& you're not gonna believe it

when you shake off / what's weighing down heavily

Another sermon on Jesus' (better) Sermon (on the Mount)

Who here would like a deeper discipleship, a more satisfying spirituality, or a fuller faith?

*Raise hand.

…Don’t worry. We all do. There’s not a one of us here who graduated from godliness.

Whatever else you make of such a notion, you can at least take comfort from the fact you’re in a good place today. 

Now, I don’t mean that you’re making progress in the pursuit of perfection. Don’t hear that by any means! If anything, we’re all in terrible arrears when it comes to that benchmark. And I don’t even mean that you’ve made it to church, either. Although, that is closer to my meaning than some cockamamy Christianity.  

No, I’m talking about how holy Scripture has taken us to a good place. Today, by the power of the living word, we find ourselves at the foot of that great mount where Jesus gives his most famous sermon. And in today’s portion of this sermon, Jesus turns his attention to the disciplines of discipleship. And who better could there be to spur on our spirituality?!?

You’ll notice, however, that Jesus spends much more time telling us what faithfulness isn’t! Doesn’t he? Apparently, when it comes to spirituality, Jesus is more concerned with telling us what it isn’t rather than what it is! 

The discipleship Jesus describes doesn’t begin with what we should do. Instead, it’s a matter of what we’re not to do!

It’s an strange tack to take. Isn’t it? Usually, when it comes to training, you start with what you should do. And then, only after some headway has been made do you begin the process of refinement. Jesus, though, as usual, does things precisely the other way ‘round!

Now, let me just come out with it and tell you why. Bear in mind, though, this is such a cross-shaped “why,” it’ll sound like the most ludicrous thing I could say up here. But if you hang with me, you’ll see what I mean. 

And seeing as you can’t get up and leave anyway, I’m not going to worry about how odd what I’m about to say sounds. Furthermore, by the time we stand on the other side of this sermon, what I’m about to say will sound like the very beginning of wisdom.

Have I piqued your curiosity? Good. Here’s the reason Jesus begins by telling us what discipleship isn’t: because piety is our pitfall! Yes, piety is our pitfall.  Believe it or not, it’s obedience that leads to disobedience! Because it’s your commitment that’ll entice you to believe you have it in you to work Christ right off the cross!

…Let that sink in. And while it does, I’m going to make another scandalous statement. I’m not even going to ask if you’re ready this time, either! 

Do you know who the first spiritual advisor was? The devil! It’s true! He was! And he got in on the racket early, too; in Eden.

There Adam and Eve were, with absolutely everything they could ever need for life with God and more. BUT one day, while the cuss was trying to scare up some business, the snake went to the young couple with a proposal. Good as things were, this world’s tyrant crooned, there was still room for improvement. 

Then, the old liar laid out his scheme. All these two needed to do was reach for a little more, the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. Then, with that in hand, their life in paradise would really get started, Beelzebub bluffed.

Now, remember, like all temptations, the deed didn’t look mischievous. On the contrary, it appeared downright wholesome! The old satanic foe wasn’t tempting Adam and Eve with wickedness. No, he was tempting them with godliness.

We call this moment “the fall.” But that’s not exactly right. Is it? Adam and Eve didn't DEGRADE themselves. Why they tried to seize the exact opposite! They tried to improve themselves! If they “fell,” it was an upward descent. 

Take the fruit, the serpent said, and you’ll be like God. And what could be wrong with that?!? What problem could there be with being a little more godly? The temptation wasn’t devilishness, it was godliness.

As we now know, though, that wasn’t the beginning of a new and improved spirituality. Was it? More like the opposite. It was the end of their unencumbered communion with the Creator. They lost touch with the one who set the stars in their courses and fired the breath in their lungs.

The difficulty when it comes to discipleship isn’t what we expect. It’s not godlessness. No, that’s small potatoes for God. The real problem is piety.

When it comes to God, the threat isn’t vices. It’s your virtues! Because it’s only your virtues that tempt you to imagine YOU don’t need God!

…Christ does discipleship backward because everything is topsy-turvy on this side of Eden! And Christ isn’t here to help you adjust to that. In fact, by the time he’s through with you, you’ll be maladjusted to the injustice of it all, as brother Cornel West likes to say!

No, what Christ has come to do is flip this world’s script! So that means if your world is upside-down today, you’re on the right side of Christ right now! Discipleship doesn’t begin when you finally decide to get your act together. No, faith is born where your piety lies dead! 

In other words, true spirituality is life in reality!

And what this means is YOU already have everything Christ needs to make real faith for you today! And not in any intellectual, theoretical sense, either! No, Christ climbs the mountain today to really give you the goods!

Here, we just riffed on Genesis, so let’s do a little more. When God created all this, what did God use? What was the preexisting material of creation?

That’s right! Nothing! Darkness and chaos. The raw material of nothing!

Nothing is everything God needs! Nothing is choice lumber in the kingdom of Heaven! Nothing is the foundation of everything God has in store for you today!

When it comes to faith, God works out of nothing! And we all have plenty of that! Don’t we? In fact, you have more than you know.

That sucking void on the edge of your life, that dull numbness of grief on top of your chest, your boredom filling your head, and even your distraction over these very words, I know all that feels like a whole lot less than nothing. But it’s truly more than everything Christ needs! Everything that’s grinding YOU down to nothing is all God is using to build up a strong foundation of faith for YOU today! 

Today! It’s ALL yours right now! Yes, it may not SEEM like much, but for Christ, it’s more than enough! More than enough to give YOU everything, and eternity, too!

Moreover, on that great Last Day, you’ll find you wouldn’t trade any of this for anything on earth! It’ll be your ground for boasting. Your sword and shield victorious! Your hope against hope! Your treasure that nothing on earth could match!

And it’ll be right where all your losses, shortcomings, bad breaks, disappointments, griefs, anxieties, fears, and failures are reconciled once and for all, too! Christ intends to give you more than was lost in the so-called fall! There’s nothing you can lose that Christ won’t restore unto you a thousandfold.

…What the cruel oppressor wants you to do, though, is trade all that for nothing! The hoards of devils want you to make nothing out of all your something in Christ! And the wretch is so awful as to even use discipleship!

Like Adam and Eve in the Garden, the serpent holds the fruit of an idealized discipleship before you. And while that may sound good, it isn’t real! And that’s exactly what the old foe wants you holding when it’s all said and done, nothing.

Today, however, Christ comes to intervene! Christ climbs the mountain, parts his lips, and tells you what only HE has authority to, all your nothing is everything he needs! And he doesn’t just say it, either! No, he does it, too!

All your nothing is everything Christ uses to make ALL the faith you could ever need!

Sure, an idealized discipleship that always succeeds and never facing anything that can make life so hard SOUNDS good, but it’s not real. And the thing about Christ is, he is! What’s more, he’s for real life! And so is the faith he’s come to give you, too! 

And this faith is the wellspring of true discipleship. This faith has the grit to make spirituality blossom within the vagaries of reality itself! And that’s what we need. Isn’t it?

Well, good! Good, because that’s precisely what Christ has given you! And more, too! In fact, you already have it all!

…Here, close your eyes! I mean it! Close them. It’ll help. Remember? When it comes to faith, you must pluck out your eyes and place them in your ears. And that’s what we’re going to do. 

Close your eyes. Let this old world pass away. It is anyway. Closing your eyes just helps you see this more clearly.

OK. Now, I know how this works. No sooner do you close your eyes than nothing but the awfulness of this past week comes flooding in. That’s OK. You’re safe here. Let it.

Now, LISTEN to this: on account of Jesus Christ, everything that’s flooding in on you is all Christ is using to build a place for you in the very vault of heaven! And Christ has the power and the authority to do this, too! Christ went to the nothing of the tomb and emptied it out to fill it with the everything of his resurrection!

Whatever it is that’s tearing you apart is everything Christ is using to put you back together! Only now, in his image! Now your wounds are Christ’s! And in turn, his wholeness is all YOURS!

…You can open your eyes now. Nothing has changed. Has it? But trust me, everything is different! 

God has just created something out of all your nothing! Christ has just forged a new YOU out of you! And the Holy Spirit has just given you something so much better than your own steam to run on, too!

God has crammed more into this old life than you could ever hope to count! And now YOU have the faith to dare to look for it! What’s more, you even have a faith that’s bold enough to look for God’s blessings especially where they appear most absent!

And dearly beloved, when you have all that, what more could you ask for? Nothing, that’s what! You already have it all! 

And that’s why we’re going to sing. Open your hymnals to hymn 838, Beautiful Savior.

Go ahead. Find this hymn while the Holy Spirit brings this part of the sermon home. I want us to leap into the hymn. Beautiful Savior; ELW 838.

…Music is the native language of faith. And its homeland is all those places in life our voice falters. Faith, though, picks up the song in those moments. And, contrary to all expectations, it sounds sweeter and stronger there, too!

Beautiful Savior; ELW 838.

This song is a request. And it comes from someone who stared into the void. And guess what? They heard a resurrection SHOUT right there! Didn’t you? You heard a song that chased away Death and filled it with life ETERNAL! Didn’t you?

Beautiful Savior; ELW 838.

And so, seeing as Christ is doing no less for us right now, we’re going to lift OUR voices and join that great never-ending hymn! That hymn already in progress! The hymn that raises the dead and brings into existence the things that are naught. 

This means, by the way, all your nothing is everything you need to belt this hymn to the rafters! OK? Ok! Let’s go! 

Beautiful Savior; ELW 838