Whenever you start discussing what life is all about you run
the risk of immediately turning off a large segment of the population. Discussing
what life is all about is what Philosophy majors do. “Normal” people don’t.
Then, instead of discussing what life is all about, you end up talking about
whether we should all be like the philosophy majors. Understandably, most
people do not want to be one of those.
They tend to get wrapped up in all kinds of silly questions and mental
gymnastics. If that’s how they like to spend their time, then fine, but other
people would rather spend their time watching football or NASCAR.
I don’t want you all to be philosophy majors. I don’t care
what you enjoy spending your time doing. But I am going to press you on this
question of what life is all about. Where did you come from? Why do you exist?
What is going to happen to you when you die?
Before we get into your own answers, let’s talk about those
around us. There is a very powerful force in our society that says these
questions have already been answered for you. Over the course of time some very
smart people have sorted this all out. For the question of where you’ve come
from, they’ve discovered that you are the product of random chance. The
universe has existed for billions of years.
This immense amount of time, that is impossible to understand, has
allowed enough time for you and all other things to randomly develop. This
creation story is extremely powerful. It is powerful enough to satisfy people’s
religious urgings.
As far as what will happen to you when you die, this is
something that doesn’t really get talked about much by our society’s teachers.
Some say that you simply cease to exist. Your body breaks down to feed the
circle of life. This is not popular with the common folk, though. The common
folk like to believe that the deceased live on in those who remember them.
Sometimes they look down from heaven. Sometimes they are busy in heaven doing
their favorite hobbies.
As for why you exist now? The common response is that you
exist to make the world a better place. By our advancements in all areas we now
seem to have the power to fix whatever problem might come our way. This is linked
up with that creation story I’ve already spoken about. Some really smart people
have figured out that we do not need to think about any questions other than
how we can make more and more progress. We should only think about how we can
make more food, have more entertainment, have more money, and then we will all
be blessed, that is to say, happy. In the meantime, don’t ask any big
questions—that’s for philosophy majors to waste their time on. Instead, figure
out a way to make lots and lots of money. Then you’ll have a good life.
Otherwise, you will most certainly have a terrible life, because you won’t be
able to buy all the entertainments you want to fill your time until you die.
In answer to this, I’d like you to notice how the keystone
to this whole structure is faith. Our society would have you believe that some
really smart people have somehow discovered that God does not exist, that we
had to have been created by chance, that there is no sense in asking big
questions about life, and that we should all just continue on making as much
money as we possibly can. Our teachers would have you believe that smart people
have discovered this and that there can be no doubt about it. This is the
message that goes all the way up into the most prestigious universities and
graduate schools in the world.
However, this is a lie. No such things have ever been
discovered. There is no conclusive proof for our society’s creation story. But
the only way that you can know that it is a lie is by studying the history of
these things for yourself. The history of science shows that the way we think
things are is by no means proven and certain. These so-called smart people of
the past are not worthy of blind, unquestioning trust. You do not have to just
take my word for it. You could learn these things for yourself. But this is a very
large task. It takes many years. Not everybody is cut out for that kind of
work. Plus, you’d have to have an independent spirit. You can’t just take for
granted that whatever any professor says is true. Actually, this field of study
is so large and challenging that no single human being master it all—even if
they devote their whole life to it. This is why faith is the keystone for our
society’s message of what life is all about. It is impractical for people to
look into all the things that are taken for granted as true by our society’s
teachers. It is much easier just to trust them.
For several generations now, young Christians have turned
their faith away from the teachings of the bible to believe in the so-called smart
people who have supposedly discovered that Christianity is untenable. It’s
quite understandable why our young Christians have quit believing. The
prestigious, powerful, rich people of the world all believe in the evolution
creation story. They all believe that smart people have discovered that all the
big questions have been answered, and all that’s left for us is to work and
make money. If you compare the power and impressiveness of these mighty educational
institutions with the average parish pastor who taught them confirmation, then
they are much more likely to believe the one rather than the other.
Plus, if they don’t fall in line with what is popular and
politically correct they will be called names like idiot, bigot, fool. Those
who do not goosestep with the rest of the crowd are a danger to our technology
and progress. They are intellectual dinosaurs who deserve to go extinct.
So, if you don’t want to be called names, then I recommend
that you not be a genuine Christian who actually believes that the Bible is
truthful. Either you should not be a Christian at all or you should pretend to
be a Christian by joining the ELCA, the United Churches of Christ, the United
Methodists, the Presbyterian Church USA, or a whole bunch of other mainline
denominations. They reserve the right for themselves to pick and choose what is
truthful and not truthful in the Bible. Whatever the Bible says that is
unpopular, they can be sure that they will say that you don’t have to believe
it. I say unto you, they already have their reward in this life. They are
praised by unbelievers as being tolerant, inclusive, and generally all-around
good people.
