Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany – January 29, 2017
Why Me, Lord?
1 Corinthians 1:26-31 For example, consider your call, brothers. Not many of you were wise from a human point of view, not many were powerful, and not many were born with high status. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are strong, 28and God chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things, and the things that are not, to do away with the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before God. 30But because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us the wisdom from God, namely, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. 31God did this so that, just as it is written, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
Why me, Lord? Have you ever heard anybody say that? Perhaps it was you who said or thought it. Another unexpected house repair that’s going to require dipping into savings again – why me, Lord? Your child is born and grows, only to find you taking them to doctor after doctor because of health issues – why me, Lord? The days, weeks or months go by where it seems like nothing but pain and problems pile up for you – why me, Lord?
Yes, that is a question that can at times surface to the lips of God’s people. But while it might be asked, we shouldn’t expect an answer. In fact, it’s good to remember that God doesn’t owe us an answer. That’s why there is godly wisdom in saying that it is better not to ask it at all and instead simply remind ourselves that God has all things in control and is ruling all things for the eternal good of his believers.
Yet with that said, today I do want you – together with me – to ask that question, “Why me, Lord?” But today we ask it in connection with the Lord’s call to follow him in humble faith. It is a valid question to ask. It’s one we should ask. Why me, Lord? Why did you spend time on me and call me to faith. Each of us can answer that question very simply this morning using the portion of God’s Word before us: Why me, Lord? Not because of me; but all because of you Lord.
Paul – the author of the book of 1st Corinthians – was staying in Ephesus, a city across the Aegean Sea from Corinth, when a troubling report came to him about how friction, factions and cliques were tearing the Corinthian congregation apart. You get the picture from what Paul writes that if he had asked the question we are posing to ourselves this morning, some of those in Corinth may have responded by saying, “Well, why not me! Look at me!”
It appears that after having been brought to faith, some in the Corinthian congregation had become conceited. In arrogance they started looking down on others within the congregation. They thought of themselves as first-class Christians while they considered others that weren’t like them to be second-class. They boasted in their spiritual maturity as if they had been responsible for it. And Paul knew that if these were the attitudes that had become common place, it was because people were thinking too highly of themselves. So, in order to bring them back to the humility of true faith, Paul tells them to honestly ask the question, “Why me, Lord?” He does that by saying, think of what you were when you were called to faith.
Once again, considering the city of Corinth helps us get a picture of what Paul is painting. Corinth was a big city with a big city mindset. Money and fame were to be made there. Gaining wisdom was their highest goal. Wisdom to them was power; wisdom was prestige! The people who had these things were the movers and shakers of Corinth.
But most of you, Paul reminded the Corinthian congregation, were not those people when you were called to faith. By the world’s standards, there wasn’t anything special about you. In short, if it were about what you were, why would God have called you? So why be puffed up with an attitude of arrogance and self-righteousness. Why do you look down on others and create and cause rifts. Why do you act unloving to your fellow believers who came from the same place you did – from nothing.
It’s all a sobering thought, don’t you think? A sobering thought; and a good one! After all, as I look out at you this morning, couldn’t I say the same thing? And as you look back at me, isn’t it also true? We are a church composed of people who had nothing to attract us to God when he called us. What’s more, even now as members of God’s family through faith in Jesus we still must admit that there isn’t anything that should lead God to keep us in his family. What unpleasant sights we must see when we consider the spiritual desert we once were in and consider just how often we wander back into that desert of sin.
Like the Corinthians we find sins like lovelessness and self-righteous attitudes. We find a sinful pride that wants to see ourselves as anything but lost, condemned sinners by birth. We come across inflated opinions of ourselves and our abilities. We uncover arrogance that is certain our opinions are better than anyone else’s. We see ourselves looking down our noses at other members. But why? God’s Word comes to us today and makes it unmistakably clear –there is nothing about us by nature which makes us worthy of membership in his family. God did not call us to faith because of who we are – he called us in spite of who we were.
