“One in Christ”
Romans 15:4-13
12/12/07 - Midweek Advent
When I was younger I especially liked the holidays,
because those were times when our whole extended family would get
together. We would visit with grandparents, uncles, aunts, and
cousins, and it was a peaceful time, full of joy and laughter.
There were never any fights, bickering, or complaining at these
reunions. We just enjoyed one another’s company. When
Christmas came around, I was more excited about celebrating with my
family members than I was about getting presents. If only the
rest of the year could have been the same.
But all of you are members of a family of your own,
and you know that life with them is rarely perfectly harmonious.
In fact, speaking from experience, it seems that I got into more fights
and arguments with my own family members than I did with people outside
of the family. The people we are closest to seem to get on our
nerves the most. We know each other’s every disgusting,
annoying habit and mannerism. We think we’re doing them a
favor when we point these imperfections out to them. Why
can’t they be more like us? We’re all from the same
family, after all! Why did they turn out the way they did?
Families are the closest bonds we can have with other people, and yet
it’s those very family members that we often have the hardest
time accepting. We may bear the same name, but intolerance and
strife can drive us further apart than the most remote strangers.
In the text for this evening from the book of Romans
the Apostle Paul talks about life in another family - the family of
God. Of this family we who are baptized are all members. We
all bear the same Name. We have all been clothed with the
righteousness of Christ. With His shed blood we were
redeemed. We all eat together at the same Table. We come
together to celebrate, like at a family reunion around the holidays,
and everything seems fine. But every now and then arguments and
strife arise between various members, and our heavenly Father must
remind us children again to love, accept, and forgive one another, just
as Jesus loves, accepts, and forgives us.
Our Lord wants us to live together in unity.
Jesus prayed for this unity as He requested of His Father that His
Church may be one as He and the Father are one. Psalm 133 reads,
“How good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in
unity!” And we are one in Christ by virtue of the fact that
He has incorporated us by way of our Baptism into His body, the
Church. The Church is united already by Christ in Christ.
But this unity can be disrupted either by erroneous teaching/false
doctrine, or by a refusal to love, forgive, and accept fellow members
of the body, our brothers and sisters in Christ.
This family, united in Christ, must express its
unity both in its confession of the Truth and in its love and
acceptance of one another. You can’t have one without the
other. Today, however, attempts are made at promoting unity using
only love as the glue to pull everyone together. For them,
doctrine is a hindrance to unity. The Truth is unimportant, they
say. “Confess whatever you want. Let’s just
love one another.” The opposite is also unacceptable,
however, when all the right doctrine and the confession of the Truth is
there, but there is no love. Correct doctrine for correct
doctrine’s sake is never the goal for insuring that the Gospel is
taught in its Truth and purity. The reason for making sure that
God’s Word is confessed in all its Truth and purity is for the
sake of the people, that they might come to faith in Jesus Christ
crucified for them and receive the full comfort of that Word.
True unity among Christians is only expressed when with one mind and in
one accord we confess with one voice what God has said to us in His
Word and when we love, accept, and forgive one another as God in Christ
has loved, accepted, and forgiven us. This brings praise and
glory to God.
But showing our unity through confession of the
Truth and love for one another is not easy. Relationships among
family members often require hard work, patience, and endurance.
We must continue to fight for the Truth of God’s Word and
continue to love one another, even when (or maybe especially when) our
brother or sister is very unloving back to us. The Lord knows
this, and so He gives us help. The help He gives us comes from
His Word.
Through His Word the Lord works in us the
perseverance and encouragement that we need. You’ve heard
that you might be able to divorce your spouse, but you can’t
divorce your family. Sometimes you’d like to divorce your
family, but no matter how far away you move from them, you’ll
always be related to them. Sometimes the struggle against false
doctrine in the family of God and the unloving attitudes of fellow
members make us want to wash our hands of this family. Sometimes
it seems like it’s easier just to give in to the false doctrine
for the sake of maintaining peace in the family. Sometimes it
seems easier just to ignore the members who are causing us problems
rather than to love, accept, and forgive them. But God’s
Word gives us the help we need to continue to persevere in both
confessing the Truth and in loving one another. It comforts us
with the Gospel that God has accepted all of us into His kingdom on
account of what Christ has done for us, and it promises us that we who
confess the Truth and love one another will live forever with Christ
and all His saints when He comes back for us. The more we hear
how the Lord has accepted us, the easier we will find it to accept one
another.
And how did the Lord accept us? By suffering
and dying for us, by giving of Himself completely for us, by giving up
His rights as the Son of God. Although He existed in the form of
God, He did not regard equality with God a thing to be prized, but He
emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant. All that He did,
He did for us, for our benefit. He didn’t think of Himself
or live for Himself; He thought of us and lived, died, and rose again
for us. Now, on the basis of His sacrifice for us, God accepts us
sinners into His kingdom. He does not accept our sin; He forgives
it. He does not count it against us. Yes, He knows that we
are still sinners, and He sees our weakness on a daily basis. And
just as parents will discipline their children when they refuse to get
along, so He disciplines us so that we will continue to love one
another as we ought. But His love for us never fails.
As the Lord has accepted us, so we are to accept one
another. Accepting one another will mean sacrificing ourselves,
our wants, our desires, our pride. It will mean suffering and
dying to ourselves, living for one another. It may mean
curtailing our freedoms for the sake of weaker brothers and
sisters. It will mean putting up with the scruples of others
while not pushing our scruples onto them. It will mean accepting
our brothers and sisters in Christ, while forgiving them their sins
against us as Jesus has forgiven our sins against Him. It will
mean loving them enough to instruct them where they err with respect to
God’s Word. Nowadays people have the idea that exposing
false doctrine for what it is is unloving. But since false
doctrine steals both Christ and the Gospel away from us, it is most
loving to instruct in the Truth with great patience, gentleness, and
reverence.
The Christmas season is a time when families get
together to give and receive gifts. Here in this place we gather
as the family of God to receive His gifts to us in His Word and
Sacraments and then in turn to give the gifts of love, acceptance, and
forgiveness to one another. Through His Word, Baptism, Holy
Absolution, and His Holy Supper the God of hope fills us with all joy
and peace in believing, so that we abound in hope by the power of the
Holy Spirit. This hope, joy, and peace spills out from us onto
our brothers and sisters, which results in our united confession of the
faith and our united acceptance of one another. And where our
unity is displayed in the confession of the Truth and in our love for
one another, we bring praise and glory to God who redeemed us with the
blood of His Son. Only in Christ is it possible to be united in
this way, and He alone can unite us in this way. He who broke
down the barrier of hostility between ourselves and God with the
sacrifice of His body on the cross has also broken down the same
barrier that divides us from one another. In Jesus we have peace
with God and with one another. We are one with Christ and one
with one another, one family of God, who will spend eternity together
in heaven, rejoicing in God our Savior. Amen.