Dear Christian friends:

Heroes seem to rise above the problems of life. One reason we enjoy hero stories is that the difficulties of life that seem to stop us do not stop the hero or heroine. TV's Columbo and Mattlock, like Superman, triumph with "truth, justice, and the American way of life." And now we even have some real-life heroes. President Bush, Secretary of State, Colin Powell, and General, Tommy Franks. No doubt before the Persian Gulf War is over there will be more.

In our text, which is the Epistle lesson for this Sunday, St. Paul directs each of us Christians to be a hero, to triumph over the sins and evils that dog us, living victoriously in Jesus Christ.


Some of you are probably saying to yourself, "I'll never be a hero. I know myself too well." During this purple, penitential season of Lent we are doing a lot of self-examination and probably do not like what we are finding out about ourselves. So, we can hardly think of ourselves as heroes in Christ. We know the quagmire of our lives and the hopelessness and frustrations of trying to rise above sin by our own will-power and strength.

Even if things are going along better in our lives now, we know in our hearts what evil we have done and what good we have failed to do. There are things that we won't tell even our best friend or family because we feel we would risk losing their love. Underneath all facades and pretenses, we are disobedient, depraved, spiritually dead, and doomed as St. Paul bluntly tells us in the verses preceding our text. (Ephesians 2:1-3)

We may think, "Me be a hero in Christ? No way Jose! I can only grin and bear what I am, and hope nobody finds out."

The cartoon, Ziggy may not be much of a hero, but he survives. The title of another cartoon offers a workable philosophy of life for the non-hero: "Grin and Bear It." In today's society humor and stonewalling seem to cover a multitude of sins rather than love. And if that doesn't help, you might go see a psychiatrist. He will say, "Tell me about it; you'll feel better. You're not unusual!" This is about as far as we can go when we consider natural human resources. However, God has a better way. He tells us that Spiritual heroes are re-born, not self-made.

Our problem is that we keep on thinking that spiritual heroes are self-made. We say to ourself: "I will never be able to work hard enough to be a true hero."

While for some that admission might cause despair, it is really the first step in combatting Satan. Satan uses every opportunity to suggest that we must do something to earn or keep God's approval. Satan reminds us that we have not yet succeeded. As long as Satan keeps us focused on our own efforts, we'll never pay attention to God's provision to make us righteous.

So we really need to focus on what God has done. And this is what God has done: He has recreated us to be his heroes. Precisely because this is true, the lessons for this fourth Sunday in Lent directs our attention, not to ourselves, but to Christ and what he has done that we might be reborn. Lest we become discouraged in our Lenten discipline of repentance, prayer, self-denial and good works, we need to recapture the joy and excitement of being what God has re-created us to be: superheroes in Christ.

Despite our sin, we triumph because of the accomplishments of God. We have been made alive, resurrected, and enthroned with Christ in baptism.

Think of the last time you saw a baby or child or an adult Baptized here. I wonder if we realize what great and wonderful things happened to that person who was being baptized!

In our text St. Paul tells us:"made alive", "saved", "raised-up", and "seated with him in the heavenly realms." From God's perspective, as God sees that person in Christ, he/she has been reborn, resurrected and enthroned with Christ in heaven.

What has happened to that baptized person has also happened to all of us who have been baptized in the name of the crucified, risen and ascended Christ! Here Paul describes, not what we should be, but what we actually are. What a precious, sweet Gospel!

We might compare this to an infant which has all the rights and privileges of citizenship already at birth, even if the infant is unaware and does not actively use them. Paul uses three aorist verbs, denoting one time action in the past, to show that what Christ did almost two-thousand years ago included us, a much stronger concept that just being done for us.

We have died with Christ; we have ascended with Christ; we have risen with Christ; we have ascended with Christ into the heavenly realms; we are heroes in and with Christ Jesus. That is done! It's a fact! Its how God sees us!

Since we are superheroes in Christ, we should out of great joy and thanksgiving start acting like heroes, drawing on the power of his indwelling Spirit. Dare to be heroic! That's what Paul tells us to be here in our text:

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Ephesian 2:8-10)

We know what heroism is because Jesus has shown us how to live heroically: to be committed to serving the highest ideals, to seek glory, not for ourselves but for Someone higher, to carry our difficult tasks, to stand firm in the face of adversity. By God's grace, this is not only how we should live, this is how we do live.

One day a high government official was visiting a leper hospital and he was watching the nurse clean and dress a leper's sore. As he watched her pluck out the decaying flesh from the sore he said to the nurse, "I would not do that for a million dollars." The nurse replied, "I also wouldn't do it for a million dollars. I do it for Jesus." See what God's grace and power did for that nurse! God's grace can do the same for you and me, lead and enable us to do merciful works that we otherwise would not do for a million dollars.

Actually, as Christians, we already have been heroic. Recall those times when you were heroic in the Lord, when you forgave someone who had sinned against you, or when you faced the death of a loved one with hope in the resurrection, or perhaps when you accepted some devastating news about yourself, saying, "Thy will be done," or perhaps when you lost some benefit because you stood firm for the right. In Romans 8:37, Paul says, "in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us."

So dare to be heroic everyday! Be what you are as God's baptized new creation: not anymore dead in sin but alive with Christ; resurrected with Christ to the new life in God; enthroned with Christ, with his power to overcome the temptations of the devil, the world, and your own sinful nature.

Peter tells us:

"Grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good." (1 Peter 1:3)
"Abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God." (1 Peter 2:11)

You already are "God's workmanship, the hero fashioned by his creative Word, "and this is not of yourselves," but by the grace of God. In Christ Jesus you will continue to live the heroic life for God.

Amen.