Dear friends in Christ.
This morning I want to share a story with you. It’s a story that I told the students of Minnesota Valley Lutheran High School when I conducted chapel there this past Thursday. It’s even a story that I have permission to tell, because I asked Joshua if I could tell it. I asked Joshua if I could tell it because it’s his story. It’s the story of our son and how he started having seizures when he was just two years old. Though Laura and I knew something wasn’t right, at the time, we didn’t know that he was having seizures. Though from time to time we would see him just stop doing what he was doing, stare off into space and start smacking his lips, almost as if he was trying to breath like a fish, we really didn’t understand what was happening at the time. Though we saw his lips turn blue while this was happening, we thought he might be holding his breath through the pain of something like acid reflux, because the lip smacking instances happened mostly during meal times. (It was only later that we would learn that those are text book symptoms of seizures.)
So, we did what any parent would do when something isn’t right with your child, we took Josh to our local doctor. Though our local doctor was actually a Physician’s Assistant, he had always taken good care of us and we trusted him. Though I remember him saying something about seizures, there was something in what we said to him that suggested these symptoms might be heart related. So we started Josh out on a range of tests for his heart, which he passed with flying colors. He was given a clean bill of health, and his lip smacking episodes even stopped, that is, until around his 3rd birthday; for it was around his 3rd birthday that the seizures began again. However this wasn’t the lip smacking we had seen a year earlier. This time his eyes would move to the left corner, his face would grow slack, and he would simply be unresponsive for anywhere between as little as 30 seconds and as long as 3 minutes. After a series of tests, an EEG and an MRI, the Doctors discovered that it was a brain tumor, a brain tumor that he had been born with, that was causing Joshua’s seizures. You might remember the whirlwind of activity as we quickly set everything in motion and headed up to Children’s Hospital where Joshua was scheduled for a 3 – 3 ½ hours surgery. He spent a day and a night and part of another day in the ICU, and then 3 more days in the hospital. Though these were some traumatic days for our family, we cannot help but thank the Lord and return our love to him for all the love that he showed us even through those difficult days.
We cannot help but thank the Lord and return our love to him for all that he has done for us! If you think about it, what better theme could there be for a Christian’s life! My life is all about returning my love to the Lord, because of all the love that the Lord showed me. For the truth is, when it comes right down to our natural born condition we were not much different than my son. In the same way that he was born with a tumor growing in his brain, we were all born with the tumor of sin, so to speak, growing in our hearts. Each and every one of us, were, at one time controlled by our sinful nature in the same way that my son was controlled by his seizures. But unlike my son who was controlled for only a few minutes, we were controlled for every second of our lives. There was no relief for us! There was no nope for us! We were residents of the hospital ward of this sinful world, being wheeled down the hallway of life on our way to our rooms, the rooms of eternal death and damnation that were prepared for us at the end of the hall. There was nothing we could do to change our condition! There was nothing we could do to change our fate! We needed radical surgery, and that is exactly what Jesus provided when he went to the cross.
As we’ve been taught since we were little children, God’s solution to our inborn problem of sin was to simply remove it; completely! When God our Father sent his Son to the cross, our surgery was begun as the Father applied the suction of his grace removing every single sin from our hearts. Those sins of lying, cheating, stealing, cursing, swearing, speeding, and every other sin we ever committed; they were removed from our hearts and placed on our Savior Jesus. Every single sinful thought and sinful action—all of them!—were removed from our hearts and placed upon our Jesus our Savior! Each and every sin that we had ever committed, are committing even now, or will commit until the day we die; every single spot and blemish of in within us was removed and placed upon our Savior’s shoulders! Our Savior, who, without any form of anesthesia endured the punishment of hell itself, in our place, so that we would be forgiven. In his grace, God, our Father, burned his Son at the stake of the cross, with the flames of hell so that our sins might be forever burned away forever, and we would be declared not guilty in the eyes of the Lord our God. However, that is not the end of the story. For when the Lord our God made his exchange, removing our sins and placing them on Jesus, he did not leave us empty. Rather, the Lord our God filled us with our Savior’s righteousness, innocence, and holiness. He filled us with our Savior’s holiness so that through faith we would be declared not guilty of any of our sins, we would marked brothers and sisters of Jesus our Savior, and known as God’s righteous children through faith in Jesus.
