Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2006 : February 12, 2006

Theme: Christian, Choose: The Couch or the Cross

Church year occasion: Epiphany 6

Isn't it amazing what we can do in the information age? Soon we will have little TVs on our phones so we can see the person we're talking to. How did people communicate way back when -- before e-mail and cell phones? They used their feet. Pheidippides used his feet, but I'm sure he would have used e-mail if he had had the chance. 500 years before Christ was born, the Persians were invading Greece at a place called the plain of Marathon. It looked hopeless. The Greek army was outnumbered 2 to 1. But the Greeks won. According to legend, the Greek commander sent Pheidippides the 26 or so miles to Athens to tell them of the victory. Pheidippides ran the whole distance, delivered his message of victory, and dropped over dead on the spot from, basically, too much running. Our modern-day marathon is based on his legendary run.

What's the point -- that getting in shape might kill you? No, actually just the opposite. When it comes to our lives as Christians, the Apostle Paul actually uses the picture of a race, and also a boxing match, to get his point across. Paul's point is this: as Christians, you have a choice -- you can choose the couch or the cross. You can be a couch-potato Christian or a cross-carrying Christian. Your choice will have eternal consequences. So Choose, Christian: The Couch or the Cross.

If you're like me, the responsibilities you have as a Christian can be a little overwhelming. Can you think of some of your responsibilities as a Christian? If you are in school, you think of all the school work that you have to complete, sometimes wondering why you have to do it in the first place. You might not even have an idea what you want to do with your life, what you want to be. It seems that you have to follow all kinds of rules all the time. Add to that the fact that you are in so many activities that you don't even have time to think. Add to that just trying to fit in when kids can be so cruel. And on top of that think how cruel kids can be when you talk about Jesus regularly to them. It's tough. It can get so tough you might be tempted to think, "What's the point?"

Parents, you're the ones that get to take your kids to all the activities they're in. You have your own work and your own things you need to do, but it seems like you are always living your life according to the schedules of your kids -- they're ruling you, instead of the other way around. (I'm sorry, I should have had the kids cover their ears for that sentence.) And then you who are fathers or a woman who is divorced or widowed are supposed to be the spiritual head of the family. You know you should have family devotions but you just don't have time. You know you should be getting into the Bible yourself if you're going to be a good Christian father or mother, but it seems that everything else crowds it out. It's tough, isn't it? It can get so tough you might be tempted to think, "What's the point?"

But that is exactly the point! We need to see what the point of being a Christian is if we're going to be the Christians God wants us to be. Rick Warren had the idea in his book, The Purpose-Driven Life. It's been a phenomenon. It seems that every Christian wants to know what their purpose is. A Christian with no purpose is a sad thing indeed. Paul compares it to a person running a race, but doing it aimlessly. That's not how a race should be run. A race needs to be run with one thing in mind -- the finish. Paul says is verse 24, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." If you're not running to win, why are you running? Some -- if not most -- people run marathons not to win the race, but just to be in it. Sometimes our Christian lives can get like that. We lose our focus on our eternal goal of heaven and instead get bogged down with the things of this life. We become "of the world" instead of just "in it." We just go through the motions but our hearts aren't in it, like going to church because it's just what we do, but not because we really want to be there. We know what we ought to be doing and thinking and saying as a Christian, but it's so hard. It's so much easier to just sit back and let others do it. After all, a Christian isn't saved by works but by faith. But James says that "faith without works is dead." A Christian who is looking for excuses not to live as a Christian has chosen not the cross, but the couch.

But Paul continues his illustration. There's a lot that goes into a race before the runner steps up to the starting line. There's preparation, and a lot of it. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. Paul was talking to the Corinthians who were familiar with the Olympic Games and actually had a variation of the Olympic Games themselves called the Isthmian Games. We're familiar with the modern Olympic Games, which started again just a few days ago. But back then, what did those athletes get who spent hour after hour in strict training? If they were good enough to win the race they were in, they didn't get a gold medal, they got a crown of leaves -- the ancient version of a trophy. It was their whole purpose while training to get that prize and the fame that came with it, no matter what the cost, no matter how strict the training, no matter how much pain. Here's Paul point: If athletes train and train and train and get into the best shape of their lives for a chance at winning a race for which they get a trophy that will eventually wilt and perish, how much more shouldn't Christians strain toward the finish line of this life at which time they won't get an insignificant crown of leaves, but will receive the crown of eternal life! That's what death is for the Christian -- it's crossing the finish line in first place!

