|
The Rev. Frank
Logue
A Marked Man There is a story told from World War II of a Marine being surrounded by enemy troops following intense fighting on a tiny island in the Pacific. The Marine is cut off from the rest of his unit. With no way to reconnect to the other men, capture, if not death, are certainties. But the Marine sees the entrance to what looks like a cave among the lava rock of the hillside. He crawls in to discover that it is really only a deep niche in the rock. Within a mile of the enemy advancing on the hill and with little more than enough room for him to hide among the rocks, he is sure to be discovered within the hour. The Marine begins to pray as he awaits death, which is more likely than capture after the tough fighting that has been taking place for this speck of land in the vast ocean. He prays for his parents, his brothers and sister. He prays thinking of the wife he’ll never have and the life he’ll never lead and then he dares to pray for salvation. Not the salvation of his soul, for he had already trusted God with that and did not doubt his faith as he hid in the shallow cave. As he prayed and waited listening to the sounds of advancing enemy troops, he saw a spider making a web across the front of the cave. At first, he was fascinated by the spider’s work, but as the sounds of the enemy army grew, the Marine became angry. He poured his heart out to God in prayer. He desperately wanted a solid wall of rock between him and those who wished him dead, but all he got for his fervent prayers was a gossamer thin web. Now I don’t think this Marine was thinking exactly about our reading from First John as he hid, but it was the same idea that went through his mind as his faith wavered and anger rose. For John wrote in this letter, And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him. The Marine knew that he had boldly asked God for his salvation in the here and now and rather than a wall of protection, he received a spider’s web, which was more of a nuisance than anything. Perhaps you have already figured out how the story turned out. For when enemy troops made their careful check of the hillside, the rocky entrance to the cave was covered by a spider web. It was obvious that no American soldier would be in there, for the elaborate web would have to have been made the night before. With only a glance that direction, the enemy troops continued walking. Under cover of darkness, the Marine made his way back around enemy lines. He slipped through the shadows and back into his own camp with boldness as God had already offered protection once that day—the spider’s web becoming a mighty wall of protection between him and those who wanted him dead. In the Gospel reading for today, Jesus tells prays on behalf of his disciples, “I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.” We Christians are not to be removed from the world, but to be protected in the world from the evil one. What does it mean to be protected from the evil one? Jesus is speaking of Satan here, personified evil, evil incarnate as it were. That is not exactly the same as protection from enemy troops in battle. So how do we make sense of this then? The story I just told, I heard myself as a true story. If it was true, then what about the 382,600 American soldiers, sailors, and Marines who died in World War II? Were not at least tens of thousands of them more faithful Christians than the one? Where was their hedge of protection? Even if gossamer thin, wouldn’t they too have wanted and deserved their own holy armor? Almost certainly they would have wanted that kind of protection. Probably many thousands prayed for it. Maybe they even deserved it, earned it. But 382,600 still died and many thousands more were injured. So we know from experience that our Lord who left us in this world did not mean that he would protect us from harm or death. The protection from the evil one for which Jesus prayed was for a spiritual protection within a spiritual battle. In that battle, the soldier was given the grace to lean on the faith he already had in Jesus. In what could have been his last moments, he found the strength to believe that his salvation was certain and he prayed first for his family and then for a chance to continue his life. The spiritual battle was won and would have been won whether he lived or died. In the introduction to Anthony Bloom’s book, Beginning to Pray, there is an interview with the author. Asked about his father, Bloom recalls a time when he returned from vacation and his father told him he’d been very worried about him. “Why? Did you think I’d died?” the young man asked. “No,” his father replied, “that wouldn’t have made any difference. I thought you’d lost your integrity.” His father than went on to tell him that the two most important things in your life are what you are willing to live for and what you’re willing to die for. Bloom’s father was right, of course. There are worse things than dying. And the most important things in your life are those things that you are willing to die for, and those for which you are willing to live. Jesus himself was put to death and so he was not praying that his disciples would not suffer or die. In fact, he promised that those who follow him could and would face persecution and even death. What Jesus both prayed for and promised was protection even within testing and death. Jesus knew how difficult it is to live a godly life here in a world turned fundamentally away from God. Jesus knew temptation and betrayal and Jesus knew suffering and death. And what Jesus offered was strength in temptation, support in betrayal and the power of the Holy Spirit to have faith in suffering and hope of the resurrection in death.
Joe, as a truth in advertising statement, I need to make sure that you understand that in baptism, we will welcome you into the household of God. We will stand alongside you and proclaim our faith as you proclaim yours. And today you will be sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever. Please notice that last line. “Marked as Christ’s own forever.” This is a wonderfully amazing gift to know that you belong to Jesus for all eternity. In our reading from First John this morning, John wrote, God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. So Joe you leave here today with blessed assurance—assurance that you are sealed by the Holy Spirit. You have eternal life and that eternal life begins not when you die, but today in baptism. But know also that you leave here a marked man. The oil on your forehead will soak into your skin. By the time the service has ended, no one will see it. But that mark will be there. This, by the way, is the antithesis to the mark of the beast in Revelation. Rather than the mark of the beast, we are marked as Christ’s own forever. Making today a public proclamation of your faith in God through his Son Jesus Christ, you also open yourself up to charges of hypocrisy. You are saying now that you intend to live a Christ-like life and we know that you won’t always live up to it any or much more than the rest of us. So someone might feel that you profess one thing and live another—that’s hypocrisy. But that’s OK. Being called a hypocrite is the least of your worries. You will also face temptation and soon. For no one makes significant steps toward God without then facing some opposition. Remember Jesus did not ask that we be removed from the world, only that God be with us in the world, protecting us from the evil one. But the evil one we battle is not out there somewhere, for the battle will be within your heart. The solution is also found within your heart as that is where the Holy Spirit also resides. You are a marked man. How would you live if the cross I mark today on your forehead were marked with a Sharpy rather than with oil? Of course, that is a question not just for Joe, but for each of us. What if you were marked on your forehead with a cross tattoo so that everyone would know that you are a Christian? Would it change how you live? Would it change the way you talk? What about the jokes you tell? On those last two, I can give some advice. Any conversation or any joke which begins like this [look back and forth to see if anyone else is listening] is probably something better left unsaid. Would being marked as Christ’s own forever change the way you drive? Would it change the way you shop? Would it change the way you surf the Internet? How would being marked as Christ’s own forever change you if everyone you knew and everyone you saw always knew that you were trying to follow Jesus? These are questions to consider as you are marked men, marked women, marked boys and marked girls. You have been sent out into world to live to the best of your ability as Christ would live. You are called to conform your life more and more to Christ’s example, striving to have the same mind in you as Jesus own mind. You have nothing to fear from the evil one even as you face death itself, for greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever. Amen.
|
|
In just a moment, we will welcome Joseph
George Ratulowski into the household of God. Joe has worshipped with us from
time to time while visiting St. Marys to be with his daughter Tine Luers, his
son-in-law Scott and his grandchildren Aiden and Keira. Joe was with us for
Keira’s baptism last October and back at Easter with another baptism and along
the way Joe knew that he had faith in Jesus Christ and that he needed to
publicly proclaim that faith and be baptized. As Scott Luers has received
order and this is the Luers’ families last week to worship at King of Peace, I
guess we have come down to the wire. Time for Joe to make that commitment has
come. 
