCM homeless clients, providing a Christian Day School for more than our own members, so many volunteers in our overall Christian Education programs on Sundays and weekdays and on our other ministry teams, the Stephen Ministry, LWML, our Katrina cleanup crew, Manna Food volunteers, Bushwhackers and the like. In my 11 years here as a member of Emmanuel I often marvel at the caring for one another that has taken place often behind the scenes. Without a doubt the Spirit of the living God has been moving among us. However, none of us is perfect until through Jesus?? grace and pardon we are called home to our Savior??s side in heaven. Till then every one of us with God??s help needs to grow in the grace of forgiving and loving one another, including those who have hurt others and us.

Our blessed Savior points to one of the Lord??s gifts to help us grow in showing Christ??s love to others in His words to us today. Remember how Jesus said that He has chosen us, ?¨so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it you.?Æ So, as the called servant of our Lord Jesus Christ, let me ask you, ?¨When was the last time you prayed that YOU ?± not someone else ?± but YOU would be helped by the Holy Spirit to show more love in action in your life??Æ I know that many of you have been praying that someone else would be more loving, but when did you ask that for yourself? Certainly in love we need to pray for others?? capacity to love more often and genuinely. However, recognizing our own sin, we need to ask our gracious God to accomplish the same gift to be more Christ-like in our loving others also and to blot out our fixating on the shortcomings of others. Lord, help us so to pray!

In His great love our Lord also arms us for battle as He nourishes us both with the Lord??s Supper and as we spend time in His Word. When we find bitterness within us and a tendency to keep on thinking and talking about how others fail, it??s time to spend more time with Scripture and faithfully to participate in worship and Holy Communion. Lord, feed us with Your Word and Christ??s holy body and blood! Then others will note the way Christ helps us to love one another. Then, too, we shall marvel at how our awesome God has changed our focus from bitterness and accusations to forgiving others, loving our Lord and one another as Christ has loved us. Amen.

To GOD alone be glory!


© The Reverend Frederick A. Stiemke, D.D.
Vacancy Pastor, Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Asheville, NC
June 25, 2006