Kingdom’s Point of View: Living in Righteousness by Faith - Sermon by Fr. Walter Macdaniel

 Lent 2 Sermon (English) - 25.02.2024

Title: Kingdom’s Point of View: Living in Righteousness by Faith

Old Testament: Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

Epistle: Romans 4:13-end

Gospel: Mark 8:31-end

Sermon

“Get behind me, Satan!…You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” (Mark 8:33) The challenge of being Christian is without a doubt to dance between two wills; having faith in the invisible God and to trust in the physical world with real issues, real struggle that triggering all our senses in which often time could be solved with logical solutions. In the context of earlier verse, to Peter, the logical solution for Christ is not to go to Jerusalem and die. Easy and simple solution. To that he was rebuked by Jesus for not able to see beyond what meets the eye; the kingdom’s point of view. Today’s sermon will be the invitation for all of us especially during this Lenten season to see things with kingdom’s POV.

    The first thing to consider when we want to live our lives according to kingdom’s POV is first and foremost be the disciple. Christ said “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me”. To be the disciple of Christ is to live a lifestyle of self-denial, sacrifice, and follow Him. What do we mean by that? Consider this, there is a goal to our motive when we do something. The human nature allow us to decide based on our goal; end justify the means. When God calls Abram (later Abraham) out of Ur in Genesis 12, Abram answered the call out of wanting to (as a nomad) live a fulfilling life for his household and his life stocks. For us who read the story of Abraham and eventual fate of his household (later become the nation of Israel), we could see that Abraham was right in answering that call. But, often time, we never get to see the end of that blessings in our lifetime, just like Abraham. In Abraham’s point of view, he needs to survive, his household needs to flourish.

    Often time, we get to the point in our life as Christian, reacting to a situation in order to survive. We “answer” to the call based upon the felt-need of the current situation (sickness, disaster, temptations, struggles, etc). While this is good, we could fall into the danger of thinking that God must call us in order to bestow immediate blessing to our obedience. The journey just as much important as to the destination. The reality is, being the disciple, we embark on the learning journey on the daily basis. So, to deny oneself and taking up the cross means to deny the idea that we may claim God’s blessing and promises upon us here on earth or even thinking that the blessings and promises will be on our own terms and conditions - daily. In short, this is righteousness that comes through faith (Romans 8:13).

    It may be better for Abram to figure things out for himself, but, the beautiful things about God’s promises to Abram was, God affirm it to him personally and consistently (Genesis 17:1-2). Christian’s goal and blessing always be the reconciliation of all creations and its order with God the Father. Ideally, following Christ, who has made it possible for us, would be the most logically decision. And this decision has to be made daily and consistently. After all, according to Paul, Abraham himself was persuaded to have faith in God who has the power to deliver His “impossible” promise. The thing about being persuaded, it would be the result of consistent and continuous “teaching”. One can only be disciple if one is willing to be taught and going through the slow learning process. Another thing to note, when we decided on something to be “impossible”, it is usually due to the typical understanding of the nature that takes it course, disallowing something to flow against it (law of physic for example or simple law of nature whereas all things alive will be dead). Now, the God of Abraham, who addressed him personally is Almighty (Hebrew word is el-shaddai), hence, He is not limited to the law as He is the lawmaker. To understand this truth and reality about God, requires daily renewal of our mind - fine tunning it with God’s truth, and avoiding the trap of conformity with the world (Romans 12:2).

    So, when Christ calls the disciple to follow Him, especially in the context of today’s gospel that He is marching to Jerusalem to His death, Christ essentially calling them to ponder upon His displayed of power, upon which in many occasions, go against the law of nature (rising people from the dead, healing a person born-blind, healing the lepers, healing the quadriplegic, and many more). While we worry so much on the things to come or even having immediate concerns at this very moment, the invitation of Christ for us now is to pause and ponder upon His might. This can only work by diligent study of the Word - soak in the presence of the Almighty, just as the first Adam should be. One thing that His death has achieved for us is to bring us to eternal life by reconciling us back to God the Father. Not with our own effort do we save ourselves but by His passion and death upon the cross. Believing in this truth mind-boggling truth will results in the  righteousness being assumed in us and be rewarded with the same blessings of adoption by faith with Abraham (Romans 4:24).

    Then, what are we to do with that knowledge? Easy. We live in righteousness by faith that Christ has sealed the covenant of salvation between us and the Father once and for all. With this truth, our spontaneous response would be wanting to honor our God with our whole-being. We would also want to love one another for God has for shown that love to us personally. In spite of issues with one another, we would want to forgive for after all, what matter to us is the kingdom in Heaven not so much the bickering on earth. And if the world truly believe and following Christ, this world will be a better place for one another. So what will be the result of living in righteousness by faith especially this Lent? When we truly understand what does it mean to live by faith, our righteousness goes beyond the displays of religion or traditions. The approach of life will be candid and yet revering to the call of Almighty. For example, the attitude towards church and its service will goes beyond the question of “why we do this” but instead will be “to whom this service we offer”. Even the question of “why this person becomes our leader” will not come out of our mouths but instead something like “how will God use this person for our community” will be. This is kingdom’s point of view.

    Last but not least, may this season of Lent will be the season of re-aligning our thoughts to what matter; the kingdom’s POV so that, instead of grumbling and succumbing to victim’s mentality, we would praise God for the direction that He leads us to in which ultimately would bring us to everlasting life of rejoicing with the whole company of heaven. For if we deny Christ in our lifestyle, He will deny us when we be gathered in front of His judgement seat, in front of all the company of heaven (Mark 8:38).

 

~Fr. Walter Macdaniel Nakan~