Faith – More Important than Life

 An announcement:

During Lent, I am posting online a study of the Gospel of John. Each day, there will be a link to a Youtube video about a different chapter of this most important Gospel, the Book of the Bible that points the clearest to whom Jesus was and what He did that tells us that He was the true Son of God. I hope you’ll join me in these and forward them to your friends. You’ll be able to find the links on the Cedar Grove Facebook page and through the prayer emails. And the study videos will remain online, so you can still catch up.

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Since Lent began ten days ago on Ash Wednesday, Saundra and I began re-watching many of Marvel Comics Avengers movies, since they are all available for streaming on Disney+. We are still near the beginning, watching the Ironman and Thor movies. All of these movies are tied together, which is one reason they each had sales of hundreds of millions, sometimes billions of dollars.

The movies lead up to a great climatic battle between good and evil, Avengers: Infinity War. Without giving away much, let me just say that at one point, an evil supervillain can just snap his fingers and watch people turn to dust before our eyes. It is an on-screen reminder that from dust we came and to dust we shall return, the reminder that I repeat every Ash Wednesday service as I place ashes on everyone’s forehead. “From dust you have come and to dust you shall return.” Our only hope is the power over death that Jesus Christ brings.

Today’s Gospel reading speaks of a couple of events that occurred in the days just before Jesus and his three favorite disciples climbed Mt Hermon to see Jesus transfigured with His true glory, glowing and speaking with Moses and Elijah. In our reading, Jesus and His team were visiting the villages around Caesarea Philippi, a Roman-founded town at the foot of Mt Hermon in northern Israel, at the base of what we today call the Golan Heights.

Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do people say I am?” The disciples replied with various responses: John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the other prophets.

“But who do you say I am”. Jesus pressed the disciples.

Peter answered, “You are the Messiah”.  And Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. But at this point, Jesus changed His attitude and spoke much more openly about the things that were to come, for if the disciples now understood that Jesus was the Messiah, then He could take them into his confidence much more.

Jesus did not often call Himself the Son of God. Instead, he used a reference from the Old Testament, and called Himself the “Son of Man”, a title often used in the Book of Ezekiel, and particularly in Daniel 7:13-14:

“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”

Clearly, this “Son of Man” is a very important person in Daniel’s vision – and remained a person of fascination for the Jewish people at the time of Jesus. When Jesus adopts this title when speaking of Himself, He is implicitly claiming to be King of the earth, the Messiah, eternally King, second only to God – the Ancient of Days. It was a very provocative claim.

After the Messiah declaration by Simon Peter, Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by everyone in authority, killed, and rise again after three days. He spoke so plainly that Peter took Him aside and rebuked Him.

What did Peter say? Matthew 16 tells us a bit more than Mark. Matthew wrote that Peter said, “Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you!”

The gist of Peter’s rebuke is that Jesus has gone off his rocker by talking about his future death. And then Jesus gets angry. And His anger tells us something very important about life, about faith, and about the proper perspective of a Christian believer.

Jesus turned around and looked at His disciples. He sternly rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Satan. Literally, “Deceiver”. Jesus called his leading disciple a liar, the devil himself. Why?

Because Peter was thinking only about human concerns – Peter’s friend and teacher was expecting to suffer, be rejected, and killed. To Peter, this was a terrible idea, even if it was true – especially if it was true. Peter had temporarily lost his faith in Jesus as the Messiah. Peter had decided that Jesus’ life was more important than the faith that Jesus was the Son of God. Peter, the man who just a day earlier had recognized that Jesus was the Messiah, “the son of the living God”, had forgotten Who he was talking to. Just like we do so often in our prayers.

We forget that Jesus is not just a nice idea, a nice figure from the past, a man who founded a religion. We lose track of the fact that Jesus still lives, that Jesus commands the armies of Heaven, that He sits beside God. It slips our mind that if it were not for His deep love for us, Jesus and Father could simply dust us out of existence with a snap of the fingers, not only removing us from physical existence, but destroying our soul, even removing our memory from everyone who had ever known us. We would never even have been as far as the Universe is concerned.

But Jesus sternly chews out Peter, bringing Him back to the reality that here, standing in front of Peter, is God in the flesh. But does Peter learn? Well, in six days, Peter climbs the mountain with Jesus, sees Jesus in his robes glowing brighter than anyone could beach them, talking to Moses and Elijah – and Peter offers to build the three of them little shelters, shrines, equating them with each other. God Himself shows up, yelling at Peter out of a cloud, “This is my Son whom I love. Listen to Him!”

Peter was a bit slow at times. But aren’t we all?

Years ago for most of us, we accepted the Jesus was the Son of God. We were baptized. And yet, we struggle with the fear of a virus that’s making the rounds, a virus which can kill our body, yes. But haven’t we forgotten that death is not the worst thing that can happen to us, just as Peter forgot that day when Jesus was laying out what would happen over the next few months? For Jesus wanted to let us know that our faith in Him was more important than life itself. Jesus wanted us to know that the end of an earthly life is not as important as the faith that Jesus will give us eternal life. Jesus wanted us to remember God’s perspective rather than live with our short-sighted human perspective on life.

