Judged by Grace: Our Vocation as a Community
Text: Hebrews 13:12-14
Liturgical Day: Judica (Passion Sunday)
Occasion: Sunday preceding the Annual General Meeting
The Introduction: The Judgment We Seek
Grace and peace to you from Him who is, who was, and who is
to come.
My friends, today is Judica Sunday. The name comes from the
Latin Introit: Judica me, Deus — "Judge me, O
God" . It is an audacious prayer. As we stand two weeks before
Easter, with the shadow of the cross lengthening across our path, we dare to
ask the Almighty for a verdict.
And then, after this service, we will move to another procedure.
We will hold our Annual General Meeting. We will look at reports, discuss
finances, and elect leadership. On the surface, these two things—a plea for
divine judgment and a church business meeting—could not be further apart. One
is spiritual, the other seems... administrative. One is eternal, the other
feels very temporal.
But our text from Hebrews today insists that they belong
together. It tells us that the community of faith, this community right here,
is defined by a specific location and a specific hope. And that has everything
to do with how we conduct our business here and when we leave this place.
I. The Place of Our Identity: Outside the Camp
The author of Hebrews gives us a powerful image in verse
12: "So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify
the people through his own blood."
"Outside the gate." This was the place of the
unclean, the rejected, the accursed. In the old covenant, the bodies of
sacrificed animals were burned outside the camp . It was the place of
defilement. And it was there, on the garbage heap of the world, that Jesus was
crucified. He did not die in the comfort of the Temple. He died outside. He
took our sin, our uncleanness, our judgment, to that place of rejection so that
we could be made holy.
And then the writer draws the unavoidable conclusion in
verse 13: "Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear
the reproach he endured."
Here is the heart of the matter. To be a Christian is not to
seek a cozy spot inside the world's systems of power and approval. It is to
leave those "camps"—whatever they may be—and stand with the crucified
One. It is to identify with a rejected Savior. It means that our primary
identity is not found in our status, our security, or our success, but in our
location with Jesus, even when that location brings reproach.
II. The Temptation of the Institution: Staying Inside
Now, a word to us, as we prepare for our meeting. The
church—this congregation—is always tempted to do the opposite. We are tempted
to build a comfortable "camp" for ourselves. We want to be a
respected institution. We want balanced budgets and smooth operations. These
are not bad things! The Apostle Paul himself spoke of the need for good
administration, for order, for competency in the church .
But the danger is that we begin to seek our security in
these things. We start to believe that our "lasting city" is here. We
become afraid of "reproach"—afraid of what the neighborhood thinks,
afraid of losing members, afraid of financial instability. And slowly, subtly,
we stop going "outside the camp" to Him. We retreat inside the camp
of our own programs and traditions, seeking to preserve what we have rather
than risking everything to follow the One who was rejected.
An Annual General Meeting can be a moment of great
temptation. It can become an exercise in anxious self-preservation. We look at
the numbers and we worry. We look at the challenges and we panic. We forget
that our foundation is not in our bank account, but in the blood of the One who
sanctified us outside the gate.
III. The AGM as an Act of Vocational Stewardship
But it does not have to be this way. This is where we need
the insights of our Lutheran tradition on vocatio—vocation. My dear
friend and colleague, Pastor Dr. Brakemeier, reminds us that "the call of
God is directed to all of humanity." We are not just called to be
religious people on Sunday; we are called to serve God in our daily lives, in
our work, in our responsibilities . The exercise of our profession—whether
as an accountant, a cleaner, or a congregational president chairperson —is
"worship to God in daily life" .
So, what is the "vocation" of this congregation as
we enter our AGM?
- The
Vocation of Accountability: Our meeting is not a secular
formality grafted onto a spiritual body. It is an act of stewardship. We
are managing the "mammon" of this world—the finances, the
property, the human resources—for the sake of the Kingdom. We are not a
corporation seeking profit; we are a community seeking faithfulness .
Therefore, our reports and discussions must be marked by transparency and
honesty, not as a burden, but as a joyful accounting of how we have used
the gifts God has given us to make and mature disciples . We give an
account not just to one another, but to God. So we need to say how bad are
those numbers.
- The
Vocation of Diversity: As we look to choose Church wardens, we
remember that the Spirit distributes gifts differently . Not everyone
can do the same thing. Uniformity would be deadly . In our
nominations and elections, we are not just filling slots. We are
discerning where the Spirit has equipped people—the quiet ones and the
outgoing ones, the teachers and the builders—to build up the body of
Christ . We are looking for people of competence, yes, but also for
people of theological judgment and missionary passion . We are looking
for people who are already "outside the camp" with Jesus.
IV. The Hope That Frees Us
And this brings us to the final verse, verse 14: "For
here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come."
This is the sentence that liberates us from the tyranny of
the AGM. Because we have no lasting city here, we do not need
to defend this little patch of earth with anxious fury. Because we seek a city
that is to come, we can take risks for the Gospel. We can spend money on
mission rather than hoarding it for maintenance. We can make decisions that are
not popular but are faithful. We can bear a little reproach from the world
because we know our ultimate vindication comes from God.
On Judica Sunday, we pray "Judge me, O God." We
can only pray that because we know our Judge is the One who was judged in our
place outside the gate. He took the verdict of guilty so that we could hear the
verdict of "sanctified."
Conclusion: A People of the Verdict
So, my brothers and sisters, we go to our meeting. But go as
a people who have already been judged and found righteous in Christ. Go as a
people who have no lasting city here, and are therefore free to be generous,
bold, and true. Go as a people whose vocation is to manage the affairs of this
household with the same love that Christ showed when He suffered outside the
gate for us.
Let your discussions be seasoned with grace. Let your
decisions reflect your hope. And let your fellowship be a sign to the world
that we are a people on the move, following our Leader, who is even now
preparing for us a city that will last.
May the Spirit of the Crucified and Risen One guide your
hearts and your deliberations.
Amen.
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