Today is the day! (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
2 Corinthians 6:1-2
June 21, 2015
Life goes on. Life goes on and we settle into a rhythm. A daily rhythm, a weekly rhythm, a rhythm of seasons and of years. A rhythm of sleeping and waking, eating and exercising, working and playing, spending time alone and spending time with others. A routine of appointments and tasks and duties and indulgences.
Not every routine is alike, but we all have a routine. A morning cup of coffee, an after-work workout, walking the dogs. Getting the children dressed, taking your meds, taking something out for supper. Checking your email, checking Facebook, checking on Mom. Friday night date night, every night conversation with your Friendship Village table mates, nights spent curled up with a good book. Winters in Florida, summers in Maine, weekends at the cabin.
Sunday mornings are part of the routine, too. Get up, eat breakfast, dress and drive to church, greet your friends, sing some songs, pray, listen, think, think about God, examine your life, be challenged, be comforted, be forgiven, be recharged.
Routines are good. Consider the alternatives! A chaotic, unpredictable, how-knows-what-is-going-to-happen-next kind of life. Or an empty, aimless, days-on-end-filled-with-nothing kind of life. Routines are reassuring. Routines help us be productive. Routines relieve stress. Routines keep us engaged.
But routines can also get in the way. Routines can dull expectation. We don’t expect to be surprised. We don’t expect to be changed. We don’t expect today to be any different than another other day. We don’t expect this Sunday to be any different than other other Sunday. We don’t expect this Sunday to be anything remarkable.
But this day — this Sunday, June 21, 2015 — is remarkable. Because today is the day to be saved! Isn’t that what you were thinking this morning as you drove to church? “Today I am going to be saved!” You think I’m being facetious? I am serious!
Today is the day to be saved! Do not let God’s grace be wasted! You have received God’s grace, all of you, because God’s grace has been given to all human beings through Christ. God’s grace, God’s favor, the warm embrace of God’s love, has been given as a gift to every man and every woman and every child through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
God was making all human beings his friends through Christ.
This is what it means to be saved: to be made God’s friends. Instead of remaining God’s adversaries, God’s antagonists, God’s rivals. Instead of remaining aloof, distant, out of touch, disconnected. It means being brought back to God. It means being reconciled with God. It means being brought once again into relationship, into intimate and personal and compelling relationship, with God.
This is what it means to be saved. Being saved does not mean being inducted into some kind of exclusive heaven-bound in-group. Yes, being saved does fill us with hope, hope for a future filled with joy and with blessing, but not just for us. We eagerly await the day when God will make all things new, bringing joy and blessing to all humanity and to the earth and to all of creation.
Being saved primarily means being in right relationship now — in right relationship with God and in right relationship with each other, because the two are absolutely inseparable.
God was making all human beings his friends through Christ: [through Christ, God] changed us from enemies into his friends and gave us the task of making all human beings his friends.
So do not let God’s grace be wasted! God’s grace has been given to you to save you, so it is wasted if you are not saved, today. God’s grace is wasted if you remain unreconciled to God, if you do not let God love you. God’s grace is wasted if you remain unchanged by God’s love, if you remain unconcerned about our common human vocation to make all human beings God’s friends, and ours.
Do not let God’s grace be wasted!
You who feel disconnected, disconcerted, out of touch, lonely — today is the day to be saved!
You who feel fearful, doubtful, anxious, unsure — today is the day to be saved!
You who feel hurt, misused, overlooked, unappreciated, misunderstood — today is the day to be saved!
You who feel angry, bitter, resentful — today is the day to be saved!
You who are preoccupied with your own concerns, your own ambitions, your own afflictions, your own feelings — today is the day to be saved!
You who come here, consciously or unconsciously, looking for something more, looking for something meaningful and lasting, literally looking for love — today is the day to be saved!
Don’t let God’s grace be wasted. Do not leave here unchanged. Let God make you new.