Sermon for the Third Sunday after Pentecost

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Jesu Juva

“Our Comfort in Dark and Nightmarish Days”

Text: 1 Kings 19:9b-21; Luke 9:51-62; Galatians 5:1, 13-25

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Elijah was hiding. Israel, he said, was out of control. Insane and drunk with idolatry. He could no longer be their prophet. So he ran away and was in hiding. I’m the only one left, he said, and I’m next to be killed. He was a little bit mad, a little bit depressed, and a whole lot scared. 

Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord, he was told. So he did. And standing there, a great and strong wind came, which tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks. That’s a wind greater than any EF-5 tornado or Category 5 hurricane. Imagine the fear of Elijah standing in the midst of that. 

After the wind stopped there was an earthquake. We’re not told how strong it was, but more fear-inducing destructive force as Elijah stood in the midst of torn mountains and broken rocks. 

And after the earthquake stopped, a fire. You’ve seen the pictures of the fires out west, consuming forests and communities - the eerie orange glow, the smoke that takes your vision away and make breathing difficult at best, and the heat bearing down on you. For Elijah, fear upon fear upon fear.

How long did it all take? How much time passed between each destruction? Did Elijah just stand there and watch it all, or cower in fear? We’re not told. But then the Lord spoke to Elijah. A low whisper. A calm and calming voice. Like the voice of a mother to her child in the middle of the night after a nightmare. Shhh. It’s okay. I’ve got you. 

And the Lord asks Elijah basically this: What are you afraid of? What is happening that is greater and more fearsome than you’ve just seen and felt? Too big for the Lord? Elijah tells him, again. But the Lord already had a plan, was already dealing with it. Here’s who you’re going to meet. This is what you’re going to do. For there are still seven thousand faithful in Israel, who have not bowed their knees to Baal or kissed him, have not welcomed him into their lives, and I’m going to take care of them. And you. Shhh. It’s okay. I’ve got you.

Perhaps you feel a bit like Elijah. For it seems as if Baal is alive and well in our world, in our country today, doesn’t it? In our culture which is insane and drunk with idolatry. The idolatry of self-determination. The idolatry of anything goes sexuality. The idolatry of money and happiness. The idolatry of death. For an idol, a false god, is anything that we fear, love, and trust instead of the one, true God. And we see what happens when what you fear, love, and trust is threatened or taken away. There is anger and rage. People trust that death will help them and take away their problem, and so they want and want to keep euthanasia, assisted suicide, and abortion. People love their freedom to be whoever they want and do whatever they want with no limits, and rage against you if you disagree. And money as an idol? There’s a reason why the economy is consistently cited as the most important issue in every election. 

And we’re standing in the midst of destruction like Elijah did. The great winds of roaring and yelling and threats, the earth shaking stomp of marches and hordes filling the streets, and the fires of both hate and literal fires being set to destroy those who dare speak against the idolatry. And maybe you feel like the only one not insane and drunk on this in your school, in your office, in your neighborhood. And running away seems like not such a bad idea. And like Elijah, maybe you’re a little bit mad, a little bit depressed, and a whole lot scared.

But like at the time of Elijah, the Lord already has a plan, and is already dealing with all this, though we may not know it and cannot possibly imagine how! There are still many - probably more than we know - who have not bowed the knee to our modern-day Baals nor kissed him and his agenda. So to us, too, the Lord asks: What are you afraid of? And to us, too, living in this darkness, in these nightmare-ish times, the Lord says: Shhh. It’s okay. I’ve got you. Words that He fulfilled in Bethlehem and on Golgotha.

For that is where this battle is ultimately fought and won. The disciples in Samaria wanted to call down fire from heaven and consume those who did not and would not receive Jesus. Fight wind with wind, earthquake with earthquake, fire with fire. That’s our way. But not Jesus’ way. Jesus rebukes them for such thoughts and words. Jesus, instead, sets His face to go to Jerusalem. That means to go to the cross. For that’s His plan, how He will deal with all this. And nothing is going to stop Him. That’s where great winds of mockery will be hurled against Him, and the earth will quake at His death, and the fire of God’s wrath against all our sin and idolatry will consume Him. Him, whose two knees were the only two knees which never bowed to our Baals or kissed and welcomed them.