God’s concerns are not so much with us, the people who already believe and are trying to follow Jesus. God’s concerns are with those who do not believe, who believe they are in control of their lives, who think they can handle anything that comes along. God is interested in those who have not yet sought God’s protection, who boldly think that they can take anything the world can throw at them, who blindly believe they can even handle life after death by themselves because they have bought into a lie that they are in control of what happens to them when they die.

Do you know how to bring a body back to life? Jesus does.

Do you know how to defeat death? Jesus does.

Do you know how to gain entry to God’s presence and escape the evil that awaits those who refuse God’s protection? Jesus does, and Jesus will protect you if you will become His follower.

After Jesus had chewed out Peter for focusing too much on earthly concerns, he call the crowd and his disciples to him and said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

Just as a soldier joining the army decides to give up his own choices, his own way of living, his own decisions, a follower of Jesus also denies his or her own choices, picks up their cross – the burdens that you bear – and follows Jesus. That takes more faith in Jesus than in this life and our own ability.

Jesus went on to say that “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.”

The Greek word translated as life in this passage can also be translated as soul. Jesus is saying that if you work diligently to keep your life going, but stay away from Jesus, you will ultimately lose your life and soul. We must develop a faith in Jesus that is far more important than this life around us. He tries to make us think by asking these questions: “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forget their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”

So many people are like the two prisoners, Fred and John, who were sentenced to the same cell in jail for a night because they had been in a bar fight. One of the beds has a mattress that was about three inches thicker than the other. This was apparent when they were both put into the cell at the same time. Being selfish and prone to anger, they began to fight again to see who would get the thicker mattress. But they were equally matched, so all day long and all night they fought. Finally, around 5 am, the noise from their cell stopped. When the guards checked on them at 6 am to let them out, Fred was dead and John had a broken neck, barely alive. He was then tried for murder and convicted. What good had it done John to gain the thicker mattress, the only thing of value in the cell, when he lost his freedom and ability to move for the rest of his life? If he had given Fred the mattress without a fight, John would now have been free, free to sleep on his own mattress, a mattress of his own choosing. But John and Fred lost perspective, and now Fred was dead and John would spend a lifetime in a tiny cell, sleeping on a thin mattress that the prison provided.

Too often, Jesus says, we have lost our perspective. We think that the things of this world are the things that are real. We think this world is real and eternity is imagined. We think the next few years are important and forget following Christ is how we find a good life for the next million years, indeed longer. Jesus asks: What good is it for us to gain the whole world, to become the richest, the most powerful, the most famous, the greatest of all time, the Tom Brady – if we lose our eternal soul in doing so? Our faith in Jesus must become more important than our life.

But yet everyday I read news stories about people fighting and dying over a few thousand dollars and a couple teaspoons of drugs. I see stories of men and women divorcing over who will be in charge. Sometimes they fight and die over who will sleep together.

On Facebook, I see all sorts of time wasted over which musicians are good and which are bad. I see fighting over politicians and political ideas. I hear men wasting time discussing whether Ford, Chevy, Dodge, or Toyota trucks are best. And I see a tremendous amount of time spent these days arguing over things of the past: Statues, books, movies, songs.

But if we follow Jesus’ perspective, there are only two things worth fighting for. “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” Jesus and the Gospel are worth spending our lives upon – not politics, not sports, not our homes, not money, not even teaching, unless we are teaching people about Jesus and the Gospel.

Let me tell you a story. A while back, there was a person who had committed a series of crimes which were discovered. This person decided to take their own life by laying down in front of a train. But some godly people found out that this person was depressed and likely to do something like this, so they began to search for this person, chasing the train, arriving with the emergency squad literally at the instant the train rolled over the person, severing both legs. With quick work and the prayers of those who had initiated the search, the person lived. Until two years later, when the person took a handful of pills and followed it with a large amount of alcohol. This time, the rescuers were too late. For this person really wanted to lay down in front of that train.

I wish I could give a better ending to that story. But it is a true story and in real life, the endings aren’t always good. For most people in this world are determined to focus upon this world, on the short term and not think about the next, which requires great faith in Jesus. Some are so discouraged that they lay down in front of the train – but most people, even if discouraged, don’t. We strive for a better life.

But the day comes for each of us, that we are driving across the tracks and the train arrives. Sometimes unexpectedly. Sometimes we’ve seen that train coming for years, but can’t avoid it. Perhaps we look forward to that day – and perhaps we don’t. But sooner or later, for all of us the train arrives. That is why our faith and focus must be with the promises of Jesus rather than looking short-sightedly upon today or next month.

When your train arrives, will you have spent your time on the eternal things preparing for your eternal life, having faith in Jesus – or on the short-term things of this life?

When God talked with Abram, in our first reading, Abram was 99 years old. He had no children. Yet God promises that Abram – which means “exalted father”  - will become the father of many, “more than the stars Abram can count” and changes the man’s name to Abraham, which means “father of many”. But when did this happen? Many years later with God’s timing, not Abraham’s timing.

