Debtor Support Ministry

Oh, and here is the cross once again given to us to behold, to take seriously the cost and the pain that is part of the package that we often turn away from. The cross which hits all of us straight between the eyes as the reality and power of God. For the cross pleads with us to follow Jesus, as we are called to die in order to live.

A way of following Jesus Christ that is central to the Augsburg Confession is a concern that the church be shaped by the Gospel--the good news of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

What does it mean to be shaped by the Gospel? This sort of following of Jesus Christ is a reality that we humans would do almost anything to avoid, to ignore, to escape, to evade.

I would rather always have a healthy son or daughter, but even as Isaac is sick today I believe that God is most fully present with Isaac in his sickness. This doesn't mean that Isaac will necessarily get better, but I believe and trust that God is good and God will bring health to Isaac. But that doesn't mean it will happen.

That reality of following Jesus Christ is this: We are called to die in order to live. Luther called this reality the theology of the cross, and this day is an appropriate day to speak on such things.

Its opposite is the theology of Glory, which is any way to live a religious life without "dying" or "emptying", any way to worship Jesus Christ without radical obedience. What great teachers of Lutheran tradition have called…the word or message without the cross, admiring Christ instead of following Christ, cheap grace rather than costly grace. The theology of the cross is meeting God where God chooses to find us. The theology of the cross is hearing God's gracious word manifest in the death of Jesus on the cross and then following Jesus in his death and resurrection.

Luther's phrase "the word without the cross" refers to the announcement of God's mercy and forgiveness without the call to obedience. Its opposite is the cross without the word--the legalism of the medieval church which demanded obedience without offering the gracious word of justification.

Following Jesus in his death and resurrection means our baptism becomes the overpowering event in our lives, the event which tells us who we are and how we are to live.

In Baptism we died. Our turned-in-on-self was crucified and buried with Christ to live as new human beings in a new order of existence. Daily we return to our Baptism. Our turned in on self life dies again and the new human being, the Christ-Self is raised again to live in the new order of existence. As we die with Christ and are raise with Christ in Baptism and as this death and resurrection event is renewed each day, the pattern of Jesus life becomes our pattern for our lives-both our individual lives and our life together as the church. Jesus no becomes our no. Jesus yes becomes our yes. Jesus said no to the way of glory-the way of establishing the reign of God by any other way than dying on a cross. Jesus rejected using personal charisma, weapons, miracles, rewards, reason all normal ways of promoting even a righteous cause.

A theology of the cross, i.e. the message about the cross, i.e. Jesus lifted up so that those who believe in him have eternal life, we share the no of Jesus when we reject:

• religion which proves itself by miracles, answered prayer, worldly blessings, fulfilled prophecy, or rational thought.

• religion which validates itself by worldly standards of success, strength, and effectiveness.

• religion which uses worldly power techniques to make history come out right or to force society to fit a certain definition of righteousness.

• religion which promises certitude, life without questions or risk, a security often provided by an infallible leader or infallible book.

• religion which asks us to only believe doctrines about God rather than introducing us to a living God who calls for radical change.

• religion which offers the joy of living with Jesus without facing our sinful ways our egotistical over consumptive earth destroying people oppressing patterns of life.

• religion which offers the personal salvation without living, serving, growing, struggling, and celebrating the body of Christ, the church.

• religion which avoids the pervasive biblical themes of sharing food with the hungry, caring about the poor and oppressed, living as good stewards of God's creation.

• religion which fulfills our human need to have higher status than others, to be better than others, to have "outsiders" or "unbelievers" to despise.

• religion which provides divine approval for the assumptions of a particular nation, culture, society, economic system or race.

• religion which provides a way we can bargain for, work for or earn our status as saved persons.

• religion which teaches "going to heaven when I die" as the main reason to believe in God.

• religion which avoids teaching that the cross is both the sacrificial atoning act of Christ and the example of the way of life we are to follow.

