Lenten Midweek Sermon

Lenten Midweek Service 6
March 24, 2010
1 Peter 4:1-6
I need this…and this…and this…

In the name of Jesus, amen. One of the seven things that Jesus said from the cross was the simple sentence “I thirst”. We are aware that a jar of cheap wine vinegar was nearby and that a soldier soaked a sponge with that wine, put it on a stalk and raised it Jesus’ lips. What do you thirst for? What do you need?

Does that sound like a trap? You’ve heard enough sermons in your life that you know you shouldn’t ‘thirst’ for things. We shouldn’t want things, but that’s not where I am going. This is no trap! I am making an assumption this evening, assuming that I am talking to the Church, to those redeemed by the blood shed by our Savior on the cross, those whom the New Testament calls “the body of Christ”. I’m talking to you, for you fit the description of 1 Peter 4:1-2: Since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions, but for the will of God.

We hear Peter calling us to ‘arm’ ourselves with the same thinking of Christ. We hear Peter saying that we are done with sin, but we know that our struggle with sin continues. Tonight, let us think about ourselves as the body of Christ, as sinners but as saved sinners who are already armed with the same manner of thinking as Christ. With this in mind, what do we thirst for?

We thirst for justice, for healing, for an end to suffering. We thirst for a more robust economy, for those without work to find employment, for people to be able to provide for their families. We thirst for safety, for those suffering in Haiti and in Chile, for the innocent victims in Iraq and Afghanistan. We thirst for an end to human trafficking, for an end to abortion and infanticide, for an end to sin, death, and the power of the devil. One look at our weekly prayer list reveals what we thirst for. We pray for the needs and desires of our country and our local community. We pray for wholeness and healing. We pray for people who are known to us and to people who are strangers, yet we pray for them because they are loved by someone we know. We pray for those who are struggling with all kinds of difficulties- physical, emotional, mental. Our thirst is revealed through God’s gift of prayer.

Here’s the part of the sermon where I’m supposed to tell you that in the way that Jesus was given relief through the wine vinegar, God will also meet our needs. This is the portion of the sermon where I am supposed to say that your thirst will be quenched as well. I’m not going to do that. Because it’s not true. We thirst, and sometimes there is just no relief from our thirst. Loved ones suffer and they die. We age and our bodies wear out. We can no longer do what we used to. We thirst for our younger years but that thirst never finds relief. We thirst for more people to join us in the pews, to join in hearing the Word, in finding strength in the Sacrament, in joining us to uncover the God who lives and loves, yet we struggle in our efforts. We thirsted to put a new road sign out on Rte. 4, had the design picked out, had the money set aside, seemed to have a listening ear with the school board and yet our thirst was not relieved. The school board was unwilling to pay the money to apply for zoning allowances. It was disappointing. We endeavored to do what the school board asked of us, knowing that they would someday build a school on their property. We thirsted for a road sign so that our name and a message would be visible to those driving up and down the road, yet our thirst was left unquenched.

Sometimes the cancer is not cured. Sometimes there is no job. We heard that story last week of the two children rescued from the rubble. But remember that one of their siblings died. He asked for water on Wednesday, on Thursday, and on Friday. And there was no water. He died of dehydration. Sometimes we thirst and nothing comes to meet our need.

Being in the church, and being a church person, we have countless phrases to call upon in these thirsting situations, phrases used so often they can become cliché. And they even become meaningless. In the face of such horror, such desperation, I’m supposed to point to a man suffering on a cross? That doesn’t make sense. It’s foolishness. I’m supposed to have something to quench their thirst? How can I do that when I’m empty myself?

You thirst. And I thirst too. But still it is our calling from God to trot out these Gospel clichés…something like ‘Jesus lives’. Maybe that is what you’re expecting. And it is exactly what I am going to do, because it is the most important thing I can do. Jesus lives. If this good news- this Gospel- that Jesus lives doesn’t seem like enough, perhaps it is because we don’t realize what we need. Again, if the news that Jesus lives doesn’t seem like enough, it might be that we do not even know what our need is.

We live amongst a society that lives in the moment. We live in the midst of whatever suffering we are currently in, and cannot see what we really need. We focus all our attention on alleviating the suffering right in front of us. We want an end to that suffering. That man, thirsting on the cross, would come to an end of his suffering. He would die. And when he died he paid for the sin which has brought so much suffering into the world and into our lives. But an end to suffering is not enough. Even if the pain is numbed, the wound remains.

What we need is healing! And that is the promise we see in Christ’s resurrection. Jesus lives. And because He lives, we too shall live. With his resurrection Jesus brings more than an end to our suffering. He brings us the promise of a day where all will be put right. All will be healed. All will be made whole. All things that hurt us and make us something less than God created us to be will be no more. There will come a time when death will be swallowed up and God himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes. What we truly need is not simply for the pain to end, but to be healed, to be made whole.

This is the hope which keeps us going in the midst of suffering. This is the certainty which arms us, as Peter says, with the same way of thinking as Christ. But we still thirst. Our prayer list is still needed. Yet God is daily intervening. In countless ways God is indeed giving us little sips of water so we can endure throughout this drought. Even though those two little children from last week’s sermon lost their brother, they were both rescued. And that is one of the reasons why we are here. We are the body of Christ in this hurting and suffering world. We are often the instruments God uses to alleviate suffering and bring hope in the here and now. We are instruments of God’s peace in a chaotic world as we wait for the day when God’s final healing will come. We help to wipe away the tears of those who sorrow. We bring a cup of cold water to someone in the midst of great dryness.

We sang a familiar hymn as our opening hymn: Go to dark Gethsemane. Learn from Jesus Christ to pray. Learn from Him to bear the cross. Learn from Jesus Christ to die. Christ is risen, he meets our eyes. Savior, teach us so to rise. Amen.