Yes, the only two. For although our knees may not bow to the Baals who are being celebrated all this month or which raged this weekend, we’ve got our own. Our own comforts, our own desires, our own hopes and dreams that get in the way of our following Jesus. Like those we heard about today. Who told Jesus, I will follow you wherever you go, but when told it would be uncomfortable . . . Or to whom Jesus said, Follow Me. Oh, I will, but first . . . And what about this, and what about that, and . . . Lord, I will follow you IF . . . Lord, I will follow you BUT . . . So Jesus told the one, No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. And hearing that, I realize: I AM not fit for the kingdom of God.

To which the Lord say, Shhh. I’ve got you. Your sins, your failures, I died for them. I got down on my knees to serve you and save you. I forgive you all your sins. And while you’re not fit for the kingdom of God, I baptize you and make you fit, for I make you a child of God in those waters. And your lips that have kissed the Baals I have touched with My Body and Blood here and cleanse them. Do not fear. Follow Me. Live and walk not by the spirit of the world, but by the Spirit - the Holy one - that I’ve given you. Which means don’t bite and devour and consume one another. Wrong spirit. Don’t use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Wrong spirit. Don’t engage in the works of the flesh. Wrong spirit. Love your neighbor as yourself. That’s the Holy Spirit. Live in your freedom from sin. That’s the Holy Spirit. Holy fruit. That’s of the Holy Spirit.

Now, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control may not seem like very powerful weapons in the midst of the great howling winds, earth quaking marches and hordes, and fire-breathing mobs. Like the disciples, calling fire down from heaven seems to make more sense! But in Elijah’s day, the only fire that came down from heaven consumed the sacrifice on the altar, not the people. And in Jesus day, the fire that came down from heaven consumed the sacrifice of the altar of the cross, not the people. The people - that’s who the Lamb of God came to save; to win. He doesn’t want to defeat them. He wants to win them and make them His own.

And that’s what love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are for. For that’s Jesus. And it’s us who are in Jesus. That fruit given to us, living in us, and growing in us. Jesus was crucified for that. Maybe you will be, too. The Lord saying to you, Shhh. It’s okay. I’ve got you, may mean the blessing of taking you out of this idolatrous world. But it may mean leaving you here, too. Like Elijah. Sending you out and sending you back with His Word, which though a low whisper, thunders with the power of God’s love and forgiveness. 

And I wonder . . . did the people God picked to help Elijah surprise him? Hazael, Jehu, Elisha - were these people Elijah would have picked, or did he think: Who? Lord, are you sure? Them? Really?

But that’s what they said of Jesus, too. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? He’s just the carpenter’s son! But from the one born of a virgin, laid in a manger, with no place to lay His head, rejected by the elite and even by the folks of His own hometown, thought a lowly Samaritan and demon-possessed, God worked the greatest good, defeating all the powers of evil for all time. In Him, forgiveness and life for all people, ever. No one excepted. All called to repentance, all called to forgiveness, all called to life.

Many people were celebrating on Friday with the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, and rightly so. It is a step in the right direction. But only a step. It also riled up many to anger and rage, rage that is directed against God and His Church and His Word, just as in the days of Elijah. And like with Elijah, it may be said of you and me, too, that they are seeking our life, to take it away. We can run away, be silent, and hide. The great prophet Elijah did! Or we can learn from Elijah. That the low, quiet Word of God can stop the winds, calm the earthquakes, and extinguish the fires. That the Word of God is meant not just to turn others, but to turn US around too, to go back where we belong, and do what has been given us to do. And we will not be alone. There will be those the Lord sends to help us. There will be the thousands who also have not bowed their knees or puckered their lips to Baal. But even if none of those, there is the Son Himself, who has promised to be with you always. And those are word He backed up. He was with us in birth, with us in life, with us in death, and has promised we will be with Him in resurrection. And until that day is with us in His Spirit, the Holy one. 