Eventually, Abraham has two sons – Ishmael and Isaac. That’s all. Just two sons. Isaac has two sons – Esau and Jacob. Where is God’s promise of many descendants? It is from Jacob, though, who is renamed Israel, that the twelve sons are born who become twelve tribes who eventually number 600,000 people some 400 years later arrive.

Sarah, Abraham’s wife, pushed things, though. Ten years after Abram received the promise, she felt things were taking too long, so she pushed forward her maid Hagar to Abraham, who then produced Ishmael – and made life miserable for Sarah. It was several years later that Isaac was born from Sarah. And it was 400 years later before the 600,000 strong nation of Israel left Egypt for the Promised Land.

God always has a longer term perspective than we do. We always want quick answers. We are usually more concerned with what is happening over the next week or month than with the long term. We think that this life is more important than our faith in God.

Today, we see COVID cases decreasing rapidly.  As of Tuesday the 23^rd of February, Wood County had 105 new cases over the previous 7 days, and 217 active cases, the lowest amount since October. And so we are now wondering if and when we should open back up. At the current rate of decrease, the county caseload is falling by a third every week, which means we’d be down to around 20 or 30 cases by the end of March.

Of course, in our context, what does “open back up” mean?

After all, we have been open since last June. We wear masks, we sit spaced apart, we have the shower curtains in front of the singers, we open the sliding doors for ventilation if we have more than a handful of people or if it is warm enough. If there are few enough people, we sing behind the masks. We have many people watching and listening online and on V96.9 FM. What would we do differently?

We had meetings and dinners last summer and early fall downstairs with the doors open for ventilation.

We need to hear from those of you who are currently staying at home. What needs to happen before you’ll feel comfortable coming back to in-person worship? Are you simply waiting temperatures to warm back up so you’ll be more comfortable with our sliding glass doors open? What would you like to see for Palm Sunday and Easter worship? Let us know. Are you waiting to be vaccinated, or waiting until Dr Fauci says masks aren’t needed next fall? We are open – when will you return?

It would be foolish now to drop the masks, to allow hugs, to snuggle together and sing loudly, spewing potentially deadly virus into our community. But we can still come together and greet each other. Safely.

A year ago, we had to spend time looking at the dangers of having our close, friendly in-person meetings and adopt a perspective that said for a time, we’ll just have to figure out a new way to have church. We did – and we’ve been very successful. Many people watch us online each week – and even more listen to us on V96.9 FM every Sunday morning. And now, we’re even having a Bible study online. We are doing what we can do for Jesus and the Gospel.

But now, we have to look once again at our perspective. For God could be ready to drive out this virus – or God could fire up the pandemic again and give us another year of distance and masks. God makes that decision. We must still remain prudent, cautious, and careful until the virus fizzles out.

Each of us has to look at our personal situation.  And each of us has to respect others enough to ensure our friends are comfortable with us.

Fact: Some of us are still at high risk for COVID infection, and at high risk of serious illness if we are infected. Are you older, overweight, diabetic, have lung issues, other issues? Get vaccinated and stay home until after you are vaccinated twice. Continue to watch on Facebook or listen on V96.9 FM

Fact: Some of us are young and healthy. Some of us have already been vaccinated. Some have had COVID already. If you are healthy, consider coming back to church – but wear your mask to protect others. Remember when you get here, though, that everyone doesn’t want hugged, yet.

Fact: Some of us have had close calls – or our family has suffered from the virus. Like the person whose foot was run over by a speeding car, you’ll probably want to look both ways, figuratively speaking, before you venture out to church or anywhere else. Take your time. We love you and want to see you again, but take your time to feel safe again.

When you decide to join us – each of you at your own speed – we ask that you get permission from others before you approach closely. That’s how we show respect and love for others. After all, if you just had a bad sunburn, you probably wouldn’t want your buddies giving you a slap on the back, would you? Let’s take it nice and easy for a while with each other as we get used to each other again.

But most importantly, we need to keep our mind on the things of God rather than the things of man. With this, Jesus was teaching that our faith in Him is more important than this life we are living.

This virus has become the world’s great distraction. But, like God, let us use it to bring glory to Jesus, God’s Son.  Let us remember to each pray for a dozen or more friends who have not yet met Jesus. Let’s remember to speak to friends each week by phone so they will not be alone. Let’s remember to share our weekly sermons and the Bible study with our Facebook friends and others close to us, so they will begin to worship with us also.

COVID will be with us a while longer. It might be a month or two – it might be for years. But it should not define our lives. Yet, it may lead us to give our lives for what is important – Jesus and the Gospel.

Let us keep our minds on eternal souls, on God’s priorities, on bring people Jesus and the Good News of Christ. Each day, read and study scripture, pray for yourself and a dozen or more friends, and look during the day toward how you can spread the news of Jesus and the Gospel. Let your faith in Jesus become more important than your mortal life upon this earth. Amen.