Title: If Anyone Is in Christ
If you read the Gospels, you will find many people with whom Jesus met at the time. They were not intellectuals or powerful leaders, but rather people who were pushed out by the customs and institutions of the society at that time, and those who were branded as criminals by the highly formalized religious standards of the time. If you list them, tax collectors, prostitutes, demon-possessed people, lepers, various physical disabilities, and people suffering from various diseases. But when Jesus came, he met them and became friends. One of the reasons why Jesus was rejected by the religion and society of the time and was crucified was that he did not act according to the ideals and imaginations of the leaders of the leadership. The people Jesus met at the time were condemned and hopeless people who were living a life of hopelessness.
However, these dead people meet Jesus and start a new life. They did not find themselves condemned and hopeless in Christ, but found a new life already forgiven and being prepared anew by God. So they were surprised and delighted. For example, Mary Magdalene, possessed by seven demons, was a woman who sold herself to foreign troops. He meets Jesus and begins a new life. The most important message the evangelists tell us is that those who have been frustrated because they think it is the end have opened a new beginning in God's plan to make all things new in Christ. That is why they were able to give their lives for God and their possessions for the poor. Then, what were the contents of the new life they discovered and experienced in Christ at that time?
First, the wonderful experience of meeting in Christ is an encounter with our Heavenly Father who is waiting at the door. Jesus taught that God is our heavenly Father. God is our Father, and at the same time, He is our Father who cannot be monopolized by me alone. He is our Father who forgives, accepts, and heals us. He is a loving God who wants to have a personal relationship with us. God's thoughts toward us are not judgment, but peace and hope.
A female doctor working as a specialist at a general hospital could no longer hide the drugs she had been taking since college, so she resigned from the hospital and decided to commit suicide. One rainy evening, as he was about to jump into a lake some distance from his house, a small voice saying, “Pray before you die,” suddenly crossed his ear. He immediately knelt on the spot and repeated a few brief prayers, "Oh God, save me." It was a brief prayer, but it was a cry that came from the depths of his heart. After a while, he felt as if a hand was stroking him, and all the heaviness that had been on his shoulder was gone, and his whole body became light as if flying. At that moment, he knew he was completely free from drugs. He was happy to return home and start a new life. In despair, the female doctor met not the God of judgment, but the God who was preparing a new life for him.
The next experience in Christ is to meet a new self that is different from the present. The new self encountered in Christ is an encounter with the reconciled, forgiven, and healed self with God. Let's go back to the female doctor's story. After that, the female doctor was educated and trained to treat drug addicts, and she lived her life for people suffering from drugs just like her past self.
In the case of the female doctor, his self-image in Christ was not a drug-destroying woman. In Christ, such things were overcome, healed, and living a new life for others. It was the image of a beautiful woman who was invited to the throne of God's glory. The self-image we find in Christ is not an empty life that ends in death after struggling with tears, sighs, envy, jealousy, and hatred. That is our new asset that has already been overcome at the cross and is being invited to participate in God's creative work. Anyone who believes in Christ must see a new self in Christ and enter that future. Our battle is with the old man who wants to settle for the old. We must boldly take off the old and replace it with the new.
Then a new life of communion in Christ begins. Fellowship outside of Christ is primarily based on worldly motives, such as politics, economy, nature, school ties, and blood ties. But in Christ it goes beyond that. The communion that takes place at the Eucharist transcends all worldly conditions and meets as brothers and sisters.
The fellowship of prayer, especially as a daily conversation with God in Christ, frees us from false rationalizations, keeps us moving from the old to the new, and leads us day by day into a life of transcending ourselves and obeying God. The fellowship of faith with brothers and sisters in Christ brings us comfort and comfort to each other, and makes us unite as members of the Lord.
"Brothers who believe in the Lord, a friendship of love is like a fellowship in heaven, a very good fellowship. Let's pray before the throne of God, our faith and hope are one in the Lord. When we part, we will meet again while communicating in the Lord, even if it is sad."
“For he, being in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as robbery, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human form, and being found in human form, humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. "(Phil 2:6-8)
The world's authority lies in positions and titles, but the authority in the kingdom of God does not lie in such things, but in service. Jesus does not call us to a place of service, but He calls us to that place by being in a place of service.
Another type of life that appears next in Christ is a life of simplicity, not asceticism. This life is based on deep trust in the God who nourishes the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. Faith that deeply trusts in God accepts “not worrying about tomorrow, but worrying about tomorrow for tomorrow, and one day of suffering is sufficient for that day.” But always live a rich life. Its riches come not from the treasures stored up in storehouses, but from our Father who is in heaven.
Finally, the noble experience in Christ is the experience of freedom from all things. I will close the sermon by introducing one prayer related to this freedom.
“Oh Jesus, set me free.
From the desire to be loved,
From the desire to be exalted,
from the desire to be honored
from the desire to be praised
From the desire to be superior to others,
From the desire to be the object of attention
From the desire for fame,
from the fear of being humbled,
from the fear of contempt,
from the fear of reproof,
from fear of slander
from the fear of being forgotten,
from the fear of making mistakes,
From the fear of ridicule.” ―Mother Teresa―
Dear saints,
Now where do these new experiences come from? It is done in Christ. This new experience begins when anyone is in Christ. Such a new experience is the beginning of life as a new creature.
We are called to this new creature life. We are already in that reality. We must continue to shape the life of a new creature with the help of the Holy Spirit. This life will be completed in the hour of the Resurrection. Amen