So when the days drew near for [Jesus] to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. That is, He set His face to go to the cross. So for us, too, when the day draws near for us to be taken up - and maybe that day will be soon! - set your face toward the cross. The cross in the waters of baptism that wash you with the life of the cross, the cross in the words of the Gospel which proclaim to you the forgiveness or the cross, and the cross in the Body and Blood on the altar which feed you the Passover Lamb who hung on the cross. And all that you need, you have. To go out, to go back, and live. Even in these dark and nightmarish days. 

Shhh. It’s okay. I’ve got you.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Sermon for the Second Sunday after Pentecost

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Jesu Juva

“Fighting our Demons”

Text: Luke 8:26-39

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Some things about demons, unclean spirits, evil angels, we can learn from this story we heard in today’s Gospel . . .

Demons are powerful. Chains and shackles are useless. They cannot bind this poor man in the country of the Gerasenes who is possessed by them.

Demons are fearsome. They completely changed this man, who once had lived in the city, the regular guy next door, probably with a job, maybe married with children, but now lived by himself, naked, out of his mind and out among the tombs.

Demons are numerous. We don’t know how many there are, just as we do not know how many good angels there are, but this man we heard about today calls himself Legion, for many demons had entered him. At that time, a legion was a unit of Roman soldiers numbering approximately 6,000. Were that many in this man? Mark’s version of this story says that some 2,000 pigs rushed into the lake and drowned. That’s a lot either way.

Demons wreak havoc. They did in this man’s life and the life of his family. They did in the pig farmers’ lives. And they did in the pigs. For once they entered the pigs, the pigs all rush down into the lake and drown. I think we usually assume that the demons made the pigs do that. But maybe the pigs did it to try to get away from the demons! 

Demons want you to believe that they’re in charge. They’re bold and arrogant. That was the attitude of their prince, who came to Jesus in the wilderness and tempted the very Son of God. And when you look around at our world, it can seem as if they are, in charge, that evil is winning. The things of this world and the direction of the world crowding God and Church out of people’s lives. Matters of right and wrong that were once common knowledge aren’t so much anymore. Division, hatred, wars, disasters, seem to keep getting worse and worse.

But then into the picture steps Jesus. And everything changes. In His presence, the powerful demons beg for mercy. Fearsome demons are now themselves filled with fear. No matter how many there are, they are not enough to stand up against this one man. Jesus is outnumbered but He is not outmatched. He wreaks havoc on them and their up-until-now comfortable existence. And there is no doubt who is in charge. They have no choice but to leave the man when commanded to do so, and they are again reduced to begging, asking permission to enter the nearby herd of pigs.

Well, as you can imagine, when something like this happens, word gets around fast! And when the people go out to see what had happened, what once was a scene of chaos and danger is now just two men sitting there, talking. The man once out of his mind now in his right mind. The man once naked now clothed. The man who couldn’t be controlled now sitting calmly at Jesus’ feet. 

I would think the people would have been thankful for such a change, such a rescue of this man, to no longer have him around them! But instead they are afraid, of Jesus, and they ask Him to leave. A sad ending, really, to what should have been a great and comforting day for them.

So why did they do it? Why did they ask Jesus to leave? Was it the loss of the pigs? Could have been. Money talks, and 2,000 or so pigs is worth a lot of money. Better that one man be lost than the whole economy of the city be tanked. 2,000 pigs is an awful steep ransom for just one man. What else would Jesus do if He stayed? No, better that He go.

That could have been it. But this is true as well: raw power is fearsome. The raw power of hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes strike fear in people’s hearts. The raw power of guns in the hands of those who shoot up schools and malls is frightening. The raw power of dictators who can start wars or launch nukes make many people afraid. And as fearsome as those demons were who possessed this man and changed him so, the one with power over them is fearsome, too. 

Unless you know that He is come to use that power FOR YOU. An army is frightening unless it’s your army fighting for you. This the people must learn: that Jesus has come to use His power for them. So for now, He leaves. And though this once-possessed-but-now-set-free man wants to go with Him, Jesus says no. He has an important job to do. Jesus tells him, Return to your home, and declare how much God has done - and here are those words - FOR YOU.

