Episcopal Church of the
Incarnation
The Fourth Sunday in Lent (B)
Numbers
21.4-9 Psalm 107.1-3, 17-22 Ephesians 2.1-10 John 3.14-21
May the Lord be in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart, that
I may rightly and truly proclaim His holy Word. Amen.
Outline of a
Sermon Delivered Extemporaneously
1) We just heard Jesus speak
what is widely considered to be the best known verse in all of Scripture: “For God so loved the world that he gave his
only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John
3.16).
a) Why is this verse so central
to revelation?
i) It’s because it encapsulates
in one sentence God’s nature, God’s
plan, and God’s promise.
(1) It’s God’s nature to love
us, to love the world which He created.
(2) It’s God’s plan to save us,
to redeem us to enjoy that paradise for which He created us in His image and
likeness.
(3) And Jesus gives us God’s
promise that by faith in Him we shall be saved.
b) Nature, plan and
promise: but note that God isn’t the
only one who acts.
i) We are called to act, each
one of us.
(1) We are called to believe, to
have faith. We have to choose Jesus.
2) Judgment and salvation
happen now, and they happen because of what choice we make.
a) The promise of salvation can
be rejected.
i) Jesus says “... those who do
not believe are condemned already ...” (John 3.18).
(1) They are condemned as those
who love “darkness rather than light” (John 3.19).
b) So, let’s look at choices.
i) Let’s look at how life is
lived when we choose Jesus, when we accept salvation and live that salvation
now, and choose the light over the darkness.
3) Now, one direction I could
go with this sermon would involve my telling a story of a dramatic choice, of a
person living in darkness who chose the light, and what a difference that
choice made in that person’s life and in the lives of those around him.
a) And, indeed, there are a lot
of stories we could look at.
i) Like the story of Augustine
of Hippo
(1) A man living with his
mistress and the child he has fathered out of wedlock; a man living a life of
pleasure combined with dry intellectual speculation and debate.
(2) A man who once he chose God
became one of the greatest saints in history, St. Augustine of Hippo.
(a) A saint who in addition to
working out the fundamental foundations of a great part of Western theology
wrote a hymn for his baptism.
(i) A hymn from A.D. 387
that we still offer at Morning Prayer: Te
Deum laudamus, “We praise thee, O God”.
b) There are many such stories
of dramatic conversions, but as interesting and enlightening as they are, I
don’t want to focus on the great witnesses in the history of faith.
i) I want to focus on the
witnesses of faith now.
(1) Witnesses who choose God
now, without drama.
(a) I want to focus on you.
4) Before you start looking at
me like I’m crazy, or worrying that I’m about to issue an “altar call,”
consider what you have done in being here today to offer worship.
a) You have chosen to be here,
despite other options that you doubtless have, including options that might be
more to your liking on a day like this.
b) You choose to call yourself
“Christian,” and by doing this you say that you do believe in Jesus Christ as
your Lord and Savior.
c) You choose to come to the
light, to seek to follow Christ in how you live, that your deeds may be seen to
be those “done in God” (John 3.21).
d) In other words, you live
differently in light of salvation.
5) You see, when in today’s
society somebody talks about being “saved,” our image is one of drama; drama in
conversion and drama in testimony.
a) And drama can be
frightening, or at least something that we as Episcopalians tend to think of as
“N.O.K.D,” as in “Not our kind, Dearie”.
b) But every day is a day of
choice; every time you decide to gather in worship you chose the light.
i) Our choices that are little
and undramatic are most often the choices which form us.
ii) It’s the small habits of
life by which we are molded. Habits
like:
(1) Do you pray every day?
(a) Do you pray for
yourself? for others? for the Church? your country?
the world?
(b) Do you seek to know more of
God’s will by reading Scripture? by
maybe studying the Bible, or by paying special attention to the lessons you
hear in worship?
(c) When you sing a hymn or pray
a psalm in worship, is this an offering of yourself to God?
(2) Do you give thanks to God
every day?
(a) Thanks for the people who
you love, and who love you.
(b) Thanks for blessings when
you are blessed, and for comfort when you are afflicted.
(c) Thanks that God does call
you to be His own, and has sent His Son to redeem you as God’s own child.
(i) That He calls you to be one
with Him, offering His Body and Blood:
1. “[T]hat [you] may evermore
dwell in Him, and He in [you]”.
(d) Thanks that God does call
you, and sends His Spirit to guide you and to comfort you.
(3) Is worship important? Do you know why you gather on a Sunday, other
than from a sense of obligation?
(a) In other words, do you have
the habit of engaging with God in worship, or are you “going through the
motions”?
iii) Habits. Little habits that speak louder than
words. That demonstrate that you do love
the light, that you do love your Lord.
6) It would be easy to take the
most famous verse in all of Scripture, and to speak of dramatic stories from
the history of faith, but the message of the verse and the testimony of the
saints will mean to you exactly nothing if they don’t change how you live.
a) And how you live will for most
of us be less about drama and more about small habits.
i) Small habits practiced
because of a choice made every day.
(1) A choice which says, “I
believe that God so loves the world that He gives me His Son.”
(2) “I believe that God so loves
the world that He sends me His Spirit.”
(3) “I believe that God so loves
me that I may call Him ‘Father’.”
ii) Small habits lived in the
light.
iii) Small habits by which I say
with St. Paul that by grace I am saved.
(1) Thanks be to God!
In
the Name of the Father, and of the Son,
and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen.