Pastor’s Notes for 4th Sunday in Lent, B Date: 3/15/15Theme: God So Loved the WorldBible Ref’s: Numbers 21:4-9; Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22; Ephesians 2:1-10; and John 3:14-21.

Prayer of the DayO God, rich in mercy, by the humiliation of your Son you lifted up this fallen world and rescued us from the hopelessness of death. Lead us into your light, that all our deeds may reflect your love, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Brief Sermon Outline: “By Grace, Through Faith”Focus Stmt: The goods of grace come to us extra nos, thru our faith relationship w/ the triune God.1. “Grace” is the catch-all term for all the goods we receive from our triune God—Father, Son & H.S.

There are too many goods to count. Consider all the graces we receive from God our Creator: in the vast expanse of the cosmos, this garden planet set aside (sanctified) as our home; the divers-ity of life God sustains; the way creation feeds all our senses; our purpose to serve/preserve earth

2. With God the Son, we receive all the graces of salvation: in place of God’s judgment/wrath, we re-ceive the grace of God’s mercy/compassion; exchanged for our sin is Christ’s own righteousness; instead of guilt & anxiety over our sin, we’re given the hope of the resurrection, eternal life/peace; instead of being cut off by sin/evil, we receive promise of Christ’s abiding, sacramental presence.

3. And then when we try to count the good graces we receive thru the H.S., how can we even begin to count them all? Thru the Spirit we’re given the wherewithal to hear the gospel of God’s uncondi-tional, unfailing love for the world in J.C.; thru the Spirit, we’re given to discern God’s will, “inter-preting spiritual things to those who are spiritual” (1Cor. 2:13); to empathize with a groaning cre-ation, truly wanting what’s best for our neighbor/neighborhood; the Spirit guides us into all truth & we acquire the mind of Christ, desiring to reconcile all things to God, building all things up in love.

4. This is by no means a comprehensive list of blessings, but hopefully it brings home the reality of how little we can actually take credit for ourselves. Everything good in life comes by the grace of God; even to recognize that deep dependence on & blessing from God is itself grace upon grace.

5. It all comes (as theologians say it) extra nos (“outside ourselves”)—which begs the question, “How does this happen that we receive it? How are the goods delivered?” To which we humbly answer, “Thru faith.” The goods of God’s grace come to us thru faith—& faith is the real, but not always ap-preciated, relationship we have w/the triune God who graciously chooses to relate to us extra nos.

6. We are saved “by grace thru faith” as creatures lovingly interrelated—united by grace thru faith—and what the triune God accomplishes in the world “by grace thru faith” is what we call “ministry.”

7. The constant human temptation is to take credit, or to boast about, the good things we see happen in the world. But this little phrase “by grace through faith” really helps put it all in right perspective.

8. Hear, then, this passage again from Ephesians 2, to hear with fresh ears how these two spiritual realities of grace and faith interact in perceptible and imperceptible ways to deliver the goods that sustain our lives, that save us from pride and despair, and give us a reason, a purpose for living:

“But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together w/ Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”

9. What we hear in Ephesians is a more personalized articulation of grace, just one aspect of the more expansive vision of the gospel we heard at Jn. 3:17 that, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world [the cosmos] might be saved through him.”

10. The little Lenten project we’ve been doing w/ the children, “40 Days of Growing in God’s Grace,” brings to our faith relationship a growing awareness of all the ways God’s grace impacts our lives and contributes to the overall wellbeing of creation—sometimes thru us, sometimes in spite of us.

11. As folks who more & more learn to appreciate God’s love for the world as we mature in faith, we really want to maximize God’s grace flowing thru us & reduce the times of grace in spite of us.

12. And so we pray, “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Luther explained, “the good & gra- cious will of God is surely done without our prayer, but we ask in this prayer that it may be done also among us.” Grace happens, but we pray that grace would happen thru us, not in spite of us.

13. So how do we get to that place of a mature faith—not merely to get out of the way of God’s grace, but actually to participate in God’s grace, boldly to serve as means of God’s grace in the world?

14. Well, it starts w/ intentionality & w/ prayer. May God give us all the grace to grow in faith these 40 days of Lent & all the days of our life, created/sanctified for good works by our loving, triune God.

Hymn of the Day: “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me” (LBW #327, ELW #)

Children’s Sermon <We continue with the “40 Days of Growing in God’s Grace” activity for Lent. We also discuss how our faith relationship w/ God helps us see & give thanks for all the graces God gives us & the world.>

The Word(Numbers 21:4-9) From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. 5 The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” 6 Then the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

(Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22) 1    O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever. 2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, those he redeemed from trouble3 and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the

south.17    Some were sick through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities endured affliction; 18 they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. 19 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress; 20 he sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from destruction. 21 Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind. 22 And let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices, and tell of his deeds with songs of joy. (Ephesians 2:1-10)You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up

with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

(John 3:14-21) And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16   “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17   “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20 For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

Sermon Notes

Augustine versus PelagiusIn the fifth century, a debate that affected the understanding of grace in Western Christianity, and that was to have long reaching effects on subsequent develop-ments in the doctrine, took place between Pelagius and St. Augustine of Hippo. Pelagius, an ascetic who is said to have come from Britain, was concerned about the retention of human's moral accountability in the face of God's omnipo-tence. He strongly affirmed that humans had free will and were able to choose good as well as evil. Pelagius denied that original sin had extinguished God's grace in Adam's heirs, and that consequent-ly humankind had the power to do good, to convert themselves from sin by their own power, and the ability to work out their own salvation. Religion's purpose is to teach us virtue, from which we can ex-pect reward from God. By great efforts, it is possible for those in the flesh to achieve moral perfection. Pelagius' seemingly optimistic creed in fact burdens weak mortals with a burden too great to bear, or at least this was part of the response of St Augustine. More importantly, it does not clearly ex-plain why Jesus Christ had to die for anyone's sins; if humans can redeem themselves by their own efforts, atonement by Jesus on the Cross was at best a vague sort of moral example. The taint of original sin did extinguish God's grace in humans’ souls; no matter how righteously they conducted themselves, their virtues could never make them worthy of the infinite holiness of God. Humans are massa peccati, a mass of sin; they can no more endow themselves with grace than an empty glass can fill itself. While we may have "free will" (liberum arbitrium) in the sense that we can choose our course of conduct, we nevertheless lack true freedom (libertas) to avoid sin, for sin is inherent in each choice we make. It is only by God's sovereign choice to extend his grace to us that salvation is possible. Pelagianism was repudiated by the Council of Carthage in 417, largely at Augustine's insistence. The Eastern Orthodox Church, as expressed in the teachings of John Cassian, holds that though grace is required for humans to save themselves at the beginning, there is no such thing as total depravity, but there remains a moral or noetic ability within humans unaffected by original sin, & that humans must work together (synergism) with divine grace to be saved. This position is called Semi-Pelagianism by many Reformed [Lutheran, Anglican and other] Protestants. A similar teaching is Arminianism, but Arminians believe in total depravity.

Adapted from the article “Grace (Christianity)” on Wikipedia