Five years ago, March 7, 1999, Epiphany held its first worship service at the Drinkwine Mortuary Chapel on south Perry Street.  Against the well-meant advice of a few, but with the blessing of District and most area churches, we ventured out on a limb to let the Lord show us what He could do.  And He has not let us down.  It's been five years from mortuary to our own church, five years from a timid band of searching Lutheran Christians to a strong congregation, five years from dreams to exciting realities, a new church home and faithful friends.  And all this because of the Lord's power, and what He can do for His own.

          I thank the Lord for all His tender mercies shown us over these past five years, and, for that matter, over a whole lifetime.  There are times when I have to marvel at how God makes things happen in ways we could not imagine.  The Psalmist says, "Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him and He will make it happen." (Psalm 37:5)   We make our plans, but God makes them happen, and in the manner He has in mind.  Yes, it's not always been perfect.  We've made some blunders, but there has always been far more good than bad.

          Twenty-two years ago this spring I saw something I've never forgotten - a Holstein cow on a freeway in southern California.  This cow should have been standing out in some pasture or feedlot with other cows.  Instead, she was munching her lunch on a tiny grassy portion of the median between the east- and west-bound lanes of Freeway 91 near Riverside.  How she got there I don't know, probably from one of the huge dairy farms near Corona and Norco.  But this cow was in a fix.  If she were to go to the left, she'd be hit by the westbound traffic, and if she were to go to the right, she'd be hit by the eastbound traffic.  Forward there was a cement abutment and backwards was a freeway overpass.  The best thing for her to do was to stand exactly where she was, because just at that moment people from Police Animal Control were pulling up to try and save her.  I didn't hear anything about it on the news, so I assume they finally captured her and took her back to the dairy farm where she belonged.

          Now what does a cow have to do with today's Bible text?  Paul is writing to the Christians in Philippi to stand firm in the Lord.  Stay where they are in their faith!  He wants them to hold fast to the teachings he taught them, teachings of the Gospel, the chief doctrine of faith in Jesus Christ.  He wants them to continue producing the fruits of faith, following the example of Paul and others, so that they won't be slammed by false doctrine.

          That's excellent advice for us.  If you and I are not careful, we, too, can stray from reliance on Jesus to a life of works-righteousness or even lawlessness.  Like the cow in the middle of the freeway, moving to the right or left can mean destruction.  So we need to remain centered in the Gospel.  We must remain steadfast in the Lord, resisting temptations of Satan and the world.  If we stick to the Lord, He will guide us in the right path and lead us in the right direction, no matter what "fix" we may find ourselves in.

          The Apostle Paul used himself and other Christians as examples of standing firm.  Paul had experienced strong opposition from his own people as he preached the good news about Jesus.  He'd been imprisoned, whipped, beaten with rods, and even stoned.  In addition to his physical suffering, false teachers contradicted his teachings, and disrupted his little churches wherever he established them.  His enemies taught that righteousness depended on their obedience to the rules and regs.  They taught the same old religion in a new covering.

          But Paul did not give in to that business for a moment.  The truth of the Gospel was that people are saved only by faith in Jesus, not by following rules.  He stood fast despite persecution and opposition.  He later wrote, "The Gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.  For in the Gospel...it is written, 'the Just shall live by faith'." (Romans 1:16-17)   Being firm in the Lord means standing up for Christ.  It means standing against those who would pervert the Gospel.  Standing firm means staying put in the Truth, regardless of the different directions people want to push us.

          There are two different streams of traffic that would cause us to lose our foothold on the Rock of Christ.  One stream would try to make Christianity into a religion.  "But," we say, "isn't Christianity a religion?"  Not really.  Christianity is faith in God through Christ.  Religion is becoming righteous through obeying rules.  Religion looks good, but it makes us enemies of God.

          Religion is mankind's attempt to save itself, but Christianity is God's attempt to save us.  Religion tries reaching up to God; Christianity is God reaching down to us.  Religion seeks to gain God's glory; Christianity gives us God's humility.  Religion is all about us; Christianity is all about God.

          A religion of obedience looks good on the outside, but it drives us away from Christ, because we can never be good enough.  Paul's concern for his Philippian Christians, and my concern for you today, is that you stand firm in Christ, not letting your faith in Christ become religion of works.  My hope is that you're not following Christ because you have to, but because you want to.  My wish for you is that you receive His Word and Sacraments for what they are - God's gifts to you, giving us the benefits of His life, His death, and His resurrection.  Jesus is not another Law-giver like Moses.  He is our Savior, and anything that would add or subtract from what He did on Calvary is wrong.

          The second stream of traffic that would cause us to get run over is lawlessness, using faith in Christ as a license to sin.  Paul writes in Romans that, "If you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live." (Romans 8:13)   Lawlessness gives people the excuse to do what they want, while justifying their actions from personal interpretations of the Bible.  When they have an opinion, they find a Bible passage to support it, usually taken out of context.  Lawlessness finds reasons to support anti-biblical positions on social issues.  Lawlessness justifies civil disobedience, or assisted suicide, or abortion, or same-sex marriage.  Lawless Christians care more about what they personally believe than what the Bible actually says.

          You see, by our Baptism, we have died to our sins with Christ and have been raised with Him.  Believers actually are dead to sin, but alive to God.  Therefore we do not let sin control us.  We need not be dragged around this way and that by sinful desires.  In Christ, we are new, created to do good works, not to get saved, as religion tells us, but because we are saved.

          But for those who let their flesh rule their lives, their end is not salvation, but destruction.  Their god is their stomach and its appetites.  They do whatever they want, whatever pleases them.  They do not live in repentance, confessing their sins, seeking and imploring God's grace for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ.  They don't care about the Spirit who can help them turn from sin and live better.  Their mind is on themselves, on whatever they want, not what God wants for them.  So St. Paul tells the Colossians, "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God." (Colossians 3:1)

          What are these things we should have our hearts set on?  Paul tells the Philippians, "Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." (Philippians 4:8)   Paul writes here as an Apostle.  He doesn't represent himself; he represents God.  All Christians today are ambassadors of Christ wherever the Lord has placed them.  What we say and do reflects what we believe and confess.  We must take care lest we be swept away by any current that would separate us from God's Truth.

          Yes, at times we act like we're still slaves to the Law, or we act like lawless pagans.  But we have God's promise to help us stand firm.  We have His sure Word that when we fail, He will rescue us from the traffic that will run us over, and that He will bring us back when we stray.

          In the 1980's, 12 year-old Amy Alden of Newfoundland, Canada, found a clutch of 16 small goslings whose mother goose had died.  She brought them home and fed them and quickly they grew and became family pets, all 16 of them staying mostly on her front porch.  But Amy wanted them to succeed in the wild, for she knew if she fed and cared for them, they would never learn to live on their own.  So Amy and her father, a pilot, build an ultra-light aircraft shaped like a huge goose in flight.  Her Dad taught her to fly it and somehow they coaxed the young geese to follow it.  Then Amy flew the small craft more than 2,000 miles south to the Atlantic wetlands, a wintering ground for Canada geese.  Amy left them there, not expecting to see them again.  But surprise of surprises, the following summer, all 16 geese returned to Amy's front porch.  They didn't stay, but often returned and never forgot their home.

          You and I may stray awhile in life, but by the mercy of God, we, too, will come home.  We know where to return.  We may follow the world's enticing sounds, but God's sweet voice is never far away to bring us back.  May you and I always stand firm in the Lord, no matter where we may stray, or how long it takes for us to get back.  Amen

Copyright © 2004 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.