Homo Justus: the
Just Person
Agere Sequitur Esse
“to act” follows “to be”
To
act follows being
Sermon for Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008
1.
Good morning. Let’s
pray . . . Amen
2.
Well let me give you the end of the story first and then we
can dig deeper on some other issues OK?
3.
The bottom line for Easter is as simple and as profound as
this: If Jesus actually came back to
life – that he was actually resurrected – then He is what He said He was – God
incarnate!
4.
He defeated death!
5.
Death is no longer our enemy!
6.
We get to live forever and ever and ever – with Him!
7.
I’m betting that he did what he said He was going to do and
because of that I’m a Christian!
8.
A Christ follower!
9.
Easter means - Everlasting life! Life without end! Amen!
10. But the other
reality that I believe our Lord has encouraged us to focus in on is the reality
that we are made in the image of God – that we were made by God and for God but
that because of Adam and Eve’s rebellion in the Garden of Eden sin broke our
intimate connection with God the Father and that the way back to Him was found and
paved for us by His Son Jesus Christ and that way is the way of love –
self-sacrificing love.
11. What Jesus did
was to show us what we were really made of
and for!
12. What Jesus did
was what we were made of and for!
13. Jesus showed us
who we really are!
14. To be made in the
image and likeness of God is to love!
15. And to love is to
give all to the other!
16. Jesus connected
being with action!
17. Think about what
I just said for a moment please . . . . . .
18.
Our being is made in the image of God but our actions are
all too often a denial of that fundamental reality.
19.
St. Paul spoke
about this basic break between our intentions and our actions when he wrote: Rom. 7:18
“I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it
out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I
do not want to do—this I keep on doing. . . .
21 So I find
this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body,
waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of
sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body
of death? 25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus
Christ our Lord!
20. This is our
fundamental dilemma but “Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
21. For He found “The
Way” – the way of love – a love that we were originally made for!
22. Jesus IS the way!
23. In His very being
He unified intention and action!
24. The Latin for this
is “Agere sequitur Esse”
25. To act follows to
be!
26. To act follows
being!
27. We are what we are
and we act out of this center!
28. Being precedes
doing!
29. And when the two
become one you have “deus” – the divine!
30. The ultimate goal
for us “in Christ” is the “Homo Justus” – the just person where being and
action become ONE!
31. No more
duplicity!
32. It’s only through
Jesus Christ that we are able to become who we were made to be!
33. It’s only in
Christ that “agere sequitur esse”
becomes a reality!
34. He not only showed us the way but in His
very being He is the way!
35.
When Jesus is IN
US THEN and only THEN we become truly who and what we were made to be!
36.
St. Paul then reminds us:
37. Col. 3:1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts
on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not
on earthly things. 3 For you
died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life,
appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
38. Did you hear that
– we have been raised with Christ!
39. Easter is about
our coming to ourselves in Christ!
40. To be raised WITH
HIM!
41. Ah! The meaning of our Baptism!
42. To die and then
to rise “With Christ!”
43. This is a
fundamental “being” as it were “a Chemistry” question
44. It’s Christ in us
that changes the chemistry of our being, as it were, in such a way that we’re
now able to become who and what we were made for!
45. It is in Jesus
that our imago Dei is fully restored!
46. And now the rest
of our lives is about entering into our Christlikeness!
47. Let me summarize
all of this by simply saying – Do you want to become all that you can
become! All that you were divinely
created to be!
48. To become what
you, in your very inner being, know yourself to be?
49. Then “assume the
position” – kneel before the Lord and invite Him into your inner being!
He tells us “Rev. 3:20
50. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears
my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
51. Come forward – recommit – or commit for the first time!
52. Become who you really are – but only thru Him! Not by good theology, good philosophy but
thru Him!
53. It’s a spiritual and physical thing – can’t be solved by
thinking!
54. Let’s pray . . .