The Lamb of God

Sermon 15 January 2023

Isaiah says that it is not enough to be individually saved, we must care for all the world. So we had better practice spending time together.

Psalm 40 says that any “god” that calls you to act against your conscience is a fake.

When we talk about God saving us from the miry clay, we are talking about leaving behind a way of life that is morally complicated and exhausting. When we talk about God lifting us up and putting us on a solid rock, and putting a song in our mouth, we are talking about the narrow path of righteousness, of doing the right thing. Even if it is difficult or strenuous in effort, it is joyous and a relief for our conscience to be doing the right thing, it’s like standing on solid ground. 

When we talk about putting our trust in the Lord we are talking about following our conscience. Remember that “LORD” in the Bible is often a code for the holy name of God, the name that God revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai. That name is, “I am.” So we would not be wrong to interpret the verse, 

“Happy are those who make the Lord their trust” as

“Happy are those who make “I am” their trust.”

What this means is that deep within you, you have a conscience, and the ability to do the right thing. I would go so far as to say whether or not you struggle with a traditional belief in God, within your being you have a sense of what is right and wrong. When you are doing the best that you can, when you are listening to your conscience that is fearing the Lord, that is having a healthy fear of “I am.” 

We get into trouble when we ignore or disregard our conscience, that is sloshing around in the miry clay. Happy are those who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods. Unfortunately it is quite easy to go astray. There are many false gods who try to trick us into following them and putting our faith and allegiance in them. You can imagine what they are.

Religion can actually be a false god. We must remember that neither Lutheranism nor Christianity, nor Evangelicalism, nor Catholicism, nor any religion can save a person. When we begin to think that one religion is the only true religion we have already broken the first commandment. None of us should be here because we think this is the only way to salvation. It is much more honest to say that we are a free association of persons striving to have faith. I myself didn’t choose to be born and raised in a Lutheran family. If you came to Lutheranism later in life, there were many coincidences that brought you here. So we can’t judge people who worship elsewhere. We can and should judge the traditions and not hesitate to think critically about first and foremost our own religion, especially if we are to follow the first commandment. 

The first commandment says, “I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods.” Notice that there is actually no commandment here to believe in God. The only thing that is commanded is to not believe in any other gods. The real spirit of commandment number one is to be self-critical in preventing ourselves from idolizing anything, especially Lutheran Christianity. In terms of the existence of God, it is given as a declaration, as an offering, as a statement of unconditional love. Listen and think about it for a moment, “I am, the Lord your God.” It is deeply personal and internal. God’s name is I am. You can’t say God’s name without involving your very self totally and completely.  I am the Lord your God, and you shall have no other gods. Happy are those who don’t chase after false gods and get hoodwinked by the proud. 

So let me give you an example of what it means to not have any false gods. Another false god is the bible. Too many people think that to have faith means that you have to accept the Bible as the Word of God, as if it were some perfect and divine document. That’s idolatry. We must read the scriptures critically. 

Take this morning’s reading from John 1:29-42. To be honest with you I find things in this passage that both comfort me, and trouble me. I’ll begin with what troubles me. Two times John the Baptist sees Jesus, who he has already baptized and says, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.” Thinking of Jesus as the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world really avails itself to what is called “penal substitutionary atonement.” The idea is this. When we do stuff that is wrong, God gets mad and offended and requires a punishment, a penalty for the sin we commit. I don’t think that’s what God does at all. 

If God is supposed to reward good people and punish bad people, then God is doing a terrible job. Some of the richest, most powerful people in the world commit terrible crimes and get off scot free. Some of the most saintly caring people suffer tremendously and are in fact punished for doing the right thing. Tomorrow we will commemorate Martin Luther King Junior as one prominent example. He was killed for doing the very things Jesus told us to do. And if that example doesn’t work for you, consider Jesus himself. He was crucified for sins that he didn’t commit. 

Did Jesus have to die? The fact that he did die the way he did means that in the present moment there is no divine justice. Great atrocities have happened throughout history and continue to the present day with little to know recourse. In fact, if we want to see a better world, a world with justice, a world that doesn’t self-destruct in environmental degradation and war, then we have got to be the ones to do something about it. That is what faith is. That is what following commandment number one is all about. No religion, no government, no political party, no person, no business, no technology is going to magically save us from all of our problems. The only way things will get better is if each person takes responsibility for these problems and we work together to fix them. You might think that this is difficult, and you would be right to think so. That is the other side of faith. We have faith in each other, that God is in each of us, and that together we have a tremendous creative capacity. New life can spring up where we least expect it, because there is more than what we currently see. If we spend time together we might see something new.

So the part of the story from John that gives me comfort is the very personal way that Jesus spends time with the disciples. He doesn’t have a formal class for what it means to be a disciple. He just invites them to spend time with him. They get to know each other. If we want to accomplish big things like changing the world and making it a better, more just place, then one thing we can do to start is just practice spending time with each other. It’s enough to start there. Amen.