Because once you know that, that changes everything. It did that day when Jesus stepped out of the boat in the country of the Gerasenes. It did the day Jesus stepped down from heaven and was born in Bethlehem. And it did when Jesus stepped out of the tomb, alive. Everything changed. For Jesus has come to use His power FOR YOU.

This is something we must learn, too. Starting with the realization that those demons haven’t gone away. They’re still here, they’re still active, and they’re still dangerous. Just maybe their tactics have changed. Maybe they’ve gone undercover. Maybe they’ve convinced you that Jesus is more a threat to you and your life and your happiness than they are. 

Oh, not you! Right? OK . . . ask yourself some tough questions . . . like:

What do you think about more, what’s more your concern, what do you mostly pray for: a holy life, an eternal life, or a more comfortable life here for a few years?

What do you really want: to stop sinning, or just to get away with it?

How about loving your neighbor? There’s a limit, right? Maybe you’d give up a few pigs for him, but a thousand? Two thousand? All of them? And maybe some neighbors: yes, and some: no way!?

Do you really want Jesus around in your life? Do you really have the time? Or only on Sundays? So (just like the people of the town), Jesus, please leave the other parts of my life . . .

Truth be told, you’re probably a mishmash of all that, like I am. Some good, some bad, sometimes yes, sometimes no. So in need of help. Jesus help. 

And it’s always interesting to note which phrases or thoughts from Scripture make their way into our everyday thinking and vocabulary. One of those is: fighting your demons. You’ve heard it. Maybe you’ve used it. What are yours? Many people today tend to look at their problems from a purely physical point of view, but maybe there’s a spiritual aspect, too? Fighting your demons . . . maybe there’s more truth to that than we know?

So it’s good that Jesus has stepped in here, today, and for us, too. Fighting the demons that are powerful, fearsome, numerous, controlling, and wreaking havoc in our lives. For as hard as we may fight our demons, they are too many for us and too much for us. We fall into sin. We succumb to temptation. But they are not too many or too much for Jesus. For Him who battled them in the wilderness, and won. For Him who battled them in the story we heard today - and many others - and won. For Him who battled them on the cross, and won. Who laid down His life in what looked like defeat so that He could take it up again in victory. So there would be for us cleansing, resurrection, and life.

For the same voice that commanded the unclean spirits to depart from that man, and which would say It is finished from the cross, now speaks that victory to you and me. Casting our old, swinish selves into the waters of baptism to drown the old, out-of-his-mind, unruly, and sinful man in us, and raise a new, right-thinking, holy, and righteous man. Then cleansing our uncleanness with His words of Absolution, teaching us as we sit at His feet and listen to His Word, and feeding us with His own Body and Blood, that what live and work in us be HIM, not the unclean spirits. That we be victorious, and free. And when those demons come back, knocking, luring, tempting, and seducing you, take a lesson from the pigs today! Rush right back into the waters of your baptism and drown them! Don’t let them drive you out of your right mind and your new life in Christ.

And just as the man in the story couldn’t go with Jesus, but returned to his home, so we have not yet ascended with Jesus, gone with Him - not yet! For now, it is for you to return to your homes and declare how much God has done for you. FOR YOU. For He really is FOR YOU. Fighting for you to rescue you from a world gone mad, chasing after evil, whose god is happiness, whose creed is “anything goes,” and which has asked Jesus to leave them alone. But Jesus won’t leave us alone. Or them. He loves you too much. He loves them too much. And a legion of pigs wasn’t price enough to purchase your freedom. That price could only be paid by a lamb. A single lamb. The Lamb of God. And that price has been paid once and for all. For all time. For all people. FOR YOU.

 

Which means that while demons are powerful, the one more powerful than them is on your side.

That while demons are fearsome, you need not be afraid. 

That while demons are numerous, in this case, one is the greatest number. One God, greater than all demons put together. 

That while demons wreak havoc, and our world cannot put Humpty Dumpty back together again, Jesus can. And did. He rescued you and made you new.

And while the demons want you to believe they’re in charge, as Luther wrote, One little word can fell them. The word for forgiveness. The word of life. The Word made flesh. The Word who came for you, and is FOR YOU. 

So, yes, this story that can teach us some things about demons. But even more about Jesus. And the new and right and confident and secure life we have. In Him.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Sermon for the Festival of the Holy Trinity

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Jesu Juva

“Audacious!”

Text: John 8:48-59; Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Acts 2:14a, 22-36

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jesus makes an audacious claim: that He is God. The only God. The one true God. The God of the Old Testament. The great I AM who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush. The God who visited and spoke to Abraham and promised him a son. The God who existed even before Abraham - the God of the Tower of Babel, the God of the Flood. The God of Proverbs, the master craftsman who created all things. The God who gives life. The God who is able to rescue us from death. That’s who He is. In the flesh. 

No wonder they thought He was a Samaritan - an out-of-his-mind half-breed No wonder they thought he had a demon. Sure, Jesus did a lot of good things. He knew His Old Testament. He taught with authority. There was something about Him. He healed the sick, even in the next chapter of John, a man born blind. No one had ever done that before. But CS Lewis was right: You can’t call Jesus just a “good man,” despite all the good He did. He was either insane and dangerous, deceiving people and misleading people, claiming for Himself audacious things . . . or He was who He said He was. 

That’s what the Jews were grappling with. They couldn’t, wouldn’t believe that He was God in the flesh. God can’t look like that. God can’t be like that. God is the God of Mt. Sinai - awesome and fearsome. God is the God of the Tabernacle and Temple - holy and separate. You need priests and sacrifices and blood to approach God. He doesn’t just walk up to You on the street in Jerusalem or Judea or Galilee and shake Your hand! He doesn’t just walk into your synagogue or Temple one day and start teaching! He doesn’t sit with you in your house and eat with you. Everyone knows that! Jesus is more than a few cards short of a deck. More than a few eggs short of a dozen. Jesus is nutso. And dangerous. That’s why He had to be crucified. To protect the people. To protect the nation. To protect their religion.

Interestingly, and maybe ironically, today, things are exactly the opposite. Today, in our be-whoever-you-want-to-be, think-whatever-you-want-to-think, world, Jesus would fit right in! If men can be women, girls can be boys, and if you don’t like those options you can invent your own gender, whose to say Jesus can’t claim to be God. Let Him be! He not nutso. In fact, if you call Jesus that, or anyone else that, if you say they’re wrong, you’re the dangerous one! You must be crucified . . . or cancelled, or deleted, or de-platformed. We must protect people and society and our children from you.

Now that sounds like it should be good news for us, for the church. At least the part about Jesus. For that’s what we say. Jesus is exactly who He says He is - the one true God. The eternal Son of the Father. The one who laid down His life for the life of the world. Jesus is not crazy for saying these things. In fact, as we just confessed in the Athanasian Creed, you must believe this or you cannot be saved. Just as you must, we are told, believe this man is really a woman, this girl a boy, or you cannot be part of society today . . .

Oh, but you can’t say that either! About Jesus. That you have to believe Him. You see, some things you have to believe, but some things you cannot believe. Some people are who they say they are, but some people aren’t. You have to accept some but you can’t accept others. And when what you have to believe and what you can’t believe keeps changing . . .

That’s why something like the Athanasian Creed - and the Nicene and Apostles Creeds, too - are important and valuable. They don’t change. This is the catholic faith. Not the Roman faith, but the universal, whole, faith. The faith the Church has been confessing for centuries. The truth and faith that was foretold in the Old Testament, fulfilled by Jesus, and now confessed by the Church. So it’s universal across place and time and cultures and languages. And today, we’re not saying anything new. We’re simply taking our place in the long line of people from Abraham and even before, confessing this faith, this truth. That Jesus is exactly who He said He is: the one true God, the Saviour of the world. 

Which is exactly what Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost, as we heard today. That Jesus is Lord and Christ. This man, Jesus of Nazareth, is the Lord, the God of the Old Testament in human flesh. This man, Jesus of Nazareth, is the Christ, the promised Messiah, the Saviour of the world. And how do we know this? Not just because He thought He was, or said He was, and not just because I feel it in my heart, but because this man, Jesus of Nazareth, who you all thought nutso and dangerous and so crucified, God raised from the dead. Which is exactly what He said He would do and what was said would happen in the Old Testament. Now, if this man Jesus was misrepresenting God, telling lies about Him, and leading people away from the true God and into hell, would God have rewarded Him and allowed this ruse to go on by raising Him from the dead? Just produce the body and/or bones of Jesus, and Peter and the others and Christianity goes away, just like all the other movements with those who claimed to be messiahs. But if you can’t . . .

But that was a tough crowd that Day of Pentecost when Peter and the others preached like that. It is a tough crowd today. That Day of Pentecost people from all over were gathered in Jerusalem, with all kinds of ideas and beliefs, just like there are today. But now, just as then, there is only one truth, not many truths. One God, not many gods. One Saviour, not many saviours. Peter and the others stood up and confessed that. Which took guts! Especially with the horrors of the crucifixion still fresh in their minds. And many do so today, even with the horrors of modern-day martyrdom and persecution and shunning fresh in the news and on the internet. Which takes guts - guts which really can only be attributed to one thing - one person, actually: the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who was given to Peter and the others that Day of Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit who is given to us today. The Holy Spirit who points us to Christ and enables us to believe that He is who He says He is. And not just the Saviour of the world - your Saviour and mine.

So the real miracle - or maybe better to say, the greatest miracle - on that Day of Pentecost wasn’t the ability to speak in tongues or do other cool things, but the faith and trust given to Peter and the others, and to the three thousand who believed and were baptized. And the faith and trust the Holy Spirit is still giving to us today. The Holy Spirit who takes us to the Son who takes us to the Father who sent the Son who sent the Holy Spirit. The whole Holy Trinity working for us, to save us. The Father who gave His only-begotten Son for you, the Son who laid down His life for you, and the Spirit who takes all that Jesus did and gives it to you. All three necessary and important. Which is why the Athanasian Creed says this is necessary to believe. For no Father, no Son. No Son, no Saviour. No Spirit, no faith. But all of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for you and working for you, that’s the Christian faith. One God, three persons. Or as we said in the Introit and prayed in the Collect: a Holy Trinity, and an undivided Unity.

And that faith and trust, given to Peter and the others, and to the three thousand who believed and were baptized, it was something you could see. Peter and the others boldly stood up and confessed in the same city that had just crucified Jesus. The three thousand boldly confessed their sins and were baptized in the midst of others who undoubtedly ridiculed them. For this faith, it doesn’t just live in you, it works in you, and through you, and out of you. It changes you. As Jesus once said, a good tree bears good fruit. An apple tree makes apples. And a Christian does Christ. What He did, you will do. Not perfectly, of course! You’re still a sinner who struggles with sin and always will, until the resurrection. But you’ll begin to do those things, and increase in them. You’ll love as Jesus loved, forgive as He did, maybe even lay down your life for others. Not to earn anything. Jesus has already given you everything! But because that’s who you now are. A child of God. A new person, with new thoughts, new desires, new loves, new faith, new life, new hope, new confidence. Because you are new. Dying and rising with Jesus in your baptism to live a new life. To do those good things the Athanasian Creed also spoke of - again, not to earn life, but that reflect the new life you’ve been given.

But those good things are not just what we normally think of when we think of good works. They are that, but more. So a good thing you now do is confess your sin and receive forgiveness. A good thing you do is hear and read the Word of God and pray. A good thing you do is come to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus here with your brothers and sisters in Christ. These are all good works, too, because they point to your Saviour and all the good He has for you. They show and proclaim to others the good that is here for them, too. A good God who is not just somewhere far, far away in heaven, but a good God, a triune God, who as Jesus claimed, is here for us, gooding us. With a good that doesn’t change. Which, in the midst of a world that is constantly changing, is the firm and solid foundation we all need.

