PASTOR'S MESSAGE

   

“Imperishable Seed”

1 Peter 1:17-25

 (Preacher: Reverend Gary L. Buss)

 

After a recent move, Sam made up a list of companies, agencies and services that needed to know his new address and phoned each one to ask for the change to be made.  Everything went smoothly until Sam called one of his frequent flier accounts.  After he explained to the representative what he wanted to do, the woman said: “I’m sorry, but we can’t do that over the phone.  You’ll have to fill out our change of address form.”  A little exasperated, Sam asked:  “Okay, how do I get one of those?”  “We’d be happy to provide you with one,” the woman said pleasantly.  “If you give me your new address I’ll mail it to you?”

In a funny way, that story reminds us that our life in this world is very transitory.  People are constantly changing their address, moving from place to place.  And espeically as Christians we know that we have no permanent house on earth – our real Home is in Heaven.  St. Peter touched on that same thought in our Epistle lesson for today, when he said”  “conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.”  or as some translations put it, “Live your lives as strangers here.” 

            To be sure, as believers in Christ we are like exiles or strangers, living in a foreign land.  As a matter of fact, the term that Peter used in our text means: ‘to take up temporary residence.’  It was used to describe someone who had not been granted the rights of citizenship – like an immigrant or alien.  Essentially, it meant that they had another home-land.  And that’s exactly how it is for you and me.  For as St. Paul reminds us in Philippians 3:20, “our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

            In other words, my friends, you and I are citizens of heaven, not of earth, which means that we are to leave behind the sinful ways of this world, and pattern our lives after the godly ways of heaven.  As heavenly citizens, we forfeit our rights, in order to live by God’s rights.  Or to put it more simply – to obey His will.  That’s what Peter meant, when he encouraged us to ‘conduct ourselves in reverent fear.’  It’s worth noting that the verb ‘conduct’ actually means: ‘to turn around.’  It was a military term for the soldier’s ‘about-face’ or the cry that would rally the troops.  As soldiers of Christ, we are called to turn away from the lustful passions and ungodly pleasures of this world, and rally around Jesus’ cross in daily repentance and faith.  We are to turn our backs on greed and materialism, forsake gossipping and back-biting, retreat from hatred and prejudice and run straight to the Word and Sacraments, our spiritual wepaons that gird us with comfort and strength.  That is how we live our lives as strangers here in reverent fear.

            You see, that kind of Christian witness is just as important today, if not more so, than it was in St. Peter’s day and age.  That era was a time in which lust and impurity prevailed.  For instance, the Roman poet, Martial, tells us of a woman who had married her tenth husband.  Juvenal talks about a woman who had eight husbands in five years.  And St. Jerome tells us that in Rome there was a woman who was married to her twenty-third husband, she herself being his twenty-first wife.  Then too, in both Greece and in Rome homosexual practices were so common that they had come to be looked upon as natural.  Indeed, it was a world whose aim was to find newer and wilder ways to gratify its lusts.   The principle seemed to be:  if you’re going to die like a dog, you might as well live like a dog!

            Does that sound familiar?  It could almost be taken straight from the headlines of today’s paper.  That’s why our Christian witness – living our lives as strangers here in reverent fear – is so important.  And yet, the temptation for us is to let our witness become clouded  and compromised, or even forgotten altogether.  For we don’t always live the godly lives we should or clearly speak the Gospel as God calls us to.  And that’s because we are contaminated with the same sinful nature as the unbelieving world.  So we, too, struggle with lust in all its various forms, including a lust for power and earthly goods, a lust for pleasure and popularity.  For that reason, our sinful self makes us strangers to God and aliens to His will.  Which means that our rightful inheritance as sinners is not heaven but hell.  The Law of God says that since we live like dogs, we deserve to die like dogs – eternally.  And there is no excuse!

It’s a little bit like the man, who received an expensive parking ticket and testified in court that a uniformed Policeman had given his OK for the man to park there.  The Judge asked the man if he would recognize the Officer if he ever saw him again, and the man replied that he would.  The Judge then said, “Good.  When you see the Officer again, tell him he owes you 57 dollars.  Next...”

