Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Here is a warning. My official opening statement of this sermon is going to shock you.

To know God, to experience God’s love, to remain in and enjoy that love, you must follow God’s commands.

I can see some of you sitting there shaking your heads in full agreement. I can also see some of you sitting there with your heads cocked to one side , with a puzzled look on your faces, looking much the way many dogs do when you issue a high pitch whistle. To those of you in the first category, listen carefully to this sermon. To those of you in the second category, please do not pull your cell phones out of your purses or pockets and call the Bishop. You also listen carefully to this sermon.

To know God, to experience God’s love, to remain in and enjoy that love, you must follow God’s commands.

The puzzled-looks people are mainly those who have been raised in the Lutheran Church or at least have been around the Lutheran Church for many, many years. Some have even studied Lutheran theology, formally or informally. The puzzled-looks people are looking particularly puzzled this morning because that opening statement doesn’t sound very Lutheran. We Lutherans tend to be very Johannine and Pauline in our theology. We love statements from the pens of St. John and St. Paul, making them the first Bible verses we memorize and the first Bible verses we teach our kids, statements like “For God so loved the world that He have His only begotten Son” [John 3:16] ; statements like “For it is by grace that you have been saved ... and not by works” [Ephesians 2:8-9]. We Lutherans tend to emphasize grace and God’s grace alone. We Lutherans tend to have ingrained radar that sounds a piercing alarm whenever anything sounds even faintly reminiscent of works righteousness.

The opening statement this morning seems to set off those ingrained radars. The opening statement this morning seems to fly in the face of Johannine and Pauline and Lutheran theology. Listen again to that opening statement:

To know God, to experience God’s love, to remain in and enjoy that love, you must follow God’s commands.

I am hoping that the more times you hear that statement the more likely you are to stop accusing me of preaching false doctrine and the more likely you are to recognize that those are not my words but that they are, in fact, a paraphrase of the words of Jesus Himself in our Gospel today: “If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love” [John 15:10]. Just try accusing Jesus of false doctrine! Not even the Bishop would listen to you!

So if that statement is not false doctrine – and it is not – we owe it to ourselves to figure out what Jesus meant and why His statement causes many of us to experience internal distress.

Let’s take Jesus at His Word. If we must follow God’s commands to know God, to experience His love, to remain in and enjoy that love, where would you stand? Wait! Don’t answer that! I think I know the answer. It’s probably the same answer I would have to give. And, honestly, it’s not a pleasant answer.

So let’s not answer that question for ourselves. Let’s take the burden off ourselves and let’s answer that question as objectively as we can on the behalf of Adam and Eve. They, after all, were the hand-made expressions of God’s love. Hecho en Dios. Made in God. If anyone should have desired to “remain” in God’s love, it should have been Adam and Eve. To them, God gave but one command, didn’t He? “My children, I love you. What’s Mine is yours. Mi casa es su casa. It’s all yours. Just one thing, one little thing. Don’t eat from THAT tree.” God didn’t say it at the time, but the future words of Jesus were His intent: “If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love” [John 15:10].

How did they do? Genesis chapter 3 doesn’t give us a time frame. It doesn’t tell us whether it took 30 seconds or 30 years, but it does tell us Adam and Eve couldn’t even keep that one command. They ate from THAT tree. It does tell us they broke the one command God gave them. It does tell us that God was not pleased – and that’s putting it mildly. It does tell us that for the first time in their lives, Adam and Eve experienced fear [Genesis 3:10] because they had fallen out of love with God and it produced within them internal distress. And that internal distress – and ultimately God’s punishment for not obeying that one seemingly simple command and falling out of love with Him – would pass to Adam and Eve’s children and to their grandchildren and to their great-grandchildren and to their great-great grandchildren, ultimately to each one of us, so much so that it usually seems pretty hopeless to even consider keeping one of God’s commands. It usually seems pretty bizarre to even contemplate being in love with God, much less remaining in that love.

Yet, my friends, it is not hopeless for you or for me. There is still to this day but one command that allows us to remain in God’s love. It is not a command that is found in the Old Testament alongside the Mosaic Law, the Ten Commandments. It is not a command that is a proof text in Johannine or Pauline theology. It is not even a command in the seemingly legalistic New Testament Book of James. For that matter, it’s not even technically a command, but rather the heart desire of God for each of us, spoken again by Jesus Christ Himself: “Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom You have sent. I have brought You glory on earth by completing the work You gave Me to do” [John 17:3-4].

What was that work Jesus completed? All those commands we are not able to keep, Jesus kept for us. That priceless relationship with our Creator-God, seemingly lost forever because of our inability to keep His commands, Jesus has gifted to each of us. That heavy burden of having to perfectly fulfill the law and present a perfect report card in order to savor just a passing moment of God’s love and favor, Jesus has carried for us.

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” [1 John 4:10]. “Greater love has no one than this, that He lay down His life for His friends. You are My friends if you do what I command” [John 15:13-14].

What is that command? It is, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to know God’s heart, to believe that Jesus died and rose for you. It is in keeping that one singular command, and even that empowered only by God’s own Spirit, that we eternally remain in God’s love.

Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena