11th Sunday after Pentecost / Proper 14
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Brothers and sisters in Christ: grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
I have come to the place in my own faith where I’m more interested in talking with other Christians about what we have in common, instead of how or why we’re different. A big part of this, for me, is frankly where our church building sits. We have three churches on one corner, all within a few hundred yards of each other, sharing graveyards. As a quick aside - do you know the difference between a cemetery and a graveyard? A graveyard is associated with a church; a cemetery is not. We’ve been labeling it wrong this whole time.
Anyway, these three churches right here all say “Lutheran” on them, but we’re not the same. The differences are really at the denomination level; I suspect if we put a member from each of the 3 churches, they would all answer questions mostly the same. The ELCA, as a denomination, does not view alternative sexuality as a sin, and therefore they will ordain openly gay & lesbian pastors and will perform same-sex marriages, and have in some places blessed unions of more than 2 people. And as a practice, they do not demand that holy communion be limited only to baptized Christians.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Missouri Synod is very strict in their marriage policy. Marriage and sexuality are only for one man and one woman. Most of their pastors will insist that the prospective bride and groom not be living together for at least 3 months prior to the ceremony. The LCMS also practices closed communion - meaning that you must be a member of a Missouri-Synod congregation to receive Holy Communion from a Missouri-Synod pastor. None of us could receive the Lord’s Supper next door. And of course, the LCMS will only ordain men to the office of Ministry of Word and Sacrament.
The NALC is, interestingly, in the middle. We don’t practice closed communion, but any Christian who is baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity and believes that Christ is present in the elements of bread and wine is welcome at the table. We do ordain women, but we have a traditional view of marriage. And we hold that since Scripture calls homosexuality a sin, then it is sinful and not to be blessed or celebrated.
It’s easy to talk about our differences. It’s easy to retreat to a position of “us” vs. “them”. We do that all the time outside of church discussions… especially in politics and current events, right? I don’t want to do that with faith, too. I want to see where we have common ground and plant myself there. And in light of the fact that there are over 2,700 mosques in our country as of 2024 (an increase of 31% in 10 years), I’m looking for allies. And that’s not just in NY and CA. Texas now has over 300 mosques and NC has 89 mosques as of April 2026. As I’m watching what the rapidly growing Muslim population of Europe is doing to those countries where that demographic is growing, it’s clear that they don’t want to co-exist with Christians. So I’m looking for allies.
Please don’t get me wrong; I don’t hate Muslim people. I have met a few in my journey, even befriended a couple. But these are the moderates. I’m not worried about the moderates. I’m worried about the extremists. And they hold to their faith with a passion that is just unmatched by any other that I’ve seen. So I want to talk with other Christians about what we believe, why we believe it, and how strongly we believe it.
There’s a car or maybe two that I’ve seen driving around Hickory that has a clearly Christian message on the side of it. Something along the lines of “Get right with God or burn in hell” - anyone seen that? I appreciate the boldness in putting that right on their vehicle… but I don’t particularly care for the theology. Or the way the message is communicated. We’re called to speak the truth, yes, but it’s supposed to be “in love” when we speak it. I’m missing the “in love” part of this message.
So how do we get the Gospel message out there? We can start by explaining how someone can “be saved”. Paul does a good job in Romans 10. Look at verse 9:
Romans 10:9
ESV
9 … if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
That’s not too difficult. And it’s not a threat. I’d be much more inclined to put this on the side of *my* car. And honestly, I don’t think the person in that other car would disagree. I think this is ground that all of us who call ourselves “Christian” can stand on in unity.
And it is the core message of our faith. Jesus is Lord, and God raised him from the dead. Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Messiah foretold by the prophets. He is the final descendant of David who sits eternally on the throne, fulfilling God’s promise to David. As King, Jesus has authority over everything in heaven and on earth, including my life. It is under his authority that my life is governed. As a Christian, I am to submit to his authority first and always.
“God raised him from the dead.” That means first that even though Jesus is the Son of God, “of one being with the Father” - meaning Jesus is every bit as much God as the Father is… he is also fully human. He took on flesh, “was born of the Virgin Mary”. He had to do that so that he could die. And he needed to die to pay the price for the sins of the whole world. Death was a heavy price, but it was the price demanded by our sins and of everyone who has ever lived, or who will in the future. That’s a lot of sins… but Jesus paid it with his death on the cross. But he didn’t stay dead. On that first Sunday, the Father raised him from death and the tomb was empty. To believe that Jesus has been resurrected is the very reason we are Christians. Our hope is in his resurrection, because he has promised the same for us. Death is not the end. We will be welcomed into eternal life. THAT is what it means to be saved. Those who will not be welcomed into eternity with God will be sent to spend eternity apart from God. To be with God is life; to be separated from God is death. To be with God eternally is to be saved. To be separated from God eternally is to be cursed, to be damned. I know how I want to spend my eternity.
