Text: John 12:24-26
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
It
has become trendy in many churches – Lutheran churches included – to refer to
those who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb as “Jesus-Followers”
rather than “Christians” or “disciples.” Focus groups and market research suggest that
the old names are a turnoff for modern-day unbelievers. And so, it seems, we must change with the
times, reinvent ourselves, forget the old, embrace the new, and stop being so
traditional. A popular edgy bishop named
John Shelby Spong wrote a book called Why Christianity Must Change or Die.
Bishop Spong doesn’t believe that Jesus
was born of a virgin or rose from the dead. He doesn’t believe that the Bible is God’s
Word, or that we are saved by the blood of Christ shed on the cross. He thinks that most of the Bible, including
the life of Jesus, is a myth designed to teach us to be, among other things,
accepting of same sex marriage and other such things. He doesn’t believe that Christianity is about
sin and redemption, about dying and rising again.
But
when we stop talking about discipleship, we stop talking about discipline (something
our modern culture hates). When we refer
to “Jesus followers,” it sounds like Christianity is as easy as friending or following
someone on social media.
And
so we’re doing something that many trendy pastors of big, wealthy, edgy churches
would disapprove of. For we are doing
what our Lord said to do: “Take, eat. Take,
drink… in memory of Me.” It isn’t about
us and what we like, but rather it is all about Jesus. And when Jesus is central to the life of the
church – whether in this sanctuary, at your job or school, around your table,
in your community, among your family, and out in the world – you will see
discipleship and Christianity lived out as it was in the case of St. Ignatius
of Antioch.
The church of Antioch was founded by St. Peter – and Ignatius became the third
bishop of this important city. Antioch was
the first place the term “Christians” was applied to disciples of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Ignatius (as a young man) was
a parishioner of the Apostle John.
Bishop
Ignatius was arrested and condemned to death for the sake of his faith – which was
illegal in those days. Bishop Ignatius
was made to endure a long final journey to Rome in order to be executed as part
of a “reality entertainment show” in the stadium in which Christians – young
and old, men and women, even the elderly and infants – were fed to hungry lions.
During his extradition to the capital
city, Ignatius wrote seven letters to various churches, encouraging them in the
faith.
In
his Epistle to the Romans, the bishop wrote: “I have no delight in corruptible
food, nor in the pleasures of this life. I desire the Bread of God, the
Heavenly Bread, the Bread of life, which is the Flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, who became afterwards of the seed of David and Abraham; and I desire
the Drink of God, namely His Blood, which is incorruptible love and eternal
life.”
What
a great example for all of us today, more than one thousand nine hundred years
after St. Ignatius became a martyr for the faith of Jesus Christ! For what does it mean to follow Jesus? It doesn’t mean tapping a button on your
phone. It doesn’t mean going to church
when you feel like it or being entertained while you’re there. It means that your entire being is wrapped
around your Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. Where He is, there you are. Where His body and blood are, not even hungry
lions could keep you away. Where His
Word is proclaimed, that is where “incorruptible love and eternal life” are to
be found. And that is where Christians
are found. And that unbreakable chain to
the Lord Jesus Christ goes with you everywhere you go, whether to work, to
school, to your kitchen table – or even to your death for following the Lord if
you are called to give such a testimony.
Ignatius
understood the Lord’s preaching when Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to
you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains
alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses
it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal
life. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am,
there will My servant be also. If anyone serves Me, the Father will
honor him.”
The
Christian life is about Christ and Him crucified. His blood is indeed “incorruptible love and
eternal life.” And Jesus does not hoard
this love and life, but sheds it upon the cross and shares it. He bathes our sin-soaked and death-laden earth
with His very life and life-giving divinity that have come to us in His flesh
and blood on the cross. And His gift of
life doesn’t stop there, but continues to come to us in His holy body and blood
of the Eucharist, including His flesh, the “Bread of God, the Heavenly Bread,
the Bread of life.”
So
much of this life centers around food: for we work to earn money to buy food. We go to school to get a job to buy food. Much of our day is devoted to preparing and
eating meals: both the ordinary and the feasts. Much of our society centers on food: festivals
and celebrations, ethnic cuisine and social gatherings. There are entire channels on television
devoted to food. Food is so plentiful in
our country that an alarming number of people suffer with obesity. But as much as we love our food (and, dear
friends, we should enjoy and relish our daily bread that the Lord provides us),
think about what all of this food is compared to the Holy Eucharist, the Lord’s
Supper, that we partake of together on this evening! Think about the faith and the joy that
sustained Ignatius while he was transported in chains, and when he was pushed
out onto the floor of the stadium, and as the beasts pounced upon him.
This
is what it means to be a disciple: to understand that the Lord Himself is that
grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies. And His death upon the cross and His burial in
the tomb is the sowing of the seed of everlasting life! For the death and resurrection of Jesus did
not remain alone. Not only is Bishop
Spong wrong about the resurrection of Jesus, he is also wrong about our own
resurrections. For the death of Jesus “bears
much fruit.” We are that fruit. The wheat is planted, it germinates, it
grows, it matures, it is harvested – and it is made into bread that nourishes
us for life. Some of that bread is
sanctified by the Word of God and becomes that “Bread of God, the Heavenly
Bread, the Bread of life” that sustained Ignatius, and sustains all of us
Christians, all of us disciples who follow our Lord to death and to the
resurrection.
For
like Ignatius, we bear the promise of Jesus, “Whoever loves his life loses it,
and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal
life.” We are pilgrims here, strangers
and aliens. We are just passing through
this desert. Our true home is eternity:
the new heaven and the new earth, in our new bodies that will bear much fruit
after we are also sown into the earth.
For
if you want to follow Jesus, you cannot do it by clicking a button on your
phone. Jesus has called you. He bids you “Follow Me!” For you were baptized into His name and the
Holy Spirit has drawn you inexorably to Him. “If anyone serves Me,” says our blessed Lord, “he
must follow Me; and where I am, there will My servant be also.”
This
is why Ignatius served at the altar, font, and pulpit in Antioch. This is why we are gathered around the altar,
font, and pulpit in Gretna. We are here
to hear the Word of Jesus and to partake in the Holy Sacrament. And like Ignatius, the Word of God transforms
us unto eternal life and empowers us to confess Jesus before a hostile world,
even a world that hates us and would like to see us all fed to beasts and wiped
out.
“If
anyone serves Me,” says Jesus, “the Father will honor him.”
St.
Ignatius of Antioch is honored by the church, as a bishop, as a preacher, as a
theologian, but most of all, as a Christian disciple. Well done, faithful servant, Bishop Ignatius
of Antioch. Thanks be to God for His
example, his own seed falling into the ground, his testimony (which is what “martyrdom”
actually means), his testimony of Jesus: the Seed who falls into the ground
that we might rise! Let us continue to
joyfully and steadfastly partake of the “incorruptible love and eternal life”
of Christ Jesus our Lord! Amen.
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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