1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word on this 4th Sunday in Lent is taken from 2 Cor. 5:16-21, it’s entitled, “The Joy of Our New Life in Christ,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Historic lectionaries call this Sunday Laetare, from Latin “to rejoice.” Even during this season of repentance and sorrow over our sins, the Christian rejoices that with repentance comes forgiveness, life, and salvation through Christ’s death and resurrection. This joy is expressed in our Old Testament Reading. Isaiah records a song of joy because God’s anger is turned away and the people receive his compassion. “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Is 12:3). This is a personal joy, but it quickly moves to a national and universal level: “Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 12:6).
3. So, this Sunday we have great joy for those who are reconciled in Christ Jesus! Christ Lutheran, an LCMS congregation in Gilbert, AZ, has midweek services that reach out to the homeless and working-poor. Recently a woman visited one of those services and shared with the church some personal needs that had caused her to be separated from her five children. The church was able to assist her getting a placement at a residential shelter home that offers help to women who have addictive behaviors, who have been abused, or who suffer with life-controlling problems, as well as women who have small children. Since completing this program, this woman has been restored to custody of one of her children, is working full-time, and is able to provide housing and necessities for her daughter. Not only that, but her four other children were able to move through the foster care system successfully and be placed back with their father. It’s not perfect, but five children were restored to relationships with at least one of their parents. That Lutheran Church prays for them—that God would give each of them the joy of family. Certainly, it’s given the Lutheran Church at Christ Lutheran Gilbert, Arizona joy to see their Lord beginning to reunite them. Jesus is at work to reconcile the world, and there is great joy for those reconciled to God and one another by Jesus’ death and resurrection.
4. Selfish living—which is really living apart from God and others—is not joyful living. By nature, we’re all living for ourselves. Paul says that being a Christian means “the old has passed away” (1 Cor. 5:17), even that “all have died” (1 Cor. 5:14). But I don’t want to “die” or lose myself for another. This is the natural worldview that our culture fosters with advertising that promises we can always be young and beautiful, with thinking that says I can always be what I want to be, even with technology that isolates individuals from working together. Paul says we should “regard no one according to the flesh” (1 Cor. 5:16), but this is exactly what we’re doing—not seeing all people as created in the Creator’s image.
5. As a result, we don’t think about sharing the truths of the Gospel with others. There are many reluctant witnesses who do not see the charge of following Jesus to include sharing the faith with anyone. “In 1993, 89% of Christians who had shared their faith agreed this is a responsibility of every Christian. Today, just 64% say so—a 25-point drop” (“Sharing Faith Is Increasingly Optional to Christians,” Barna Research, accessed April 28, 2021, https://www.barna.com/research/sharing-faith-increasingly-optional-christians/). This is all actually a denial of the reconciliation that Christ has secured for all creation on the cross. It’s saying that I’m on my own, not joined together with God or other people.
6. But there’s no joy in that. See through the lie, and look more closely at how lonely life is when we’re not connected to anybody else. It was a family occasion and one of those now-rare opportunities for Dad and Mom to have a conversation with their now adult kids. Nothing planned, just dinner conversation, but once a question about parenting came up, they always had wisdom to share. Their children were parents now too—and their spouses were with them here around the table while the next generation was out of earshot at their own “kids’ tables.” “When you guys were young, we talked with you often about how other people might be feeling.” “We talked about how you can forgive the class bully and invite the new kid at school over to play to feel welcome.” “We talked a lot about how blessed our family is and how maybe some kids have it tougher at home, so we always want to be sensitive to that.”
7. The life reconciled in Christ—back together with God and others—is joyful living. In the cross of Jesus Christ, “God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (1 Cor. 5:19). We are back together with God because the sin that separated us from him has been removed when Jesus died for it. That makes us all new creations with a new life. We have died, and now we’re alive, brand new. God’s children are not refurbished or repaired. No, they are made completely and utterly new in Christ Jesus.
8. In this new, reconciled life, there is great joy. During Lent, this Sunday serves as a respite from the season’s penitential character. Even while we weep and mourn because of our many sins, God’s mercy is greater than our sin. “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Is 12:3), Isaiah sings—joy in the midst of all that besieges the world. In Christ, we are righteous and completely new already now and even more fully at his return. Even though in this life many things attack us because of sin, unbelief, the evil one, and death, we can be resolute in our joy because of Christ.
9. A great joy of this reconciled life is bringing others back together with God. God has now entrusted to us the message of reconciliation: “We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (1 Cor. 5:20). Followers of Jesus Christ are made new and are then sent to proclaim the story, the message of reconciliation, to the world. Each one of us has a unique role in this ambassadorship.
10. And being ambassadors of the reconciled life to others is one of our greatest joys as Christians. Speaking the Gospel is prompted by the Holy Spirit through his promises fulfilled in Baptism. We who are reconciled to God and each other in Christ Jesus have great joy for all eternity. What greater joy can there be than seeing others share the same joy?
11. The delight over at the “kids’ table” was obvious. You could hear the banter, the squeals. The cousins loved being together. And back at the big table, they understood why. There’s real joy in living not just for yourself but also for others. Christ has done all the living—and the dying—for us, reconciling us to God and to each other for eternity, leaving to us the joy of living for others. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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