What Do We Pray Today?

What Do We Pray Today?

¹⁴ For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion, that one died for all, and therefore all died. ¹⁵ And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.

¹⁶ From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! ¹⁸ Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. ¹⁹ That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.

²⁰ Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” ²¹ He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
^{2 Corinthians 5:14–21}

You look and see Him…on the cross…dead. Your sins are paid for. You are free to go…to go about your business…to now live—a life…to be…to do. But what do we do?

We have asked—as He tells us to ask—that He forgive us our trespasses as we have forgiven all those who have sinned against us.

Yes, and that IS done—on the Cross. He did that for us, and He gives us enough grace and forgiveness to cover all the sins that are done against us…and those we do against everyone else…for our entire lives.

But what else? What now?

No, we still are to pray this…now…each time we pray…yes, but that is not all of it…is it?

Forgiveness is in a way all of it…that is why Jesus came…that is why He died…but that is not the end. We may feel like we live a Good (and that is not how we would describe it) a Good Friday life, but much more is to come.

But a life just lived here forgiven and forgiving is not like the day you burn you mortgage…pay off your car or credit cards.  Because life still goes on—there are more bills that come due…the Romans are still there…we still fail Him.

We still disbelieve…sin and that sin still has all its consequences—death…

…in this life… and that still goes on….and then if we are not yet dead… we sin more…then we live in the fallout…from our own and everyone else’s…

So, this is now…the now after…but still…what now?

Well… it is NOW all about living each day with Jesus’ forgiveness… and living each day forgiving…everyone else…

It must be….

But it is not to be a Good Friday ONLY kind of life. Because something happened three days later. And without that, it would remain a Good Friday only kind of existence.

We would be like Peter and the rest of those fishermen…who thought that was that… and that was all there was to be…and so…

… they went back to fishing.  Or we would be like those two on the road to Emmaus…giving up…and heading out of town…

No, I am not going to steal the thunder for Easter…but Easter did happen!

The truth…and also the truth is…we are living both…both in part, but both in truth!

Jesus went to the Cross…and in our Baptism we are also crucified—with all the sin and death that we have in us—on that Cross…with Him. Truly.

But then Jesus rose….

Yes, okay…so?

So…the other half is just as true for us now too. We also, on that third day rose when Jesus did. We have been baptized not just into the death, but also the resurrection of Jesus.

We have that now…ALSO!

This we are…this we have…but… we STILL… live in between…as our Easter is yet to come.

It is by faith that we have it now.  This does not make it any less the truth or real. He says it is.

And this is faith: that we take Him at His Word and trust Him—put our all into His hands and live as if it were all just the way He describes it to be.

It is! And…as HE DESCRIBES—I mean after all, He did rise on the Third day…but oh wait, I am getting ahead of things…

But…also Jesus DID come back to them, remember! He met Peter and his fishermen for breakfast—that He provided.

Both on shore and all the fish they could scarcely haul in. And Jesus met those two on the road to Emmaus.

AND! And He has not left us either. He has come back to us. He meets us. He is Here, in fact.

And so we,  in this…our life—as sinner and saint…dead and dying…ARE also…

We are ALSO alive, and living…and are right now living forever…in and with Him…here and now…as well as forevermore….

That is the way St. Paul talks…as he talks about himself and the Christian life…lived in Jesus.

But we get lied to… about all that. We believe it too—those lies, because most of the  time… we want it to be over…we want our best life now. We want our inheritance now. We don’t like to wait.

And St. Paul describes it like that too. He himself was not sure what to do—remain or go home. He felt like we do. Paul describes his struggles even with sin and with the sins of others. Of tragedy and all the usual struggles of this life.

Yet, as he was also baptized into Christ, like we are, Paul was asked to remain for a time…for a little while longer…

Not so that he would become better—less a sinner—that is already taken care of—Jesus had that in hand already…

On Good  Friday…on the Cross…remember? Paul’s sin was gone too!

No, Paul was…and each of us are…asked to stay so that we can work with Jesus.

Now forgiven, we are to forgive…

So then… we can dump wheelbarrows of it upon people….

This is our baptized into Christ life with Him here… it is His life even here with us.

What did Jesus do–what is He doing…in His life here—what does He do now…here?

St. Matthew tells us it is to be like when: “…Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom”

Hey… it still is…this… through His church.And this is what He tells us—His church on earth…what we are to be doing in Him…with His things.

Jesus said : “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,

Good Friday and Easter… yes…but in the meantime…now… and because of those EVENTS:

⁴⁷  …repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

We who are in Him should be on and about this…His Father’s—Our Father’s business…until He calls us home.

This is the meantime…between a Good Friday Life…and our Easter Day life to come…

This begins for each of us when we first believe. When we believe in Him—all of what He did and what He said.

This is a minute-to-minute thing we are to be about…this in the meantime.  

It is not so much a doing as a living. Living in repentance and forgiveness…yes, a Good Friday life…

…but with and in a real Easter too…with our own in mind…with that goal…with sights on the prize.

This sight is not with natural eyes. We would never see it right—or at all that way.

It is not by feeling our way through—it has nothing to do with emotions. I mean we can get emotional—and we will from time to time—that is also part of life.  And He does give us things to look at and handle too—real things…concrete things…

…like people… And His actual Words on a page in a book, and then there is water, bread and wine.

His real and powerful things… given to us. Things that do Eternally lasting things.

This is not just logic and lofty theology either. Although those also are part of it, because God gave them to us and teaches both…as we need both…and we come to learn both, according to the gifts and vocations we have.

But…

It is all rather instead… about faith. Trust. Child-like. Trusting and believing in Him—in Jesus and all that He says and has done for us.

This is about seeing Him and His things—His activity and work here—in the here-and-now…even in and among us…because He is—He has…and He will. That He does so with and in and by people—even in and through us He will work miracles still.

…all by faith we accept this—we trust this to be—we live this…as if it is true…all because He says it is.

In this life Jesus looked like nothing—He died like He was nothing—rejected by both men and God.

Yet to those who are being saved, as St. Paul declares, Jesus is God…and all of this seeming loss and failure is how God accomplished salvation and the restoration of His whole creation.

By death on a cross no less!

And so, walking in this… is walking by faith…faith that is according to His Word…which is walking in this life with Him…in Him….in His Word…as He is the Word—this living in our baptismal Grace…in that forgiveness—morning, noon and night…until Easter.

Forgiven and forgiving.

This is the work. Repent. Believe. Trust. Forgive. All else happens of its own self…as we will walk right into everything that we are to do—that He has put there for us. We will work it out there…here… in this—with Him. This is where it all happens—the only place…

Amid the richness…the earthy…the real…in the midst of real life—yes—your real life…with all that suffering and also all the joy…that He gives…right here…right in the day-to-day. Wherever you are. Whatever you do.

Forgiven and forgiving.

By Flesh, Blood, Water, and Word.  And so too we also die as He died…but then…but then we live as He lives now!

In death comes the resurrection. It is almost time. This is Friday, but Sunday is just two days off.

Amen.

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