SERMON 500

EASTER 6, MAY 20, 21, 2006

ACTS 10: 44-48, PSALM 98, 1 JOHN 5:1-6, JOHN 15:9-17

OUR OWN PRESTIGIOUS APPOINTMENT!

Beloved in the Lord, grace and peace be unto you from God Our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and from the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life.

This is the sixth weekend in Easter, just two weeks away from the festival of Pentecost. Already our lessons, in anticipation of that festival, begin to show forth the work of the promised Spirit.

In the lesson from the book of Acts we see Peter preaching in the house of Cornelius, a Gentile, a Roman army officer and a man of faith. Peter had been summoned by Cornelius. Both Peter and Cornelius had had special messages from God. Cornelius had been instructed to send for Peter. And Peter had been instructed to go. After meeting Cornelius and his family and preaching to them about Christ, the Holy Spirit fell upon that Gentile household who believed the word about Christ. Peter and his companions were amazed. God’s grace and forgiveness was being extended, not to the Jewish people alone, but to all of human kind. They baptized Cornelius and his household then and there. Life for them was certainly filled with the power of the Spirit including many a surprise from God.

As we examine all of our lessons we shall do so under the theme, OUR OWN PRESTIGIOUS APPOINTMENT!

I found the following story in the May issue of Bits and Pieces. “‘Has the steamboat passed by yet?’ a boy asked the man who was fishing off the pier.

‘Not yet,’ said the man. ‘It should be coming along any minute now.’ ‘Good, I can still catch it,’ said the young lad.

‘But the landing is two miles up river,’ said the man, ‘You’ll never make it in time.’

‘I’ll catch it here,’ responded the boy. But the man replied, ‘That boat will not stop here.’

‘Sure it will!’ said the young lad. And as the boat came into view, the boy began waving a red handkerchief.

‘Son, you’re wasting your energy,” said the man. ‘That boat stops only at the ferry landing.”

The boy continued to wave his hanky, until the boat whistle sounded. The boat veered from its course and began to approach the pier where the boy and the man were standing.

‘I don’t believe it.’ said the man, ‘That boat never stops here.’

‘Yeah,’ said the boy with a confident grin, ‘But the captain is my dad.’”

Peter would never ever have dreamed that the grace of Christ would also be extended to the whole Gentile world. He never for a moment thought that the boat that God was steering would pass by and pick up a Roman army officer and his family. But Peter’s eyes were opened that day when the Holy Spirit fell upon that family; when they believed the message about Christ. Everyone who believed would be able to claim God as their Father. What a revelation that was for Peter and the whole Christian community.

Is it not wonderful to know that we can catch the attention of the creator and protector of the universe? We do not even have to wave a red hanky. All that we need to do is to call upon his name. He knows us. He has called us friends, as we hear in the Gospel lesson. Not only that, we are told that we did not choose God, but God has chosen us. We have been chosen in Christ, even before the foundations of the world were laid. God will never pass us by.

So with the Psalmist for the day we can shout for joy to the Lord as well. We can lift up our voices and sing. We can shout before the Lord with joy. The victory is his. The victory is ours in Christ. And the One who holds the universe in his hands will never lose sight of us; will never pass us by.

Last week we heard about an appointment of a distinguished Calgary business man by the Prime Minister. The commons committee who was asked to review the new position being created and the person recommended to receive the appointment turned the man down, saying that he was unfit for this new position. The Prime Minister disbanded the committee and decided not to proceed with the establishment of the position. It turned out to be a bit of an embarrassment for everyone.

We, who have been called friends of Lord Jesus Christ, have been appointed to a most prestigious position. And just what is our own prestigious appointment? We have been appointed as fruit bearers. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it is extraordinarily important. We have been chosen and commissioned to bear fruit, and not any old sort of fruit, but fruit that will last.