We are called to die in order to live. Baptized into Christ, we reject, as Jesus did, the theology of Glory. So as we are called to live in the cross of Christ how might be practice what we preach. One opportunity is the crop walk which is just around the corner. On September 28th raise money to give to people without the means to support themselves and by doing this you validate your very call in Christ Jesus our Lord for Jesus said yes to the way of the cross-the way of submission to the will of the Father, absolute trust in the Father, dedication to human liberation, solidarity with human pain, and freedom to be human, weak, and vulnerable.

In the cross Jesus said yes to the way of the Father which seems foolish to human minds reminding us yet again of our texts from 1 Corinthians and John yet in the resurrection the Father said yes to the way of Jesus. Now Jesus Christ lives and calls us to follow his Yes, the way of the cross, the path of submission to the will of the Father is that we are to obey the Father by dying daily to our own wills and rising to live in joyful submission to the will of God. I will say it again. Now Jesus Christ lives and calls us to follow his Yes, the way of the cross, the path of submission to the will of the Father is that we are to obey the Father by dying daily to our own wills and rising to live in joyful submission to the will of God. We discern this will as the Holy Spirit draws us to Christ-the Christ in scripture. In every situation we follow the crucified one. Servanthood replaces dominion and forgiveness replaces hostility. We obey even when the way of love is costly, difficult, unpopular or even illegal because we live in absolute loyalty to the one who leads us Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. We are called to die in order to live.

We live by trust and not by certainty. No knowing if our actions will produce the best results, we boldly act and then boldly trust God's forgiveness if we are wrong. We live in ambiguity. Life is joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, good and evil, health and sickness. Having no proof that God cares, we take the "leap of faith." We trust that God is good, that God means us well. We even face death, the end of our striving, clinging, only to the promise we believe-God is good.

I will always pray for those who are sick. My son or your son, my daughter or wife or your daughter or wife, even if the prayer is not answered as I would have it be answered. For God is good. Until death we obey, even if we see no results. We trust that God will bring the Shalom, the peace. We are not called to be effective, only faithful. Let us pray: O Lord bring us a deep sense of your mission in our lives touch us to live in the word about the cross so that we might accept each other in the love you have given us. Amen.

Humanity is on a cross. Most people on earth suffer from hunger, poverty or oppression. The few societies which are well off are plagued by an emptiness never filled by frantic grasping for more and more or by futile attempts to keep what they have. In the midst of this crucified humanity, we live in God's future. We joyfully live the life of God's coming salvation, the age of shalom or peace where the hungry are fed, the sick are healed, sinners are forgiven, prisoners released, the poor hear good news, the rich joyfully give away their possessions, enemies are loved, all peoples share the bounty of God's earth, humans live in unity with all of nature, all creation worships the creator Lord. The powers of this world may rise up to crush such free and joyful living but we do not fear. They can take nothing from us, for the kingdom of God is ours forever! For we are called to die in order to live.

We boldly walk into the darkness of human existence. There we face our own sin, our own self centeredness. We also face the collective sin of our church, our cities, our state, our nation, our western society, our world. In the darkness we meet the suffering God who bears the sin of the world. This God does not crush us. Rather, God forgives us and gives us the gift of the new time of salvation. New direction! We join the crucified Christ in his solidarity with the pain of the world. We live in the world as Little Christ's!!! We are called to die in order to live.

Trusting our heavenly Father, we depend on him for our strength, our security, our validation. Thus the game is over. We are Free! Free to embrace our humanity and to walk as creatures of this earth. Free to be weak, to be honest, to be interdependent, to be vulnerable, and Yes!!! to love. We are free to live at the foot of the cross!

At the foot of the cross true community is born. Here at the cross, we realize that we are on our knees as beggars with other beggars. It was Martin Luther two days before he died that wrote that "we are beggars, that is true!" We need Christ. We need each other. God acts and makes us into a family of needy human beings. Here at the cross, and only at the cross do we understand the joyful good news…We are justified by grace through faith, where we are called to die in order to live.

We follow the way of the cross. Baptized into Christ, dying and rising with him, we share his rejection of a theology of glory and his acceptance of a theology of the cross the way of radical, vulnerable, risking, trusting, obedient, self surrendering, joyful submission to the will of God. This is the Biblical way of following in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.