So yes, ask the question honestly, “Why me, Lord?” and then answer the only way we can – “Not because of me.” For you and I stand before God as helpless beggars and pitiable fools. We have nothing, we know nothing, we can do nothing to get right with God. We will never be able to take credit for knowing God or believing in him and thus being saved. Then, having answered that question thusly, we are ready to hear the rest of the answer. Why me, Lord? All because of you! “Because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us the wisdom from God, namely, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. God did this.”
What a beautifully simplistic statement! God did this! Not you; not me. Not mostly God and some of us. God did it. By his gracious wisdom and power, God gave to you the Savior from sin. By his gracious wisdom and power, God called us to be members of his family of believers through faith in that Savior.
God alone is the source and cause for all that we are in Christ Jesus as the members of his family. God deserves all the credit. God is to get all of the praise! And that’s the way it should be. Don’t chafe at such a thought! Don’t protest such free grace! It’s good; it’s grand; it’s glorious that our membership in God’s family depends on his action for us and in us. If you had to base your salvation and faith on you, you would forever have to walk around wondering if it is true; if it is really done; if you can be sure. But since God is entirely responsible, there is no doubt.
Your faith is based on the undeniable truth that God, in his undeserved love for you, presented Jesus as your Savior even when we were lost in sin. He sought us when we weren’t looking for him! Your confidence rests on the fact that God’s undeserved love punished Jesus for your sins in your place. Your certainty is founded on the irrefutable evidence given when God, in love for you, brought Jesus from the dead on that third day. Your trust was worked in you when God, in his undeserved love, called to your dead heart through his Word and then by that Word gave you the power to do what it called you to do – to believe.
And what are we to believe? We are to believe that Jesus is God’s very own Son and Savior. We are to believe that he didn’t just die for the world, he died for me. We are to believe that because of Jesus’ work on our behalf we are now righteous – that is, we have a right standing before God as being not guilty. We are to believe that we are redeemed – that is, we are set free from the power of sin and guilt because Jesus paid the price for us on the cross. We are to believe that we are sanctified - that is, we are set apart to belong to God and serve him.
Notice how God did not use the wise, strong, proud things of this world to bring about our salvation. Rather, we see in the life of our Savior Jesus Christ the highest example of humility. Freely giving up his seat in heaven, Christ who is true God, became a man for us. He lowered himself to our level and was born of a woman, in the humility of a manger, with ox and donkey as his roommates. He let himself be whipped, spit upon, and nailed to a tree. He was made a curse for us. He was forsaken by his Father in order to win forgiveness for every one of our sins.
And seeing Jesus helps us understand what humble faith and service will look like. It’s not about chasing after the wisdom and power of the world, but rather pursuing the wisdom and power of God. Its definition is summarized in passages like these:
1. “In humility consider others better than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3).
2. “Your attitude should be the same as that of
Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).
3. “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity” (Psalm 133:1).
4. “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Ephesians 4:29).
5. “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
If you were to think, for illustrative purposes, of the path to heaven as a narrow path winding its way at the crest, the ridge of a mountain, you could then also picture the steep valley on one side as self-righteousness and the steep valley on the other as despair. Many people spend much of their lives in either one of those valleys, with only as much time in the middle as needed to get to the other side.
God’s word comes to us today, however, with words that teach and instruct us as to how we may stay on the narrow middle. It’s by knowing the answer to the question, “Why me, Lord?” Not because of me; all because of you, Lord.
I couldn’t help yesterday, as I sat right here in this chair for the memorial service we had for our Christian brother Roland Wruck, of how nicely that was spoken of in the first hymn we sang. Allow me to share two verses of that well-known hymn, “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me.”
Not the labors of my hands Can fulfill thy law’s demands.
Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone; Thou must save and thou alone.
Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to thee for dress, Helpless, look to thee for grace.
Foul, I to the fountain fly—Wash me, Savior, or I die! (CW 389 – vs.2,3)
Why me Lord? All because of you! Marvel at that grace. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Amen.