(Sermon by Pastor Michael D. Schultz 02/25/07)

INTRODUCTION:

How many here today are fans or regular viewers of the television show The Amazing Race?   Apart from the occasional beeping out of bad language, it’s a show we can probably talk about in church because it’s fairly innocent and harmless – figure out the directions, chase all over the world and cross the finish line first.  All the teams are in hot pursuit of the same thing – first place.

A big part of that race is getting it right.  Go in the wrong direction or take a wrong turn and you’ll get so far behind that you can never catch up.  But being right is something people are passionate about even if they’re not in a race.  Haven’t you ever heard two people arguing about something and they both insist that they’re right?  It was Italy.  No, it was France.  It was 1983.  No, it was 1986.  And just like that race, people will go to the ends of the earth to prove themselves right.

God knows that we’re all after something.  Today we’re going to call it…

The Pursuit Of Righteousness

Righteousness (or being right with God) is a term that gets tossed around in church an awful lot, so just think of it as the need to be good enough to be in the company of God.  We would chase and race to the ends of the earth to have that.  We do, when we manufacture our excuses to excuse our behavior, when we hack and slash at others to make ourselves feel more worthy of God’s approval, when we come up with every reason imaginable to show that our wrong was really all right.  We’d go to the moon for it.

There’s a better way.  It’s as if you’ve knocked yourself out doing everything a person could do to be good enough to be in the company of God and you’re nursing blisters and battling dehydration and into your driveway pulls the FedEx (or UPS or DHL) truck, and the driver comes through your door, walks to your recliner and puts the package on your lap.  “Here’s what you were looking for.”  That’s God’s way of delivering righteousness.

The word is near you.  God has baptized, preached and communed Christ’s righteousness right into you.  It’s not in the mountains of Tibet or buried in the desert or hidden on the moon.  It doesn’t take any amazing race or any Herculean effort to get it.  As he did when he spoke the stars into existence, God gave you Jesus’ goodness when he spoke faith in Jesus into existence inside your heart.  Of course he did, your mouth says so every time you say the creed and confess that Jesus is Lord.  Being good enough to be in the company of God is a description of you because God put the truth about Jesus your Savior as close to you as it could be – in your heart and on your lips. 

So what do the scriptures tell you today?  Anyone who serves him will never be put to shame?  Anyone who loves him will never be put to shame?  Honors him?  Does his best for him?  Anyone who is a responsible church member will never be put to shame?  Brings in the most new members, gives the most money, volunteers the most time??  If that’s how it works our pictures would be posted on the wall of shame. 

So that that would never be the case, Jesus was posted on a cross of shame.  The shame of hearing God say, “I never knew you,” the eternal shame of hearing that forever in hell apart from God is the shame Jesus suffered while he was on the cross.  How could he endure hell like that?  Because he had you in his sights.  “As horrible as it is, bearing this shame is nothing, knowing that the results of my suffering hell will be their inheriting heaven.”

The Pursuit of Righteousness?  To be right with God?  To be good enough to be in the company of God?  Stop chasing after it.  Stop trying to manufacture it.  Don’t work to get it.  It’s been given to you.  Whatever you would be most ashamed of and everything you ought to be ashamed of have all left the earth and the galaxy and the universe and even the memory of God.  God’s Son, Jesus, saw to that by keeping God’s commands and sufferings God’s curse for us.  Listen closely now:  Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.  There’s no pursuing of righteousness.  There’s possession of righteousness.  It’s like being ready to start the amazing race and Jesus says, “Congratulations. You’ve won.”

What are you going to do with that (this status of being holy before God that you’ve been given through faith in Jesus)?  You didn’t have to work at all to get it.  But God would have you work hard to give it.

For all of us to think of ourselves as God would have us think of ourselves and for all of us to treat each other as God would have us treat each other, it is important to remember that there’s no difference between any of us.  Long time members of this church are no different than recent members.  Lifelong Christians are no different than new Christians.  Church background, age, gender, race – irrelevant.  Attended a Lutheran school, a Christian school, a public school, home schooled or never made it past third grade – no difference.  God had to turn all of us around to see and believe that righteousness can’t be gained, it’s only given.

But without comparing ourselves or elevating ourselves over others at all, there is one difference that we should talk about.  Plenty of people are still running the race, looking for righteousness in all the wrong places.  Isn’t it tremendous that God promises to work through people (like you and me) and preaching and teaching and witnessing, so that you can actually talk to someone and tell them, “Hey, you can stop running.  You can stop chasing all over creation to set yourself up as someone whom God should love.  Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  Shame gone.  Punishment for sin already given out.  Christ’s goodness is for everyone.  It is yours, no conditions, no requirements to be met, no strings attached.  The bad news is that God requires pure goodness.  The good news is that he’s given it to you, the pure goodness of Jesus.”  Working hard to get that message out is pleasing to God and it is powered by God.

In Christ, God has richly and equally blessed all of us.  Instead of getting derailed by everything that’s wrong in the church and the world around us, I’d say it’s time to get excited again about how God has declared everyone right with himself through Jesus, and to remember that there’s nothing better that believers in Jesus can ever do than to rejoice in that truth, live to thank God for that truth, and give everything they’ve got toward letting that truth be heard.

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