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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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The Measure of Our Love |
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Peter 2: 19-25 Second
Sunday after Easter April
6, 2008 The Second Sunday after Easter is often called “Good Shepherd Sunday” because the readings for Holy Communion refer to Christ as the Good Shepherd and the Shepherd of our souls. I want to talk about those same passages of Scripture, but instead of focusing on Jesus as the Good Shepherd I want to place the emphasis on us as the Good Shepherd’s sheep. On Easter Sunday I spoke about the Crucifixion of Christ as the measure of God’s love for you. Real love is measured not by feelings of desire but by sacrifice. Thus, someone who is unwilling to make sacrifices for you does not love you. Desire is about receiving. Love is about giving, and sacrifice is the highest, in fact, the only form of real love. The central point of all Scripture is this; God loved you enough to make the ultimate sacrifice, He died for you. Now the question arises, how much do you love God? This question forms the foundation for the New Testament book we know as First Peter. It was written by St. Peter, the fisherman turned Apostle, a man who knew what it means to sacrifice for Christ. It was written to people who were being called upon to make their own sacrifices by standing fast for Christ, even in the face of opposition and persecution. And here we have the first measure of our own love for Christ, namely, do we love Him enough to suffer for Him? The recipients of this letter were probably Jewish Christians who had been forced to leave Jerusalem because of the persecution that caused the death of Stephen. Now, living away from their homes, shunned by their families, facing ridicule and possibly even violence because of their faith in Christ. These people had to ask themselves if they loved Christ enough to endure these things. It has been well said that one of the greatest “proofs” of the truth of Christianity is the complete transformation of the first disciples. From a confused and frightened group of zealots who deserted Christ and even denied knowing Him, they became the Apostles of the Kingdom of God willing to lay down their lives for Christ. If they had stolen the body of Christ, and fabricated the story of His Resurrection, would they have been willing to die for it? Not likely. Peter, who denied Christ on the very eve of the Crucifixion, later died himself by crucifixion. If he had made up the story of Christ’s Resurrection, he would have admitted it rather than face the unimaginable suffering of the cross. The other Apostles also died painful deaths by slow torture. Do you think they would have all died that way for a lie? Not likely. It was the truth of the Resurrection that put the iron in their wills and the fire in their bones. And now, in this letter, Peter asks these people, many of them, perhaps converted under his own preaching on the Day of Pentecost, to persevere in the faith even though they are persecuted for it. Love Christ enough to make the sacrifice. We have not had to sacrifice blood or life in the service of Christ, thanks be to God. Ours has been a particularly easy time in which to follow Christ. Our battles have been fought more with our own flesh than with persecution. Yet, they are battles. And the sacrifices we are called to make are sacrifices. We may have to sacrifice an hour or two of sleep in order to devote some time to prayer and Scripture. We may need to sacrifice that round of golf in order to be in our pew to worship God on Sunday morning. We may need to sacrifice the good will of friends, or even family to go to church. We may have to leave cherished ties in a church that has compromised the Biblical faith and practice to attend one that intentionally remains true to the Scriptures. We may need to refrain from joining dear friends, even family members in activities that are sinful. We may need to do things they will never understand but which we know God demands of us, and we may loose their love and respect because of this. And when we are weighing our options and making our decisions, it always seems to come down to one question; do I love Christ enough to do what is right? Do I love Him enough to make this sacrifice? So, the first measure of our love for Christ is willingness to sacrifice our comforts and desires for Him. The second is our willingness to sacrifice our sins for Him. Peter calls this, “being dead to sins,” (1 Pet. 2:24.). It is difficult to imagine a more complete break with anything than death. It is absolute. It is permanent. On my Great-great-great Grandfather’s grave marker is a poem. I have not been able to decipher all of it, but one part of it reads, “We see the empty chair.” I can imagine that empty chair, the one he sat in to preside over Sunday Dinner after Church. The chair at the head of the table, from which he led the family in prayer before the meal. But he is not in that chair anymore, for he is dead to this world. His break with it is complete. That is how complete our break with sin is to be if we are following Christ. We are dead to it. It is dead to us. It is dead to us because we have killed it. We have sacrificed it on the altar of our love for Christ. I am not suggesting that any Christian is free of sin in this life. I am saying, because Scripture tells us so, that we who follow Christ are constantly being called upon to be sacrificing our sins for His sake. We live in a constant condition of making this sacrifice, because once is not enough. Our sins keep being resurrected, and must be re-crucified on a daily basis. Just as Jesus was nailed to the cross, so we nail our sins to the cross and bid them die there. How do we know we love Christ? by the way we sacrifice our sins for Him. The third way we know we love God is that we are willing to live unto righteousness. This is really the other side of the coin of being dead to sin. You cannot be dead to sin if you are not also living unto righteousness. You cannot live unto righteousness without also being dead to sin. You cannot have one without the other. Thus St. Peter wrote, “that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness,” (1 Pet. 2:24). If death is the ultimate break, life is the ultimate joining. And Peter is calling upon his people to join Christ so completely, fully, and ultimately he can best describe it as living in Him. But Peter also uses another metaphor. He talks about returning to the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. The picture here is of sheep that have gone astray. They have gone their own way, heedless of the Shepherd’s will, heedless of the Shepherd’s call. But now they have returned. It is not merely that they happen to be going in the same direction as the Shepherd. It is not that they happen to be grazing the same field as His sheep. It is that they have joined His flock. They have joined Him. From now on they follow Him. They go where He goes. They go when He goes, and they stop when He stops. From now on they are not their own shepherds, they are the Good Shepherd’s sheep. You could say they have sacrificed their autonomy to accept Christ’s leadership. If it is true that someone unwilling to make sacrifices for you does not love you, then it is also true that you do not love someone for whom you are unwilling to make sacrifices. Your sacrifice is the measure of your love. This is even more true in our relationship with Christ than in our interpersonal relationships with people. The plain fact is, we do not love Christ if we are unwilling to sacrifice for Him. Let us pray. Holy God, Your love counted no sacrifice too great for us, not even the sacrifice of the Cross. By Your grace and Spirit enable us to love You enough to sacrifice for You. In the Mighty Name of Christ we pray. Amen. The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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