Courage
Reformation Sunday
October 28
John 8:31-36
By Pastor Tom Kadel
It has been some week in Southern California, hasn’t it? The firestorm there has destroyed thousands and thousands of homes and businesses in the San Diego area and crippled things there on a scale not seen since Katrina. Several have died.
I have been riveted to the images and the video – virtual tornados of fire! And the firefighters! What courage. Most of us would go nowhere near this kind of danger, would we? It is hard to imagine the conditions that these brave men and women faced.
I have the honor of serving as the Chaplain for the Harleysville Fire Company and I have seen the same kind of courage displayed by those men and women, too. I clearly remember one of my earliest and most sobering sights at a fire scene. A firefighter emerged from inside a burning house and as he turned around to look back in, I could see the back of his bunker jacket. As with everyone else, there were big letters that said “Harleysville.” But this guy’s letters were different. They had substantially melted from the heat inside. I have had that image seared into my mind for these ten years or so. What courage. These are ordinary men and women that work along side us and shop at the same grocery stores and all the rest. But they display courage on a scale that you truly have to see again and again to even begin to sense the depth of.
No one ever said to them that this service would be easy or comfortable or unchallenging or safe. And they know it is not. Yet, they train hard, prepare well and respond faithfully.
Good morning, brothers and sisters. We gather today on Reformation Sunday. It is a special day when we celebrate the courage of some other people who answered not a fire call, but a call from God. It was as if God said to Martin Luther, Phillip Melancthon and others, “Clean up my church. Put out the firestorm of apostasy and wrong doing that has crept into it and restore it to the faithful witness to my Son that it is intended to be.” And they did. No one told them that returning the church to a right understanding and a right practice of the gospel would be easy or comfortable or unchallenging or safe. And they knew it was not. Yet, they found their courage in the presence of Christ in their lives, and followed God’s call. It was, for them, just as life-threatening as fighting the Southern California firestorm is to those firefighters there or to these firefighters here.
Courage is our theme today. I want you to hear some words of Jesus from the 10th Chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. “See,” says Jesus to his disciples, “I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”
Jesus never said to his disciples that following him faithfully would be easy or comfortable or unchallenging or safe. He didn’t hide that from them. The Reformers knew that and trusted that Christ would be with them. Christ didn’t disappoint. So now more than 500 years later, we celebrate their courage and the church Christ recovered through them.
Today is also the second of three Sundays of Stewardship here at CLC. And, brothers and sisters, I want you to understand that there is still a firestorm to fight and it requires your courage. And you have been called to put on the bunker suite of the gospel, the helmet of Christ, and the boots of grace and get into the battle. Who said doing God’s work would be easy or comfortable or unchallenging or safe? Who said that living the gospel in a world that wants to live to its own selfish ends would be a piece of cake? Who said that ending war, making oppression go away, feeding the hungry, battling injustice, fighting systemic poverty here and around the world would be easy? Certainly not Jesus.
To serve Christ is to battle all that is evil and wrong and harmful in the world. To serve Christ is to point out and live in the kingdom of God in our midst. To serve Christ is to collect courage, get guts, and embrace bravery and move toward the firestorms of human sin and failure.
Next Sunday you and I will be offered the opportunity to don our bunker suits and head toward the firestorm. We won’t carry a fire hose. We will carry only Christ. And what will you fight that firestorm with? You will fight it with this Commitment Card.
Did you know that every dollar you give to this church not only helps to put out firestorms right in our own community, but reaches around the world to fight hunger and injustice and Aids. repair calamity, and take the gospel of Jesus Christ to places as yet unreached by Christ’s healing presence? Now a substantial part of that dollar stays right here to keep this base of operations known as Christ Lutheran Church going. For, without this building and this staff and those hymnals and Sunday School materials and all the rest, there would be no place from which to reach out.
But joining with Lutherans from all around the world, you have already been fighting the firestorms of poverty, injustice, hunger, Aids and repairing calamity. And I thank you for that. And I thank God for you.
But we could be doing so much more. A thimble of water doesn’t do much to put out these kinds of fires. So, we are today asking you to be courageous. Have courage and move up at least one step in your giving. Or, better yet, have courage and commit to God 10% of your income to fighting the fires of Satan.
God says, “Go ahead and keep 90% of all I’ve given you, but that 10% -- that tithe – I can make all the difference in the world with it”.
So, why am I calling this courageous? Well, it is, isn’t it? To make that kind of commitment, you’ve got to trust God. You’ve got to trust that God will continue to supply your needs even as you give to supply the needs of others. Remember the feeding of the 5,000 and how there was so much left over? That miracle wasn’t Jesus showing off. It was Jesus showing us all that in the kingdom of God there is enough and plenty left over. You can live on 90% of what God has given you. Of course you can. But it takes faith. And faith takes courage. And courage takes putting on the bunker suit of the gospel.
Will you do it? Will you make that courageous leap of faith? Armed with this Commitment Card you can make a difference all around the world. Come next week, prepared to fight the firestorm of evil in the world. We can do this and still have 90% left over! It’s not a bad deal that God is offering us, is it? Come on, get in on it.
Amen
The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
