There is no question about the fact that Christians are commanded by the Lord to know His joy in Christ (Philippians 4). With the Holy Spirit one cannot help but know a new assurance and confidence in life, because the Lord is at your side and He has promised never to leave nor forsake you.

At the same time, there is more to the story of our lives. We continue to bear our sinful nature (the old man, the flesh) and this means that sin is still wrapped around our necks. And this means that we resist the good things of God…even the blessed vocations we have been studying over the Lenten season.

Tonight — on this 38th day of Lent — we move into a vocation that we hardly ever hear about: being a Communicant, one who regularly and frequently receives The Lord’s Supper. Why do we? Because we are tired and we are weak in faith; we do so because we so often fail miserably in our other vocations. These things, however, are ironically used as reasons to stay away from the Supper…until we do better and until we feel more “qualified” or “deserving.” Banish these thoughts! Holy Communion is for the weak in faith; the Sacrament of the Altar that Christ gave on the first Holy Thursday is for those who feel as failures in the other things they are called to do since sin pervades in those things too. Receiving Communion is perhaps the most powerful way of confessing that you still need Jesus as much as ever!

Come tonight, thirsty for God’s grace; come eager for the forgiveness of sins!

Here is an excerpt from tonight’s sermon:

Sermon

“To Communicants”

Rev. Dr. Alfonso O. Espinosa

 

          Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. We have been journeying through a series on section 3 of Luther’s Small Catechism called “Table of Duties.” We had guest pastors during this 2014 Lenten pulpit exchange and I’ve come home from the congregations I visited — over the last several Wednesday nights — eager to ask my wife Traci, “So how did it go?” I’ve enjoyed my wife’s summaries to me. Her reports are pretty interesting. They have included giving me a sense of attendance, perceptions about the music, special comments made by the guest pastor, etc., but the most important aspect has been her evaluation of the sermons and one thing my wife looks for is a balance between Law and Gospel.

 

Often times there are assumptions made that if one is going to preach on the “Table of Duties,” then obviously there must be – as even sheer logic would seem to dictate – preponderance on law. After all the table of duties are about your vocations; how you live in this world whether you are a parent, a child, a worker, a student, an athlete, a musician, a citizen, etc. These are the roles and functions the Lord has given to each of us and we all have several vocations. In all of them, we must live out our faith. This implies action and action implies — to the Christian anyway — living in accord with God’s law. How does one live as a husband? How does one live as a wife? How does one live as a child? A student? A friend? The inherent task here invites a description of what you do…and what you do – esp. if you do it in faith – will seek to honor God’s law in relation to whatever it is you’re doing.

 

But I’d like to back up to challenge (somewhat) this assumption…which is not to say that it is all wrong, because indeed you must live out and act out your vocations, but…there is an unfortunate tendency in all of us to think in terms of the “God stuff” (that I’ll put in a box over here) and then the “me stuff” or the “my stuff” that I’ll put in another box over there. The “God stuff” box will include my Bible, my worship attendance, and all of the things about faith…and when I’m feeling esp. inspired, I will take more time to pray; or think “God thoughts”…but for the rest of the time, we are going to live in the other box. The “me stuff” or “my stuff” box and for this box we don’t really need the God stuff. The my stuff is everything else in this world and in my life…these are the things that are up to me; these are the things that require my energy, my attention, my time, my effort, my ingenuity. Just like when I carry out my vocations: these things depend on me and who can blame even the well meaning pastor when what ensues about such things is an emphasis on Law (well maybe you should blame the pastor since he’s called to preach the Word of God accurately)!

 

But the God stuff and my stuff box division is all wrong. Know this clearly Christian: there is nothing you have and nothing you do that is not from God. And while this seems fairly simple to grasp intellectually, we have a way of forgetting it in the middle of our vocations. God enables you to breathe, God enables you to have faith; God has created your physical body; God has created your living spirit. The Word of God says, “In [God] we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28). That is our whole lives are permeated with grace (The Father giving good gifts motivated by love and mercy through His Son).

 

By grace you are saved through faith in Christ. By grace you have clothes on your back. By grace you have food. By grace you are enabled to put the food in your mouth, chew the food, and digest the food. But what is even more profound and amazing when it comes to vocation — whatever you do in whatever role you have in life — is that it is God Himself living and acting in and through you. When mom changes a diaper for her baby, God changes the diaper; when dad gets lunch for his kids, God gets lunch for His kids; when a teacher teaches, God is equipping the students; when a plumber fixes your water leak, God fixes your water leak.

 

Ezekiel once recorded God’s message to His people which brings out this grace-orientation of our whole lives (when you hear “I” it is God speaking and describing what He will do): “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you…And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27)

 

God does it all. Christ is both our justification – the One upon whom God’s declaration of “righteous!” upon you is based – and Christ is our sanctification – the source of our lives set apart to God to live in His service and to His glory. Christ is the life of those truly living; Christ is your life!

In Jesus’ Love,

Pastor Espinosa