Earthly Road, Heavenly Walk

Do we have the courage to stand up for our faith? Do we have the courage to make that stand for that testimony that our lives tell?

Those who laid the foundations of the Reformation, those who stood up during it, they trusted in God and He sustained and protected them amidst his great love, and divine mercy. There some may have died but they knew “to live is Christ, to die gain.”

Within our faith do we have the same courage and will we show it when put to the test?

Readings:

Psalm 16 Psalm 46 Ephesians 6:10-18 John 16:1-14

Sermon:

“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:31-36

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

“For ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free…”

Though he had felt the truth work through him as scribbled on that page late at night, the candles burning at his eyes, though he felt a sense of freedom he had never felt before, a sense of freedom he never felt as his soul cried out in torture and torment, it quickly evaporate with every long step he took towards that Cathedral. The story of Jan Hus was probably whispered through the halls of the monastaries and churches. Burned alive at the stake for challenging the authority of the church it was warning to those who might dare to rise up, to stand up and question those prevailing and prevelant thoughts of their day. For John Wycliffe, the spiritual mentor of Hus, his death wouldn’t be as grostesque, he would be allowed to live out his days. But death would come and so would the desecration of his grave. For his heresy his remains burned and thrown into the River Swift as to try and prevent his bodily resurrection.

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We can not be only worried about our outward appearances.

Let’s face it, often times we are so concerned with how we look to the world we sometimes forget how we are on the inside. Yet there we much find ourselves striving to be the people that are are called to be, showing kindness, compassion, humbleness and humility in our daily walks. We must strive to live our lives not that we may cast our judgments on others but so that we may edify and uplift them.

We should not live as the hypocrite lives, saying one thing and being another, or saying one thing and living as another. We must submit ourselves completely to God’s will knowing that through his spirit we will become that which we must be.

Readings

Psalm 49 Ezra 6:1-22 Revelation 11:14-12:6 Luke 11:37-52

Sermon:

When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. But the Pharisee, noticing that Jesus did not first wash before the meal, was surprised.

Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? Luke 11:37-40

You could almost imagine…

You could almost imagine the unimpressed look that the Pharisee gave him as he sat for dinner. On the road much of the time he probably never had many opportunities to wash his clothes, he perhaps looked a bit dusty, maybe even a little bit dirty, and then, as he took his seat at the table, the washtub was left untouched.

But then for that Pharisee, it wasn’t just a matter of hygiene, it was matter of the law. The Levitical Code that governed his life, that governed his every step, his ever move, it had rules about every aspect of dining, it had rules about every aspect of the cleanliness. To see this man, this supposed teacher, this one that so many called Rabbi sit at his table without taking the necessary steps or abiding in the necessary customs, it was perplexing to him and perhaps even a little bit offensive.

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