So a Church Year that began with the promise and birth of our Saviour has come full circle to that Saviour’s death, resurrection, and ascension for you. Your sins are forgiven, you have a new life, and the Holy Spirit is leading, guiding, and enlivening you. You are a child of the Father, in the Son, by the working and power of the Holy Spirit. Some may think that an audacious claim, one that makes you nutso and maybe even dangerous. And maybe they’ll treat you that way, as they did Jesus. But even if they kill you, they can’t take your life. That is safe in Jesus. You died with Him, you’ve risen with Him, you’re fed by Him, and you will live with Him forever. So be audacious! Be bold and confident in your words and deeds. Abraham rejoiced to see Jesus’ day, and you do, too. And whether or not the world glorifies you, Jesus will. With a glory that - unlike the world’s - doesn’t come and go with the latest fad, internet meme, or viral video, but lasts forever.

This is the catholic faith, which you believe, and are saved.

 

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Sermon for the Feast of Pentecost

LISTEN

Jesu Juva

“The Tower to Heaven”

Text: Genesis 11:1-9; John 14:23-31; Acts 2:1-21

 

Note: After a very full and busy week, a gently reworked encore presentation of a sermon from yesteryear . . .

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Tower of Babel is one of those cool Bible stories you learn about in Sunday School. It’s easy to teach, on one level. Simple and understandable. The people at that time, all speaking the same language, decided to build a tower with its top in the heavens to make a name for themselves. God, on the other hand, decided this was not a good idea, and so confused their languages so they could no longer speak to one another. The building project stopped, the Lord dispersed the people over the face of the earth, and that’s how all the different languages of the earth came to be.

 

But if that’s all we get out of this story, we haven’t understood it. Because as Jesus taught His disciples after the resurrection, and as we heard in the some of the readings this past Easter season, the Bible isn’t just about giving us cool information - like how all the different languages came to be - it’s all about Jesus. And so we need to try to understand how this story teaches us about Jesus. Then it will be more than just a cool story; it will be a helpful one. A saving one.

 

And one of the keys, I think, is to look at what God said about this project, when He said: and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Or in other words, they will think they can do anything. They will think they can do everything. They will think they do not need God. Engineering, science, and a bit of ingenuity is all the help they will think they need. For look at what we can do! Man is supreme. Man is God.

 

Which sounds very much like the way so many people think today. We can do it. Nothing is impossible. We put a man on the moon. We hold in our hands computers which are amazingly powerful and can connect us to people all over the world. We are doing things today our ancestors never dreamed of. We know more now than ever before. And there seems to be no limit to what we can do. Nothing is impossible for us. If it seems so, we’ll figure it out. It seems as if the dream of Babel is finally becoming a reality - even with our mixed-up languages.

 

Except - as you well know - the picture is not all that rosy. Science and technology may be advancing, and new discoveries are being made, but it is fair to ask: are we better off? Is all the help we really need in our own two hands and in our minds? Yes, computers connect us but they also separate us. People are living longer but not necessarily living better. When a cure is found for one disease, another - and often worse one, as we found out - mutates to take its place, or a new one comes along, or scientists engineer one. And what about peace in a world where hostilities never cease, there is more and more fear and less and less security, more and more division and less and less understanding, more and more attacks and less and less tolerance - the good kind of tolerance, and our own consciences either accuse us or wonder what’s the next fear-and-confusion-causing-thing coming down the pike. And these things keep getting worse.

 

And then there’s death. Some people deny it, some people hasten it, some people welcome it, some people look to it as a solution to their problems, some people postpone it as long as they can. But if there really is one thing that unites all people in this world, that’s it. We’re all going to die. One day. Sooner or later. And no tower, no achievement, no name we make for ourselves, can stop it. In fact, that name we make for ourselves will, in the end, just be written in our obituaries and chiseled onto our tombstones.

That was the trajectory of the people in the land of Shinar who built that tower. But God wanted more for them than that, than that end. And so He stopped them, to help them. He stopped them, to save them from themselves. He stopped them and scattered them, so that one day He could gather them around a different tower and give them what they need; what no tower into the heavens or effort of man could give them - a way to life. A way to Himself.

 

And that’s exactly what we’ve been celebrating the past fifty days, this Easter season - that Jesus has provided that way. That not by a tower into the heavens, but by a cross; and not by man, but by God, the unbridgeable gap between the earth and the heavens has been bridged. That as God and man in one flesh, one person, the sin that separated us from our Father in heaven has been atoned for by Jesus’ death, and the death that robs us of life has been overcome in His resurrection. That’s Easter.

