Carried…

I had a conversation today with a dear friend and he asked during the conversation, “Is it possible for a sinner to go to a sacrament?” Now take for a moment that my friend use to be Catholic… It is a very profound question. My immediate answer was no. The bible tells us that the holy and the unholy can not mix. So the sinner who is unholy can not mix with the holy or the sacrament…

So then how does the sinner become holy? If not through the sacraments then how does one become able to stand in the presence of God.

I believe the answer comes through this past Sunday’s gospel text and Martin Luther’s explanation of the third article of the Apostle’s Creed and the below song by Leeland…

This past Sunday Jesus said to the crowd, that had become Jews in our reading that “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:44 ESV) Here in this verse Jesus says that we are drawn to Jesus by God. I read before last weeks sermon that the connotation of this word was more of a dragging then a drawn. But my quick look into it is more of “to bid a thing to be carried to one”. Martin Luther tells us in his explanation of the third article of the creed, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith…” And Leeland tells us, that we are carried to the sacrament!

You see it is not by our works, or the fact we are even worthy, because we are not we are worthless sinners, but God still loves us and calls out to us! God loves us even in our filth and wants to use us to spread the love He has for us and the world.

So while as a sinner you can not come, God himself carries you to Jesus! He picks you up and brings you to the arms of the one who gave everything so you might be with Him!