Stop Looking Inward; Look Outside Yourself
The following sermon is for Confirmation Sunday at St. Paul's Lutheran Church of Minot, ND.
Text: John 10:11-16
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
JayDe, Elizabeth, Ella, Jason,
and Holden, in confirmation this year, we watched a segment from the old
popular TV show, “E.R.” If you recall,
there was a man who was dying from cancer.
Now, this man was not at peace but was afraid of what waited for him in
death. He also had a tremendous amount
of guilt – the kind of guilt that weighed heavy on the conscience – for he had
caused the death of an innocent man earlier in his life.
Now, in this segment the man
was visiting with the chaplain in the hospital, wanting answers. He was seeking just a sliver of hope for his
burdened conscience. He wondered if
forgiveness was even possible for him before death and what God wanted for him. Well, as you know, she responded by
suggesting that the dying man needed a new reason to live and to just let go of
the guilt and ‘feel’ forgiven. She also
went on to tell Him that it was up to each person to figure out what God wanted
by looking ‘inside.’ Yes, right there on
the man’s death bed – in his helplessness – the foolish chaplain had the
audacity to direct the dying man inward to himself for answers and hope and
comfort.
It should be no surprise to us
that the chaplain’s answers infuriated the cancer-ridden man. Indeed, he was quite justified when he
started yelling at her that he wanted a real chaplain who believed in a real God
and a real hell because she was not dealing with reality but with mere
feelings, opinions, and what can be called Hallmark theology – the kind of
theology that wanna-be-chaplains get from sentimental card clichés.
You see, the man needed real
answers, and all the woman’s uncertainty and spiritual gobble-gook made things worse. He wanted someone to look him in his eyes and
tell him where to find forgiveness. He
was running out of time and needed to cling to something other than himself. But all she could do is point him back inward
to himself.
The scene ends with him
yelling at the chaplain to get out, get out, to get out.
Now, the reason why I mention
this is that this TV episode shows us what is being told about in our day and
age. And what are people being
told? They are told to look inside. They are told that the Truth about God is
inside of us waiting to be uncovered. JayDe,
Elizabeth, Ella, Jason, and Holden, you will be told to look within to find God
and to just make it up as you go – whatever you find comfort from, well… let’s
go with that.
JayDe, Elizabeth, Ella, Jason,
and Holden, this is a lie of the wolf – Satan.
You and I cannot discover what God wants by looking inside. The idea that there is the Truth of God just
waiting to be discovered within, if we only look hard enough or ask ourselves
the right questions is complete nonsense.
So, what do we find if we look
inside ourselves?
Well, it is not good.
What we find within is layer
upon layer of sin. We do not find gems of greatness within or nuggets of Truth,
but sin, wickedness, and deceit.
JayDe, Elizabeth, Ella, Jason,
and Holden, Truth does not lie within you.
It is not an untapped resource buried within. But instead, within is a wicked heart. As the Prophet Jeremiah correctly stated,
“The heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
This deceitful heart is not
something that we all acquire through time but is how we are born. We are born with hearts infected with
sin. That is what we carry around and
try to cover up and manage every single day of our lives. In fact, it could be said that the majority
of the problems in life are not ‘out there’ somewhere, but right here in our
hearts. The problem is much closer to us
than we might think.
And yet, this does not deter
the Lord God from seeking you and me out.
In the Old Testament reading from today, the Lord speaks through the
Prophet Ezekiel that the Lord Himself will seek the lost and bring back the
strayed and He will bind up the injured, and He will strengthen the weak.
And in our Gospel reading, we
hear how Jesus declares Himself to be the Good Shepherd. Jesus says that He is the one who came down
from heaven to rescue you and me from sin, death, and the devil. He is the One who has words of never-ending life
to speak to sinful mortals like you and me so that we might listen to Him and
not our hearts.
It is interesting, isn’t
it? Notice how our readings from Ezekiel
and the Gospel of John show us that Truth, salvation, and hope are not within
us but outside of us? That is right;
Truth is from the mouth of the Lord who speaks to us as His very own sheep.
But what does this mean?
It means that you and I do not
listen to our hearts but listen to the words of the Good Shepherd.
And those words from the Good
Shepherd?
They are words that tell us
that Jesus is the One who laid down His life for the sheep – that is you and
me. He is the One who laid down His life
before the wrath of God in your place. He
is the One who takes the real Truth of who we are into Himself and bears it all
before God and the world.
And so, JayDe, Elizabeth,
Ella, Jason, and Holden, this absolute forgiveness from the punishment of our
sins before heaven is not found by looking inside ourselves or examining our
heart. To have the assurance that we are
forgiven and to face death is not accomplished by an inward turn.
JayDe, Elizabeth, Ella, Jason,
and Holden, do not waste your time and energy looking inward to your feelings,
opinions, and speculations. It is a waste
of time to dig around in deceit.
Instead, look away from yourself.
Look to the one outside of you and listen to His voice, not the voice of
your heart. Listen to Christ.
But do not listen just one
time, for that does not do you or anybody else any good. Listen regularly and believe regularly. Yes, the Good Shepherd has seen to it to
continually proclaim His Word to you so that as His sheep, you will continually
hear His voice. As sheep, you live by
His Word. You are captive to the Word of
God, not your feelings, not your opinions, and certainly not the talking points
of the world.
JayDe, Elizabeth, Ella, Jason,
and Holden, the Lord proclaims His Word continually through pastors and
Christians that what He did on the cross of Mt. Calvary might be poured into
your ears. Yes, listen to the voice of
Jesus – the sweet news of the Gospel – again and again and again:
“It is
finished – for you!”
It is like this: the Lord
gathers sheep – Christians like you, together into churches like St.
Paul’s. He gathers us together so that
we won’t be stumbling around in trying to find solutions in our dark
hearts. But instead, He gathers us together
as His sheep to hear His voice. In
fact, He even brands us sheep making us as His own on our heads and hearts in
Holy Baptism. And He prepares a table to
feed His sheep in the face of the enemies of the world, the devil, and
death. Yes, He does not turn us inward,
but turns us outward to Him to receive the real food of forgiveness of sins
that He gives in His wounds of flesh and
blood fed into our mouths.
JayDe, Elizabeth, Ella, Jason,
and Holden, do not look within. But
instead listen outside of yourselves and hear Jesus’ voice in His Word – the
Bible. And as you listen and hear His
Word, know Him and follow Him. Yes,
constantly hear Jesus’ Word again and again, for in Jesus’ Word is Truth. In His Word there is forgiveness. In His Word, He preserves you until the end,
until He comes back to take you out of the grave unto Himself for all
eternity.
JayDe, Elizabeth, Ella, Jason,
and Holden, you Christ’s sheep. Listen
to His voice for His Word is for you.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
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