When we take on a new position or a new job, the last thing we want to do is fail and see whatever work we have done and whatever we thought we may have accomplished just fade away or be dismissed as irrelevant. We want to do something that counts, something that has meaning for others. Well, we have been appointed to bear the fruit that lasts, that will be recognized by the living Lord who has set us aside for service in his name.

The auditor general has recently told us about all the money that has been squandered on the gun registry without any meaningful results. We obviously want our lives to count for something, and to count for something in God’s eternal plan. Our appointment from God is that we should bear the fruit that lasts, the fruit that has meaning for others and most certainly in God’s eyes.

So, fellow fruit bearers, just what fruit that lasts are we appointed to bear for Christ’s sake? We have all been given gifts and talents to use and we have all been given the Spirit and the gifts and the fruits of the Spirit, fruits that will last.

I read a story the other day about a female humpbacked whale who had been caught in a spider web of crab traps weighing hundreds of pounds. It was a struggle just to keep afloat. In addition to that she was trapped by hundreds of yards of line rope that circled her body, every part of it, and a line that also was tugging at her mouth.

A fisherman, traveling in some islands just off the Golden Gate, saw the whale and realized the terrible predicament that enveloped her and called a rescue team. It turned out that the whale was so bad off, due to her entanglements, that rescue would be impossible without divers going in and working on her by hand. So a number of divers were sent to her rescue, despite the dangers, and spent hours releasing her from her bondage.

When the whale was finally freed she sped joyously through the waters and then came back to each diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushing them gently, a most beautiful expression of thanks.

The gentleman who had spent his time cutting away the line from the whale’s mouth said that he did so with her eye upon him the entire time. He was so moved that he said that he would never be the same.

Is it not amazing that something as simple as a thank you and an ever thankful and grateful spirit can have such a lasting and profound effect not only on others, but also on ourselves?

It was Cicero who once said that “A thankful heart is the parent of all virtues.” There is a French proverb that says, “Gratitude is the heart’s memory.” And we all remember the admonition of St. Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians, “In everything give thanks.” Gratitude and thanksgiving is certainly one of the fruits that we are to bear, and it is a fruit that will last.

Luther, as you remember, told us in the catechism that we do not come to faith under our own power, but by the power and gift of the Holy Spirit. And faith as we well know is basically trust in God and in God’s promise of forgiveness. So faith or trust is most certainly one of the fruits that will last.

And our faith or trust in the heart will surely be tested all the days of our life. The writer to the book of Proverbs put it better than any one else when he told us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths.”

Is it not interesting to note that the people who have had the most profound influence on us for good are precisely those folk whose lives mirrored that quality of trust?

I was talking to a pastor friend the other day who told me that one of the leaders of our church had told him that God has frailties just like human kind. I could not believe my ears. The one thing that God has in abundance are the very fruits of the Spirit that God pours out among us so freely. And one of the fruits of the Spirit that will last, to be sure, is faithfulness.

Now our God has no frailties when it comes to faithfulness. There is not one promise that God has made that will ever be forgotten. God is faithful to his word. What God says, God will do. What God promises, God will deliver.

Our world is not strong on faithfulness, to be sure. But those who bear the fruit of faithfulness to all their commitments and responsibilities will have a lasting impact on all who know them.

And who can possibly dispute the power of love? If we so love one another, and even our enemies, as God has so loved the world, as our lesson tells us, that love has the power to change the world for good like nothing else. And God has made sure that we have had some one to love us to the end.

We have not even begun to enumerate the fruits that will have a lasting effect forever, but we have reached the end of our time.

Let us never forget our own prestigious appointment as fruit bearers in the Kingdom and the lasting and profound effect of a life filled with thanksgiving, trust, faithfulness, love and all those other fruits, unnamed here, but powerful and life giving to others. The fruits we bear that will last. The fruits that we bear reflect the very nature of our God and that is why they have so profound an effect on others. Children of God, friends of God, chosen by God, fruit bears all! What a prestigious appointment! AMEN!