 

But still, that was not enough. Yes, the tower of the cross has been built by God, but we need to be gathered back to it and around it. For the peace of mind and peace of heart that we need, we need someone to teach us about that tower, God’s tower, to point us to the cross and to Jesus. We need the sin and wrong trust in our hearts to be overcome, that we not be like the people building the tower and trust in what we can do, and wrongly think nothing is impossible for us, but instead repent, confess, and turn away from that, and trust in the One who bridged the gap for us, in Jesus, and correctly believe that nothing is impossible for Him. We need a Helper.

 

And that’s who today, Pentecost, is all about. The Helper. The Holy Spirit who, we heard Jesus say today, the Father will send in His name. The Spirit who will teach us of Jesus, and point us to Jesus, and give us the peace of heart and peace of mind that comes with the forgiveness of sin and the promise of a life that death cannot end. The gifts that Jesus won for us on the cross, are now given to us by the Helper, the Spirit.

 

And so when Jesus spoke of the gift of the Holy Spirit, He said this as well: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives - or maybe we could say, as they world builds - do I give to you. For with the gift of the Spirit comes the gift of peace. A peace that doesn’t come from the world, or from you and what you do, or us and what we do, but only from God. From the Father, who sent His Son to build a heaven-reaching tower, and His Spirit to then gather all people to it and back to Himself.

 

And we heard that impressive list of folks who heard and were gathered to the cross on that first Pentecost - they were from all over the place: Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians. But it didn’t stop with them. The Spirit sent the apostles out even further to proclaim the Word through which the Spirit would work and continue to give His gifts of forgiveness and peace. As the prophet Joel said, in the last days God would pour out His Spirit on all flesh. Men and women, Jews and Gentiles, young and old. A pouring out and gathering that started on the Day of Pentecost, and hasn’t stopped.

 

Because you are here. You wouldn’t be here were it not for the Spirit. The Spirit who is still being poured out and still working and gathering people to Jesus and His cross through the Word of God - the Word preached and the Word joined to the water of Baptism. The Word which points us to Jesus and connects us to Jesus. The Word through which the Helper is teaching you, forgiving you, and pointing you to the tower of the cross and testifying to you: There is your hope. There is your confidence. There is your peace. Peace in life and peace in death. That your hearts not be troubled, nor be afraid.

 

And so He has gathered us together today in the midst of a world fraught with danger, sin, trouble, change, and so much to be fearful and worried about. He has gathered us together here today around the cross that is planted here - on this altar. for here is the Body and Blood that hung upon that cross, and the Body and Blood that then rose from the dead, that receiving this gift, our bodies too rise from the dead to life again, finally and fully free from all that troubles us here. Fully at peace in Jesus.

 

So by teaching us of the past and giving us confidence for the future we can deal with the present, and know that whatever is happening is not such a big deal after all. Not for God, anyway. The world may be going crazy with its politics, political correctness, divisiveness, new kinds of wickedness and evil being invented every day, and false gods a-plenty. And in yours lives, troubles, worries, fears,, challenges, uncertainty . . . but none of that can win; none of that can conquer a child of the Father, in Jesus, with the Holy Spirit. Our God has conquered all our foes and provided us with a sure and certain future. We may not know how we will get to the future - the twist and turns in the road, the challenges and obstacles that face us - but we will get there. We have our Lord’s promise. So there is peace, for we have certainty in our Lord. And we can rejoice, for we are not on our own, but have a Helper.

 

And then one day, Jesus will say to you what He said to His disciples, as we heard at the end of the Holy Gospel today: Rise, let us go from here. When He spoke that to the disciples, Jesus was going to the cross to defeat sin and death for us there. When you hear Him speak those words, it will be from the place where your body lay, when you will rise and go from the dust to which you returned to life again - sin and death defeated and nothing but life ahead for you. Life, with your Saviour, with His name, and in His Kingdom, which will have no end. And the only tower you’ll need to get there, you have: the cross.

 

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.