This is the love that the Lord Jesus our Savior poured out on us, and this is the love that now moves us to return our love to Jesus Christ our Savior. This, in fact, is the love about which Paul is writing as he writes in our lesson today, “Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)
As Christians, who all their lives have been taught about what Jesus did for us, we cannot help but be moved by the Love that Christ Jesus our Savior poured out upon us. We cannot help but be moved to live for our Savior now that he has freed us from our sins and brought us into a right relationship with our heavenly Father. Though we were once residents of the hospital of this sinful world, being wheeled down the hallway of life to the room of eternal death and damnation that had been prepared for us, because of the surgery the heavenly Father performed on our hearts, we have been moved to the recovery ward. We are free to move about the hospital. We are free to talk to those who have not yet received the surgical message of Jesus’ crucifixion, death, and resurrection. We are even looking forward to the day when we will be completely healed by death so that we might finally leave this hospital and return home to the rooms that Jesus, himself has prepared for us in the halls of heaven.
This is the great love that the Lord our God has poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who called us to faith in Jesus our Savior. This is the great love that now burns within our hearts as a great fire, heating the boiler of our actions until the Holy Spirit throws the throttle and the locomotive of our love begins its return journey to our Savior. For the truth is, the love which Christ has poured out on us is the very love that compels us to return our love to him by making the most out of Sunday morning; sending our children to Sunday School, gathering for Bible Study, and gathering together in worship. Even though activities like this might take 3 – 4 hours on a Sunday morning, it is through these very activities that we hear the Word of God and are strengthened in our faith. It is Christ’s love for us that moves us to return our love for him by watching our words and our actions, whether we are here in church, walking down the street, talking on the telephone, texting, facebooking, emailing, youtubing, playing with our friends, or simply sitting in the comfort of our own homes watching TV. It is Christ’s love that moves us to return our love for him by folding our hands in prayer to thank him for all the blessings he gives us day after day, to express to him our joys, our sorrows, our hardships, our heartaches, our frustrations, and yes our thankfulness. It is Christ’s love for us that moves us to open the Bible for ourselves to read what is recorded on those amazing pages so that we might grow in our faith all the more. This is the love that Christ poured out on us when he went to the cross. This is the love that now burns in our own hearts, kindled by the love our Savior has given us, and this is the love that we long to return to the Lord in everything we say, think, and do.
This is the kind of love that Laura and I have expressed to the Lord on many occasions for returning to us a healthy, energetic, and loving son. Though his surgery was completed over four years ago, every time I see that mark of victory, that beautiful mark of God’s love and faithfulness on the side of his head, I cannot help but thank the Lord for all that he did for our Son. A surgery scheduled for 3 – 3 ½ hours was done in 45 minutes. A hospital say that was scheduled for 7 days lasted only 5. All the complications and problems that could have arisen, because of your prayers and the Lord’s blessings they were all put to rest as the surgeon was easily able to access and remove the tumor completely. Though I know that some of you have been through even more difficult things than we I pray that you, like we have seen our Savior’s love, revealed in those situations. I pray that you have been moved, like we have been, to return your love to your Savior. I pray that in the same way that we see our Savior’s love in the victorious scar that now adorns the left side of Joshua’s head, you see all your Savior’s love in the arms of the cross. I pray that each and every time you look at this, or any cross, you are reminded of the amazing love that the Lord poured out on you through Jesus’ death and resurrection. I pray, that moved by that love, you continue living your life, making every effort to return your love to Jesus Christ, your Savior.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
