On this Father’s Day we remember and honor our
fathers for who they are and all they’ve done and sacrificed for
us. Where would we be without our fathers? Where would we be
without the love and care they’ve shown us? If your father’s
alive you probably bought him a Father’s Day card and plan on
visiting him today, or calling him, to let him know how much you
appreciate him. If he’s not alive, you probably wish he was, so
you could tell him, “Thanks, Dad, for everything you did for our
family when I was growing up.”
Today being Father’s Day, it’s ironic that our
reading from St. Paul’s epistle to the Romans forces us to think
about another father and his legacy to us. That legacy is all
around us. It’s in the headlines of the morning paper and the
news stories broadcast on CNN about the latest casualties in
Iraq. It’s brought to our attention by the EMS vehicles that
blaze past us on the highway with lights flashing and sirens
wailing. It’s seen in the anxious faces of family members who’ve
accompanied a loved one to the emergency room. It’s written
large in the grief-stricken expression of the mourners in the
receiving line at a funeral home visitation. We’re reminded of
that legacy every time we step across the road into the cemetery
and see the headstones of people we’ve known and loved.
The legacy I’m referring to is sin and death,
passed down to each of us by Adam, the father of our human race.
The Scriptures put it this way, sin entered the world
through one man (Adam), and death through sin, and in this way
death came to all men because all sinned. Sin and death
are the gift that keeps on giving. Every generation that’s born
receives this bleak inheritance. Every baby conceived is an heir
of Adam’s sin and guilt. Death ticks like a time bomb in every
member of our fallen human race.
What traits did you inherit from your biological
father? Maybe it was the color of your eyes, or the shape of your
nose, or your musical aptitude or a tendency to be nearsighted.
Maybe it was your sense of humor or a gene that makes you
susceptible to cardiac disease. Our fathers pass down all sorts of
things to us – some good and some bad. But as the fruit of his
disobedience Adam passed down to each of us a fallen, sinful
nature and a body that begins to die as soon as it is born. It’s
as though Adam’s last will and testament read:
And to all my descendents I leave sin and death.
You can’t read the newspaper or watch TV without
being reminded of the reality of sin and death. Murders, rapes,
robberies, divorces, abused children, accidents, terrible diseases
are all evidence that sin and death are real. Let’s make it more
personal. One day it will be my name and your name written in
black on the obituary page. One day it will be our family gathered
around the grave, bidding us a tearful farewell. One day it will
be our name, date of birth and date of death, carved into the
headstone.
According to the Bible, death is not a natural
part of life. On the contrary, the Bible teaches that death is the
unnatural termination of life. Sin and death had no
place in that original creation God pronounced very good.
Our human race was created in the image of God, to know
Him and to love Him and to receive with thanksgiving the good
gifts He had to give. There was no death in the world because
there was no sin.
Death came into the world through the sin of
Adam. Now death has spread to all people, the Bible says, because
all have sinned. The wages of sin is death, the
Scripture says. My death will be the final, incontestable proof
that by nature I’m sinful and unclean. You can’t argue with death.
This man was a sinner, death will say once I draw my last breath.
Death will say the same about each one of you.
That’s the bad news. Now before we get to the
good news, I want to ask you a question. Have you ever known
anyone who starts to tell a story, but they get distracted in
telling it so they never get to the ending? They may begin to tell
something funny that happened to Uncle Frank, but then begin
reminiscing about what a wonderful chocolate cake Aunt Sophie
could make, and that leads to a tale of how cousin Joe got into a
hornets nest at his birthday party one year, and before you know
it you’re listening to an account of the big flood of 1947. And
you never do find out what happened to Uncle Frank.
Well, something similar happens with Paul in
today’s epistle reading. Paul never explicitly finishes the
thought he started when He wrote, Therefore, just as sin
entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in
this way death came to all men, because all sinned -- The
second half of the sentence which would complete the thought isn’t
there. Rather, it’s implied by what follows. Paul can be a very
complex thinker. He’s a first rate mind whom the Holy Spirit used
to teach us about the reason we find ourselves in such a
predicament with sin and death. So in the first half of that
sentence I quoted, Paul tells us the bad news about sin and death,
but he leaves the good news unspoken until several verses later.
But this is good news worth waiting for. And to a human race
afflicted by sin and suffering and death, it’s the very best news
of all.
