Who to Die For

A Sermon delivered on Father's Day, June 15, 2008 to All Saints Anglican Church, at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV, and based on Romans 5:6-11

In the movie series Band of Brothers, we can see a contrast between two different types of leaders. The first is typified by Captain Sobel, who is the drill instructor for Easy Company, a group of paratroopers being prepared for the assault on Normandy. Captain Sobel’s job is to train his troops to a high level of skill, but he also seems to enjoy tormenting his men – nitpicking at their uniforms and finding contraband in their bunks, which then in turn results in his favorite punishment: running up Currahee mountain behind the barracks. He cancels leave on a whim and seems personally offended by the idea of fun. He’s petty and vindictive, and his men hate him for it.

In contrast to Sobel, we see the rise of Lieutenant Winter through the ranks. This man is a hard worker, competent in leading and fair. He earns the respect of the men through faithful service to them over the months and years.

After two years of training, the troops are finally sent to England. As war game preparation intensifies, Captain Sobel shows himself to be a dithering and incompetent leader. He makes foolish and wrong-headed mistakes, while Lt. Winter accomplishes his team goals and shows himself to be reliable under pressure.
As D-day gets closer, tension within the ranks over the DI increases, and finally a group of NCOs decides to resign their positions and refuses to follow the Sobel into battle. This is basically a revolt with very serious consequences. Most of the men are busted and some are sent off to other assignments. However, the General in charge realizes there is a huge problem in the company. He ‘promotes’ the incompetent and hated Captain Sobel to a position training Chaplains and other non-combatants – Stateside. “The war effort needs you elsewhere” are the terse words that go along with a congratulatory glass of whiskey.

Lieutenant Winter is promoted to Captain and goes on to lead Easy Company in many battles throughout the war.

This is an example of how soldiers shrewdly size up who they will die for and who they won’t. They know their skins depend on their leader and it doesn’t take long to figure out who they will follow.

During the same war, in 1941, the Nazis imprisoned Father Maximilian Kolbe in the Auschwitz death camp. There he offered his life for another prisoner and was condemned to slow death in a starvation bunker. On August 14, 1941, his impatient captors ended his life with a fatal injection. Pope John Paul II canonized Maximilian as a "martyr of charity" in 1982.

With these examples in mind, consider our text today: “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die - but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:6, 7).

Christ died – not for someone who was being unfairly persecuted or for a beloved officer leading his troops into battle, but for sinners, enemies of God, people like me who said, “I hate Christians and I detest Christianity” - people whose sins had sent Jesus to the cross – and glad of it!”

Now this is an amazing thought: There are those of us who were militantly opposed to God – who hated him, Am I the only one here, or did some of you also hate God? Yes, I see that hand.

However, the death of Jesus is not like that of Fr. Maximillian Kolbe – and not like soldiers who are conscripted to fight and die for a country they love. Jesus’ death was a voluntary action on behalf of those who were opposed to Him – dead in their sins, people who could not help themselves. In this passage we can see clearly that, contrary to Benjamin Franklin, God is not the God of those who are able to help themselves in their own strength. Rather God is the God of those who cannot help themselves. “For while we were weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

Now as obvious as it sounds, we could ask, “How many of our sins were still in the future when Christ died for us? - All of them! That means that not only the sins we commit before we become Christians, but also those we commit afterwards are covered by His blood. This is an important point. As a counselor, I frequently talk to people who are struggling with the effects of some sin they have committed. They are struggling to accept forgiveness because their actions seem so bad. It’s as though they say it’s OK for Jesus to die for the sins of everyone else, but not for me. Or: All the sins I committed before I became a Christian were forgiven – but now this one. Especially those who are scrupulous have problems. They have problems letting go and remembering that they are forgiven. All their sins are Forgiven.!

Returning to our text, we can see Paul emphasizing this point – “If the blood of Christ justified us, how much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”

Remember, the death of Christ is the Propitiation for our sins It is a gift or sacrifice offered by God that turns away the wrath of God. By the blood of Christ once offered for us, we are reconciled to God. We are declared righteous; the Righteousness of Christ is put on to us. This is a legal, judicial action, done by God, the righteous Judge, to us, on our behalf, for the mere price of our heartfelt belief!

And when we believe in Christ, when we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, then we receive the Life of God. The Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us, leading us into truth, illuminating God’s truth for us, comforting and convicting us, conforming us into the image of Christ.

Therefore, we rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have received the reconciliation. Because we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God - access into His Grace and we also rejoice in the Hope that we carry with us.

Link to Father’s Day
Being that today is Father’s Day; I’d like to bring out four points about True Fatherhood from this text.

One: True Fatherhood takes the Initiative. Salvation is initiated by God the Father. The Father sends the Son to be the Propitiation for our sins. This type of Father is active and seeks out love from us, his children. He sends his only begotten Son to die for us, going to the very greatest lengths for us, so that we don’t have to die but might have eternal life.

Two. True Fatherhood is Just. God the Father does not sweep our sins under the carpet. He doesn’t simply excuse evil. Rather, he deals with our sins justly, providing the sacrifice Lamb to die in our place.

Three: True Fatherhood is Magnanimous. While we were still sinners, God sent Christ to die for us. He Himself took the great part for us. He could have simply wiped us all out, but He didn’t. He decided to exercise Great mercy and save us while we were weak and rebellious.

Finally, True Fatherhood is self-sacrificing. He himself bore our sins…. As I talk to men in my counseling office, they tell me that all the effort they expend in their career is focused around providing for their families. And when men go through divorce – often because they work too much – many times they lose their motivation to work. It’s as though without the mission to provide for the family, and the support system that goes with the family, all the work doesn’t make sense anymore.

Most men understand implicitly that they will work without respite to provide for their families. For the most part men are still not at liberty to pursue the same options that women have regarding work. But the remarkable thing is that there are very few Men’s Liberation marches demanding equal treatment. There’s just no wholesale anger over the expectation that a man will work all his life, often with little recognition.

Perhaps the proof of that is today itself. Father’s Day is usually the day when the phone companies rack up the most charges for collect calls! We move heaven and earth to honor our mothers on their day – and we call our fathers collect. True fathers understand that self-sacrifice is part of the deal.

So today, when you’re trying to honor your father – think about all the things he does without question, and give thanks that a Truly godly father can model the same love shown to us by God the Father, and His son Jesus Christ. AMEN.