"With Christ and his gifts of salvation at the center" Epiphany 2 2025
19. January 2025
Epiphany 2
John 2:1-12
This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.
Last week, we heard that the family and the church are God’s good gifts that complement and support each other. Today, we consider how this world and every institution under the Deceiver’s charm is at odds with the Christian home. How Christian marriage and families can endure in the face of a government and social order that is bent on its destruction? The answer can be found on the other side of cultural cliches about the obligations of marriage, family, faith, and freedom. Our government and social order know nothing about the true God. They're openly hostile toward God's ways and works, notably how he establishes marriage and families.
You’ve heard many politicians and cultural critics co-opt and hammer the so-called Separation Doctrine, which states that church and state are to remain sharply divided. Distorted from its original intent to keep the state out of church business, this doctrine has now meant keeping the church out of state business. In its twisted form, it means keeping God’s good gift of holy matrimony as far away from the state’s definition of marriage as possible. We can see how this false confession has corrupted our homes, nation, and even churches.
We make another more helpful distinction that avoids this confusion: the three estates or hierarchies of the politia, the oeconomia, and the ecclesia, that is, the government and state, the household and economic human interactions, and the church. God rules through stewards in all three hierarchies, exercising His authority within each order. The state consists of rulers and the ruled. At its most basic level, the household consists of parents and children. The church consists of clergy and laity. Unlike the sharp American separation doctrine, the Law written on our hearts begins to inform us, but ultimately, God’s Word is the sole rule and norm for all faith and life.
In God's social order, marriage and families offer gifts urgently needed for believers who struggle within an oppressive, morally and spiritually bankrupt society. God gives us and teaches us to love one another in marriage and family. Christian marriage and families are entirely based on the example of Jesus' relationship with the Father and his Church—a relationship defined by fidelity, hope, and charity. We are free in Christ to make permanent, eternal decisions. And unlike our other social obligations, God teaches us that we are not replaceable, but each made unique, male and female, and complimentary, husband and wife, parents and children.
In God's social order, marriage and families give gifts that are urgently needed for believers struggling within an oppressive, morally and spiritually bankrupt society. But that doesn't mean we adopt a utopian view of marriage and families. Marriage comprises two sinners lying belly to belly in the same bed. That means that marriage is marked by ongoing hostility punctuated by moments of tenderness. Families, too, are made up of sinners. Creatures that are all too human. Marriage and families are filled with failure and weakness. Even where love fails, and the terrible fallout accompanies that failure, the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name prevents us from giving up entirely on unworthy sons, cheating wives, and senile fathers.
In the past, though, even Christian families could depend on the outside world to support their mission. In turn, strong families produced good citizens capable of building a strong society. Now, however, Christian families, in particular, are under constant, direct, and sustained attacks by a government and culture that view Christian families as a threat to a state that desires to control every aspect of their lives through laws, policies, and court decisions that diminish or sever parental rights.
You cannot live like other families, except you go to church on Sunday. The days of living like everyone else and hoping your children turn out for the best are over. Your theological beliefs and good intentions will not be enough. You must be intentionally counter-cultural in your approach to marriage and family.
Likewise, families cannot survive when parents raise their children to be passive consumers who exist only to fulfill their cravings. God does not give husband and wife to be father and mother so they can use their children to fulfill their selfish desires or sacrifice them to the state because they are derelict in their duties as parents. God does not give children to parents so they can raise them to mindlessly surrender their minds to smartphones, the internet, culture, and the state.
Further, marriage and families will not hold together if the father and mother consider divorce an easy solution to marriage's difficulties. Nor can a family endure if the children mock the idea of marriage. When family members accept a culture of promiscuity, easily entered-into and broken-off relationships, and disrespect for life, they cannot expect the family to abide by Christ's “law of love.”
Above all, a Christian father must be a servant of Christ. The family cannot survive if the father fails to exercise the authority to catechize his children, bring them to baptism, or refuse to forgive. Nor can the family survive if the father takes the place of Christ as the head and center of the family. Christ is at work through fathers for families and brings them into the work of their salvation. Nothing else will sustain marriage and families. Not love, truth, or anything else.
For a family's house to be a real home, Christ must be at the center with his gifts of salvation. For the family house to be a place that is livable, set apart, and a shelter from the outside world, Christ must be at the center with his gifts of salvation. For the family home to be a place that is a starting point for adventures and experiences with the promise of a safe return, in other words, a refuge in a heartless world, Christ must be at the center with his gifts of salvation.
When the nation and its people are held captive by an oppressive, morally and spiritually bankrupt government and society, then Christians and their families must push as hard against the government and culture as it pushes against them. That's how a marriage and family with Christ at its center lives. With Christ at the center, it doesn’t matter whether your marriage is long or short-lived. With Christ at the center, it doesn't matter whether your children leave home sooner or later. What matters is that he loves and serves you to strengthen the bonds of love amongst you so that you may enjoy your salvation today with your beloved.
Today, then, you are given to each other by Jesus: husband and wife, parent and child. That's enough. Christ honored and supported marriage at Cana. Christ will care for your tomorrows. Today, Christ lives at the center of your life. He focuses your heart and mind on the law of love. He creates godly order out of social and cultural chaos for you. He gives you clarity amid confusion. He provides your marriage and family life in a world that eagerly hopes for their demise.
With Christ at the center, the fruitful fellowship of love, freedom, and individual dignity will order and bind your marriage and family together. With Christ at the center, your families will endure in the face of a government and social order bent on their destruction. With Christ and his gifts of salvation at the center, you will live in truth. You will live in fidelity, hope, and charity. Your marriage and families will be sheltered and set apart from a heartless world by Christ Jesus.
Your marriage exists for Christ alone. Your family exists for Christ alone. He joins you as husband and wife, parent and child for the sake of his Church and the world, to love and serve your congregation, the community, and the nation. But first, he joins you together as husband and wife, then as parent and child, to love and serve your family in faith.
This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.
Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School - Sherman Center
Random Lake, Wisconsin
