God's Very Important Persons: Romans 5:1-8 - Second Sunday after Pentecost

¹Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ³And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
  ⁶For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. ⁸But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. (NRSV)

Children Playing In The Ocean At Sunset by Royce Bair.  Creative Commons image on flickr

I needed some customer service.  With my account number at the ready, I call the 800-number, and after navigating the labyrinth of menus I hear the automated voice prompt: “all of our associates are busy helping other customers.  Your call is important to us.  Please stay on the line, and your call will be answered in the order it was received.”  Then the on-hold music begins, and I wait.  In my boredom, I count the number of times I hear that voice prompt.  In twenty-two minutes, I hear “your call is important to us” forty-four times.

If I were to take those words at face value, I must be super important—and the CEO of the company would be answering my call.  Wouldn’t that be nice…  But with customer service offering me no resolution to my problem—I know I’m not important.

So how important do you believe yourself to be to God?

Personally, I find this to be one of the most important questions of the Christian faith—because the way you understand your importance to God is going to have a big influence on your relationship with God and your relationships with other people!  And it will have a huge influence on your self-understanding…

So, who are God’s very important persons?

Are they not the most righteous people—who do good deeds and often get recognized for them? 

If you’re important to God, then your prayers are always being answered—and you’re prosperous!  Everything you do, you succeed! 

But who are n.v.i.p.’s, or “not very important people?”  They are the people who’ve committed the big sins.  They have bad reputations.  They are the people you don’t want to move in next door; the people who seem to take from society rather than contributing to it.  They can also be the ordinary and unremarkable people—but especially, they are the less fortunate, who can’t help themselves and whom nobody bothers to help. 

In the end, the devil wants you to believe either 1) you’re worth nothing to God; or, 2) you’re only slightly less important to God than Jesus.  Believe either lie, and the devil wins.  You’ll be imprisoned by shame and fear and hopelessness, or you’ll trample over people to get what you want convinced that it’s okay to do so because you’re so important. 

But this is what God’s word says: “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”  There is no teaching in the bible more important than this.  It is the greatest truth of who God is.  God in the person of Jesus Christ took upon himself the evil we commit against God and each other, and on that cross, he forgives—and on that cross God conquers death and the devil.  Jesus gave his life for the world—but also for you, in particular: “this is my body; this is my blood—given for you.”  With these words, Jesus declares how important you are to him—and there are no conditions, requirements, or restrictions. 

One of the greatest disservices you can do to yourself is to mindlessly brush aside the opportunity to hear those words spoken on Jesus behalf, and eat and drink of the body and blood given for you.

When you believe those words, everything changes!  Prayer takes on a whole new meaning.  You don’t have to question if you’re important enough for God to listen and respond.  God will!  God is not going to put you on hold!

As your importance to the Lord sinks in, your relationships with others will be changed.  Resentment and fear of people is going to go away.  Your self-esteem is going to change.  Instead of striving to be among the “important people,” your sights will be turned to the lost and helpless; the “sheep without a shepherd” as Jesus describes them—the ones who are important to God, but don’t know it because of circumstance and the way people treat them.  A disciple of Jesus is someone who shatters that lie and breaks that boundary-lines society sees so fit to lay down.  After all, you are sent with the Holy Spirit to speak and to do what will make that truth known.

This, I believe, is the supreme purpose of this church—to embody the truth of how much people matter to God.  This is exactly what we did yesterday at clothing closet; it’s what we will do this week at VBS.  It’s not dependent on the clothes you wear or the neighborhood you live; how much money you have or your reputation in the community.  We are sent to the lost sheep of Leechburg and the Kiski River valley. 

But don’t think this is easy.  It takes a lot of love and forgiveness to take someone’s shame away.  It’s not going to be easy or comfortable to serve among people who are different from you.  It’s certainly going to shake up the status quo when you have people coming to church who wouldn’t necessarily fit the mold of “church people.”  This brings as big of a change as would the birth of a new baby or an adoption. 

Importance in this world is about competition.  There are winners and there are losers.  But God doesn’t work this way.  The measure of your importance is in the body and blood Jesus gives for you.  There is no great joy in heaven or earth when a lost sheep gets to hear those words and enter God’s loving embrace, where everyone belongs.