So to complete the thought, let’s throw in the
second half of the sentence the way Paul could have written it:
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and
death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because
all sinned – and here it comes! here’s the implied
completion!– so now God gives His gift of forgiveness and life
through Jesus Christ. God gives us sinners His gift of
forgiveness and life through Jesus Christ! In a world of
finger-pointers and blame-dealers, God specializes in the
forgiveness business. In a world where death leers at you on every
street corner, God is there handing out His free gift of life in
Christ. The old joke says that funeral home directors conclude
their correspondence, “eventually yours”. They’ll get you sooner
or later. But God tells us in the Gospel hat forgiveness, life,
and salvation are ours now by grace, through faith
in Jesus Christ. By grace you are saved, through faith,
God says. We don’t have to wait.
Here’s the way it is. You and I are united to
Adam by our physical birth. Adam’s genes and His sin run in each
of us, and that means that we each will one day die. But by virtue
of our Baptism in the Name of the Triune God, we are united to
Christ. In Baptism we were united to Jesus’ death on the Cross for
the sins of the world. We were united to His resurrection. Through
Baptism we were raised to newness of life and a new status as
God’s redeemed people. By God’s mercy, the sin and death we
inherited from Adam have now been trumped by the forgiveness and
the righteousness and the life we inherit through our Savior
Jesus. That’s why the Scripture says that if anyone is in
Christ he is a new creation, the Bible says. The old
has passed away; behold, the new has come. We were planted
into Christ by Baptism. Newness of life is now ours because we’re
in Christ. We have life eternal now through Jesus!
The trespass of Adam had disastrous consequences
for our human race. All the broken homes, all the neglected
children, all the sickness and disease and death that are so much
a part of existence in this fallen world can be traced back to
Adam’s disobedience. But God’s Word tells us that the gift of
forgiveness, life and salvation which is ours through faith in
Christ isn’t like the trespass. Yes, we all die through the
trespass of Adam, but God’s grace and the gift that came by
the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, now overflow upon
us abundantly through the Gospel!
You know, some people have the idea that coming
to church is supposed to be entertaining. They may hold that idea
with great sincerity, but they’re mistaken. Entertainment is what
we distract ourselves with on the way to the grave. It’s a way of
forgetting for a little while that we’re going to die. The Bible,
on the other hand, brings us face to face with our mortality.
Lord, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days, that
I may know how frail I a, the Bible says. Teach us
to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom,
Scripture says. The Bible confronts us with our sin
and mortality so we can gain a heart of wisdom through faith in
Jesus Christ.
Jesus took upon Himself our human nature so He
could die for us sinners. As God in the flesh, our Lord was
without sin and therefore wasn’t under the judgment of death like
you and I are. But He willingly entered into death for us. He
drank the cup of death in our place. On the Cross He shed the holy
blood that cleanses us from our sin and makes us pure and holy in
the eyes of God. By His death and resurrection Jesus destroyed the
power of death so that joined to Him we can live eternally in His
kingdom.
And that brings us to the real reason we come to
church. Every day sin and death stalk us out in the world, so when
Sunday rolls around we’re smeared and smudged with sin and death.
But Jesus, who died for us and was raised again, meets us here in
Word and Sacrament. He’s present for us in the Good News of His
crucifixion and resurrection, to forgive us and strengthen our
faith. He’s present for us in the Sacrament of the Altar, in which
He gives us His Body and Blood to eat and drink for the
forgiveness of our sins. The Gospel of Jesus Christ brings life
out of death. We come to Church wearing the tattered rags of our
mortality and sin. But in the Gospel Jesus clothes us with the
perfect garments of His righteousness and salvation. It’s not
about entertainment. It’s about the life and forgiveness Jesus
gives through the Word of His Gospel and in Baptism and Holy
Communion.
So while it’s true that we have an inheritance
of sin and death through our father Adam, always remember this: we
have an incomparably greater inheritance of forgiveness, life and
salvation through Jesus. Where sin abounded, grace abounded
all the more. Where death abounded, life abounded all the
more. You are alive in Christ, through faith in His Name. United
to Jesus, you who believe are God’s children forever. Nothing in
all creation can change that fact. That’s your inheritance in
Christ. It’s an inheritance that will never pass away.
In Nomine Patris. . .