            No matter what excuse that man gave, he could not escape the fact that he was guilty – guilty as charged.  And the same is true of you and me.  Our sins make us guilty and condemn us before God, the Righteous Judge.  And no amount of haggling with Hime will get us off the hook.  None of our excuses will set us free.  There is no way we can save ourselves.  But thankfully the Judge Himself, our gracious God, came up with a way  That’s what St. Peter was getting at in our text, when he said that God judges impartially.  And that way is His only Son, Jesus Christ, whom He sent to be our attorney.  You know, Jesus devised the perfect defense strategy.  He claimed that He committed the crime.  And then He took our place and served our time for us, suffered our punishment, when He died on the cross to release us from our bondage to sin, death and hell.  And then rose triumphant from the grave to prove that we are completely exonerated and acquitted.  And that means that nothing can be held against us anymore, because Jesus already paid the penalty. 

In a way, it’s like double indemnity.  Once you’ve paid for the crime, you can’t be convicted of it again, because you’ve already paid the price.  Only in our case, Jesus paid the price for you and me – His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death, to set us free.  So we cannot be convicted any more.  As Peter put it in our text:  “YOU WERE RANSOMED FROM THE FUTILE WAYS INHERITED FROM YOUR FOREFATHERS, NOT WITH PERISHABLE THINGS SUCH AS SILVER OR GOLD, BUT WITH THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST, LIKE THAT OF A LAMB WITHOUT BLEMISH OR SPOT!”

            Jesus is the perfect Lamb of God, without blemish or spot, who sacrificed Himself on the cross, so that by His cleansing blood, we too can be declared innocent – without blemish or spot.  In fact, the Greek text literally says: ‘without blame or disgrace.’  Which means that Jesus has so totatlly erased all our sinful spots and stain, that we no longer have to hang our heads in shame or disgrace.  The blame has been lifted and we are forgiven and free.  That’s how we have been ransomed from our futile, empty way of life. 

But maybe the most wonderful thing about it, is that it’s all a free gift that is poured out to us in our Baptism.  That’s what St. Peter was getting at, when he said:  “YOU HAVE BEEN BORN AGAIN, NOT OF PERISHABLE SEED BUT OF IMPERISHABLE, THROUGH THE LIVING AND ABIDING WORD OF GOD!”  Just as you and I did nothing to be born into this world physically, so we can do nothing to be born again spiritually.  God did it all by His grace, in the saving waters of Holy Baptism.  That’s why in Greek the phrase ‘born again,’ can also be translated as ‘born from above.’  In our Baptism, it was God’s rescuing, redeeming right hand that reached down from heaven above and grabbed hold of us.  He pulled us out of the pit of hell and death, washed away all our sin, and drew us back up into His heavenly kingdom.  And He did it all by His almighty Word, which is the imperishable seed, planted in our heart in Baptism, giving us the gift of faith to believe in Jesus and be saved.  That imperishable seed of God’s Word gives us new life here and now, and the promise of eternal life with Him in heaven some day! 

Perhaps you heard the story this past week of a fifteen-year-old boy, named Alex Koehne from Sag Harbor, NY, who died suddenly last year from what doctors thought was meningitis.  However, his devastated parents took some solace in knowing that his death would give others new life, because organ donation was very important to him.  And so, Alex's liver went to a 52-year-old man.  His pancreas to a 36-year-old woman. And his kidneys went to two different men, one 46 and the other 64.  Unfortunately, a month later, an autopsy revealed that Alex never had meningitis.  He had a rare and fast-moving lymphoma cancer – one that was now working its way through the bodies of four other people.  The organs were removed, but the lymphoma already had killed the recipients of his liver and pancreas. The two kidney patients have survived. But they're now undergoing chemotherapy.  Mrs. Koehne says tearfully:  “When we found out that they died, our hearts went out to them.”  And they want to publicize the story, to prevent others from suffering a similar fate! 

            That’s what you might call perishable seed.  Alex’s parents thought they were bringing life to people by his gift.  But instead it brought death, because he was infected with a deadly disease that he passed on to others.  How good it is to know that although that’s what Adam and Eve passed onto you and me, God has reverswed the course by transplanting into us the imperishable seed of His Word and Spirit, so that we will not perish but have everlasting life!  He as eradicated the deadly disease of our sin, and caused us to be born again with a living hope through our Baptism into Jesus Christ and His resurrection from the dead.  And dear friends, that is what enables and empowers us to live our lives as strangers here in reverent fear.  As St. Peter says, we can do that by loving one another earnestly from a pure heart – reaching out to those in need, giving our donations to support the poor and mission work, lending a helping hand to the elderly, visiting the sick, and witnessing the Gospel wherever we have the chance, sharing the imperishable seed of God’s Word with others.  May God help us to do that each and every day of our lives, for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

             

  

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