Sermon: Trinity 21- 2018

21 October 2018

Text: John 4:46-54 (Gen 1:1-2:3, Eph 6:10-17

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

“Begin at the beginning” said the king in Alice in Wonderland, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”  The author, Lewis Carroll, knew about the importance of beginning at the beginning, for he was an ordained deacon in the Church of England.  He would have been very familiar with “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

When God wants to reveal Himself to us, to reveal history to us, to tell His story and the story of our universe – He begins at the beginning.

For none of the Bible makes any sense at all without this understanding that God created all things in the beginning: time, space, light, matter, energy; the electrons and protons, atoms, and molecules; the solar systems, the galaxies, and the universe.

And most of all, we need to understand the beginning of mankind: for we are created in God’s image, and entrusted to care for God’s completed creation.  “And behold, it was very good.”  But mankind broke it.  We sinned.  We invited evil and distortion and death into our world through our disobedience, believing the devil’s lie instead of the Lord’s truth.

This is why Cain killed Abel.  This is why there was a flood.  This is why there was a Tower of Babel.  This is why God chose a people for Himself from whom would come the Savior.  This is why Jesus was born, lived, preached for three years, was crucified, died, and was buried.  And this is why He is coming again.  For what we have broken is being fixed.  The world that we have made “very bad” will give way to a new heaven and a new earth.  Death will be no more.  Creation will again be “very good.”  And unlike Lewis Carroll’s king, our King Jesus does not tell us to come to the end and then stop, for there will be no end and no stopping!

And when a “man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee,” He went to find Jesus, fearing that his son’s life was coming to an end.  For “he was at the point of death.”

This man may or may not have really known who Jesus is, but it is clear that He believes that Jesus can, and will, heal his son.  Jesus, who spoke the universe into being “in the beginning,” saying, “Let there be,” (and there was), speaks another almighty word: “Your son will live.”  At that very hour, the child’s illness abated, the “fever left him,” and he recovered – all at, and by, the Word of Jesus.

“And he,” the child’s father, “he himself believed, and all of his household.”  Faith followed upon the heels of faith, and his faith came from the Word of Christ.

For this, dear friends, is the very reason Jesus came into our broken world.  He has come to reverse the destruction that leads to death.  He has come to forgive our sins and restore the perfection, the “very goodness” of His original creation.  Jesus has come to make war against the devil who sought to ruin creation by seducing mankind, and Jesus becomes a man in order to defeat the tempter who sought to seduce Him.  Jesus came to die in order to defeat death.  Jesus rose again to everlasting life so that we too might live forever.  

But we still live in time, dear friends, in this currently-broken world: assaulted by the devil, attacked by illness, and harassed by death.  We are still in the midst of the Lord’s re-creation project.  We are still surrounded by the ugliness and rottenness of sin: within ourselves and within our world.  

And this is why St. Paul speaks in militaristic terms about the Christian life, encouraging us to “put on the whole armor of God” in order that we “may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”  For indeed, we are still in time, still in the flesh, and still at war against the evil one – even though our Lord Jesus Christ has defeated Him at the cross and at the empty tomb.  

We are still the Church Militant, and our Lord still bids us to fight.  This is no time for wavering; this is not the time for weakness.  For our Lord has truly armed us for this fight which is “not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

St. Paul describes our being equipped for battle as Christian warriors: bearing the “belt of truth” that protects our vitals, the “breastplate of righteousness,” that covers our hearts, the “readiness given by the gospel of peace” that acts as shoes for our feet, preparing us to run into battle wherever we are called.  And always we are to bear the “shield of faith,” that is, the belief that clings to Christ’s Word and His promise, which itself has the power to “extinguish all the flaming darts” of the evil one who is destined for the lake of fire.  Our heads are protected by the “helmet of salvation,” and finally, we are entrusted with one offensive weapon to strike with: a sword.  But this is no ordinary sword, like the one that our Lord told Peter to put away.  This is the double-edged “sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”

The Word of God made all things, brought all things into being, and sustains all things.  The Word took flesh and dwelt among us.  The Word spoke to the father of the dying boy, healing him by grace through faith.  

Dear friends, we must continue to take up this sword: hearing God’s Word, meditating upon it, and most of all, believing it!  It must be in our minds, on our lips, and in our hearts!  We must understand that the Word of God is not just blobs of ink on a page, but rather the living, breathing sword that defeats the devil.  The Word is the breath and command of God that brings all things into existence, and the Word is God Himself, incarnate, and dwelling among us, full of grace and truth, who destroyed sin, death, and the devil, but who also shows mercy to His broken creation, including to us fallen creatures created in God’s image who went astray.  The Word has come to redeem us for eternity.

And so here we are, dear friends, trying to get back to the beginning, the perfect beginning, the “very good” beginning when all of creation acted according to the perfect will of God, a world that did not know warfare or evil or strife or fever or death.  

“In the beginning” appears twice in the Holy Scriptures: at the beginning of divine revelation of the creation account, and at the beginning of John’s Gospel in the divine revelation of who Jesus is.  We not only “begin at the beginning,” as the king in Alice in Wonderland said, but we also “go on” just as he added that we should do.  We go on, but we do not stop, for in Christ there is no end.  We die, but we do not cease to be.  We come to the end of this age, but it is only the beginning of the age that has no end, the new heaven and the new earth, and the restoration of the universe that God Himself created “in the beginning.”

For God will yet again see “everything that He had made,” and declare it to be “very good.”  Our warfare will end, and our lives will have no end.  Let us believe, dear friends, let us believe in the Word of God: let us believe in our Lord Jesus Christ!  Let us believe and all our households!  Let us believe the Word that Jesus speaks to us as we go our way, even unto eternal life!  Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.