So if this is the summary of our faith, how strongly do we believe it? Do we believe that Jesus was raised from the dead? Has anything ever made you question that? That question is a little abstract. We don’t know when God will raise everyone from the dead because we don’t know when Judgement Day will happen. We don’t know when Jesus will return. That makes it hard to envision. But everything we *do* know tells us that our God keeps His promises. I have no reason to believe that He won’t keep this one, too. In a few minutes, we will all say the Creed, and the words “I believe in… resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen.” I don’t just recite them; I believe them. I pray that you do, too.
But that first part is a little more in the “here and now”, isn’t it? “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord...” That’s the whole reason we’re here, isn’t it? This morning, like every Sunday morning, we submit to Christ’s authority by coming together to worship Him. We give him “our selves, our time, and our possessions” in response to His command and His call. We call Him “Lord” throughout our Sunday morning. But do we believe it? 
In evangelical circles, there’s a saying that goes something like, “do you know that you are saved? But do you KNOW that you know? Do you KNOW that you know that you know you are saved?” And so forth and so on. That one drives me nuts. I put that in the same category as “you just need to have more faith” or “you just need to believe more strongly” or some other such nonsense. Yeah, because I’m going to close my eyes really tightly and concentrate and make my faith surge… or something? Is that how that works? How does that work, exactly? 
In Luke 17, Jesus’ closest followers asked him about this:
Luke 17:5–6
ESV
5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6 And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
Jesus himself says that the quantity of your faith doesn’t matter. It’s merely having faith that matters. And that is a gift from God, not something you generate or boost on your own.
Well… that kind of blows my question out of the water, doesn’t it? I asked “how strongly do we believe what we believe?” Well, I said I wanted to talk to other Christians about that. I think this will make for an interesting discussion. Maybe a better way to think of this is: how unmovable is our faith? How well-grounded are we? Let’s look at an example.
The Gospel lesson for today gives us an illustration of Peter’s faith. I love Peter. He’s so bold to just jump out of the boat and follow Jesus. He starts off pretty well. He actually walks on the water for a while. But he gets scared by the wind and the storm. What’s the opposite of faith? FEAR. When the fear grips him, he starts to sink. Fear robbed him of his faith. I can relate to that.
What are the things that make us afraid, or that shake our faith? Right now, I’d put death at the top of that list. And that’s not unusual. Death has been a scary topic for humanity since our first parents. It’s the great unknown, and it means, or so it seems, like a permanent separation. It’s a great loss, and it hurts. So yes, it’s scary. But that’s why the fundamental statement of our faith is that God raised Jesus from the dead. We believe that. We say it every week. That means it’s NOT permanent separation. Only separation until Jesus returns.
Everything else pales in comparison to our fear of death. Of course we fear suffering. No one wants to suffer or experience pain and anguish and all that goes with it. 
What else do we fear? Failure is a big one. No one wants to fail. Of course, when the crucified Jesus, it looked like He had failed… but it was in fact His greatest victory. So maybe failure needs to be redefined, or at least looked at again with fresh eyes....
These and other fears can shake our faith, of course. Anyone getting a little nervous about our attendance numbers this summer? Is it the kind of thing that scares you? Or how about the big changes we’ve been talking about? Partnering with the Fire Department to let them build a dock on our lake property and park their boat out there with unlimited access for their firefighters. That’s a big change. We’re also looking at a new digital sign out front. That could be a significantly different look to the front of our very traditional church building. And of course, there’s the bigger lake property project, specifically the picnic shelter. That’s a really big change. And it’s going to mean a real commitment by us to make it happen.
Oh yeah, that’s another thing we fear: change. That might be a bigger fear than failure. “But we’ve always done it this way” is not the creed of a growing, vibrant church. That’s a church that has nowhere left to go. That’s not who God is calling us to be. “But we’ve always done it this way” is the battle cry of the very people that Jesus came to tell them they had gotten it wrong, they missed God’s intent. 
In the next couple of months, we’re going to address these changes head-on. Some of them are logical and we’ve spend a lot of time hashing it out in Council, and by the time it’s put in front of the congregation, it will be a well-reasoned proposal… but it will mean a change for us. It will likely be very uncomfortable, too. But God does not call us to be comfortable. He calls us to do His Will. And honestly, that’s rarely - if ever - comfortable.
I am a firm believer that if God wants it to happen, nothing can stop it. If He doesn’t want it to happen, it simply will not happen. But if He *does* want it to happen, to become a reality (whatever it is), not only will He provide for it, but we won’t even be able to prevent it. Our effort and our desire should be to follow His Will for us and do what He wants us to do. Make that your prayer. Seek His Will for our congregation and for you individually. 
And like Peter, keep your eyes on Jesus. Don’t be distracted by the storm or the wind. Don’t let anything scare you. Let your faith in God be your strength, your comfort, and your peace. And then watch what God does in you, with you, and through you. 
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.