Then why don't I see that all the time? Sure there are days when I am fired up for the gospel, and there is nothing that can stop me from sharing my faith with someone. But it seems like more often I am not running the kind of Christian race that I need to be running. It seems that all too often I have chosen to be a couch potato Christian instead of one that willingly takes up my cross and follows Jesus Christ my Savior and Lord. What a sad thing to see a Christian running his Christian life without purpose. When you find yourself running aimlessly or running without a focus on heaven and your eternal crown, take a look at why you call yourself Christian in the first place. In other words, before you can look ahead to the finish line and heaven, you have to look behind to see the cross behind you that enabled you to see heaven ahead.

God knew how prone his creatures were and are to failure. God knew that his own creation hated him by nature and wanted nothing to do with him. He foresaw every time when we thought it just wasn't worth it to live the way God wanted us to live. But he sent his Son anyway. God knew what we would do to his Son, we would crucify him. But that didn't stop the Father from sending his Son, and it didn't stop his Son from going straight to the cross for us sinners either. When Jesus was tempted even by his own disciples to stray away from his purpose and not finish his race which ended at Calvary, he would not be dissuaded. Jesus kept going through temptation, through hunger, through misery, through torture, through floggings, through horrible crucifixion and even through the pains of hell itself to get to the finish line. Not once did he turn aside; not once did he waver. He did what had to be done. And he got the prize. He won eternal salvation for himself because he was perfect, just as God demanded. But Jesus' purpose was to give his prize away -- to you and every single sinner that ever lived and will ever live. He did that when he died on the cross. That is what you see behind you. You see the cross. The blood-stained cross that held the body of the sinless Son of God. But there is something you also need to see about that cross -- it's empty. Jesus work is done. He rose from the dead.

What does that mean for you? It means that Jesus won your salvation. Simply believe that eternal life is yours through Jesus, and it is. When you look behind, you see what the all-merciful God has done to forgive every single sin you have ever committed, including being a couch-potato Christian. Jesus already won your race. The prize of heaven is already yours through faith. Now the only thing that awaits you is the full reality of it after you have completed your earthly race as a Christian. Your crown will never fade or perish.

Imagine a gold medalist coming to your door this afternoon and giving you the gold medal he won. Would you thank him for it, or would you sell the medal to buy something you really want? It's your choice. When we lose sight of the cross behind and heaven that awaits us during our earthly life, we lose sight of our purpose as Christians -- living for Christ who lived and died and rose for us. So not only must we run life's race with purpose, we must also fight our flesh with perseverance.

Paul says, "Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air." Just as a person doesn't run a race without his goal in mind, so also a boxer doesn't want to throw punches that don't hit his opponent. When a boxer throws a punch, it can be a bad punch in two ways. It can either be a half-hearted punch, in which case it doesn't hurt the other person at all if it lands, or it can be a full punch that completely misses. In that case, the boxer leaves himself open for a punch from his opponent. What is Paul trying to say? Who is the Christian supposed to be fighting? Himself. "I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." Paul had to constantly be fighting against himself, his Christian part fighting against his sinful nature. It is the same with every Christian. Our worst opponent is ourselves. How easy it is for us to hit cruise control in our Christian life. We could just go through the motions. Every once in a while we might show our faith and let our light shine, but too often we are just too comfortable sitting on that comfy couch. And then when God sends some adversity into our lives to test and strengthen our faith, we wonder why.

Paul knew how deadly his enemy was. He knew that his sinful flesh could lull him into a false sense of security. "I'm a Christian. My eternal life is assured. I don't have to do anything to get it. Christ did it all for me." Yes, all of that is very true. But God also wants us to fight the fight of faith, or we will lose it. As Lutherans we're good at emphasizing the fact that we are saved by God's grace alone through faith alone with no work on our part. And that's good -- we need to emphasize what Christ did for us. But we can never forget that we do cooperate with the Holy Spirit now as Christians. We don't help in any way in our coming to faith, but we do help out after we have come to faith. We have a choice as Christians: We can choose the couch or the cross. We can choose to neglect God and his will or we can choose a life that submits our will to God's in everything, even in the difficult times when we must suffer for being Christians. We can go about our Christian race aimlessly. We can swing at thin air by going through the motions of being a Christian but having no substance. We can choose the couch. Or we can choose the cross by marveling in the Word of God every day by reading it and meditating on it every day. We can choose the cross by taking the opportunities we have to take the Lord's Supper for the strengthening of our faith. We can choose to remember our baptism every day through which the Holy Spirit made us his own child and we can, in the words of Luther, drown our Old Adam everyday when we think of what Christ has done for us. We can choose the cross by living for Jesus no matter how painful it might be, by giving generously to the work of the church even though it might mean not going out to eat as often.

Really, there's no choice at all, is there? We just need the constant reminder -- the cross is behind you on which Christ won your race. Now the cross guides you in your earthly race and fight of faith. God has given you the prize of eternal life. So choose: the couch or the cross. Amen.