Christians have a different religion from the one that is
popular in this world. The universe did not come about by chance. You did not
come about by chance. You are fearfully and wonderfully made, knit together
from your mother and your father in your mother’s womb. As creatures who have
been made in God’s image, and who have a soul, you are responsible to God for
all the thoughts, words and deeds, that make up your life. That is to say, you
are judged by God now, and you will face your final judgment when you die.
Unlike the world, Christians do not shy away from the question of what happens
to us when we die. We will meet our Maker.
But there is a truth that is even greater than the way that
we must give answer to God for the life that we have lived. Our God has not
remained in heaven, waiting to judge all who come before him—impersonal and
detached. No, he has entered into our world, even becoming incarnate in the
womb of the Virgin Mary. The goodness required by God’s Law, which we have not
done, Jesus did. The evil that we have committed, was placed upon him. He
suffered and died in wretchedness as a result. Jesus did this in order that
sinners should be justified before God when an answer is required of them for
their life. Jesus has reconciled sinners to God so that we no longer need to
ignore him, nor do we need to fear his eternal punishment in hell. Jesus was
punished in our place. We have been made friends with God, through Jesus, so
that we may be free and easy with God like Adam and Eve were before sin
corrupted them.
Paul says in our Epistle
reading, “Therefore, since we have been justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we
also have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we
rejoice confidently on the basis of our hope for the glory of God.” This
tells us what life is all about. We don’t live for making and spending money.
We do not live for technological or scientific progress. We live as creatures
who have obtained access to God himself, through faith in Jesus. The end point
of our life is a life together with God in all his glory where every evil has
been put away.
In the meantime we live together
with him. God wants us to live in the callings he has given to us. We all have
several callings such as father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife,
congregation member, worker, employer, sibling, friend, and so on. Within these
callings you have been given duties. All of those duties may be summed up by
self-less love. Do not look out for yourself, but consider how you may improve
and protect your neighbor. The Ten Commandments are a great teacher and guide
in this respect.
We do not live as slaves, though—separated
from God and not knowing his councils. We are his friends, and we live in
communion with God. God speaks to us with his Word and his sacraments. We speak
to him in prayer. We live dependent upon him. He fills us with his grace. We do
not submit to the popular religion that would have us believe what the rest of
the world believes. God protects us from our enemies, and helps us when we are
persecuted.
This trouble that we have while
living openly and freely as Christians is the main thing that Paul is referring
to in the second half of our epistle reading. Paul says, “We therefore also
rejoice confidently in our sufferings.” Another way you could translate
what Paul says here is that we boast about our trials and troubles. In a way, boasting
about your sufferings, trials, or troubles is odd. Most people want to avoid
suffering and difficulties. But Paul is free. He is free to suffer. He doesn’t
have to live his best life now. He doesn’t have to suck every ounce of pleasure
he can out of each waking moment. He is not living for money or power or
progress. He is living for the inheritance that God has promised to him in
Jesus.
Paul has a different religion
than the world. He believes that a man who died miserably on a cross is the
centerpiece of all existence. The reason why Paul had the difficulties that he
had is that he exposed the lies that people trust in for the happiness—lies
that cannot save eternally. People want to believe that they are smart,
capable, and good, so when they hear that they are not these things, they
become angry at the messenger. Hence both Jews and Gentiles punished Paul for
speaking the truth.
But the truth cannot be defeated
by anything except the lie. Beatings, imprisonments, exiles, slander, nasty
looks, being abandoned by friends and family—none of these things undo the
truth of Jesus Christ the crucified and risen Savior of the world. Not even
being beheaded, as Paul eventually was, can undo the truth.
Therefore, not only is Paul not
afraid of sufferings and difficulties, he boasts about them. The world wanted
him to be ashamed and go sulk in the corner. Paul takes away the power of
shaming by refusing to play by their rules. Difficulties suffered for Jesus’s
sake are even beneficial. As Paul says, “suffering produces patient
endurance, and patient endurance produces tested character, and tested
character produces hope, and hope will not put us to shame, because God’s love
has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who was given to us.”
Resist the temptation to believe
what everybody else believes. God has made known to you the truth of what life
is all about. The good life is the one that is lived with faith towards God and
fervent love for one another.
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