Saint Athanasius Lutheran Church

If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. But how can you abide in Jesus' word if you cannot understand it? That was Luther's question. They were being told to go to confession and do the satisfactions the priest told them to do. And they were being told that by doing these things, and others, that would set them free. But once Luther began reading the Scriptures himself, he came across the verses like we heard today, that if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

So today we begin a new church year, which helps us keep track of time -- but not our time, earthly time, but God's time, heavenly time. That's why the church uses a different calendar than the world, why the church has different seasons than the world. We look at things differently. Which brings us to the words we heard today from St. Paul -- you know the time, he says -- that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep.

Jesus doesn't want their tears. Not tears of pity anyway. He wants to go to the cross. Don't weep for Him, He says. No, weep for yourselves. Because this is just the beginning. It's going to get worse. Are we there yet? Maybe. There's a lot of sin and evil in our world. The cross -- and staying on it -- was Jesus remembering. Remembering our need for life. Today, you will be with me in Paradise. That's a good way to end the Church Year, don't you think?

The full title for this Sunday is the Commemoration of Saint James of Jerusalem, Brother of our Lord, and Martyr. That is, James was put to death because of his faith in his brother Jesus, that He was the promised Messiah. Now, James was probably the person most surprised by this of anybody, for he didn't start out believing this about his brother. Who would? But then after his brother appeared to him after being crucified and then rising from the dead, and by the work of the Holy Spirit in his heart, he believed.

Many of the words we heard today, from Malachi, from Jesus, are... how shall we characterize them? Disturbing? Unsettling? Frightening? Many of these things have already happened. The Temple was destroyed and Jerusalem trampled underfoot -- although it has since been rebuilt. The city, at least. But so far, no Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. So until that day, when the Son of Man comes in a cloud with power and great glory, live in quiet confidence.

What the world cannot achieve, Jesus has. We heard today of John's great vision of heaven, of a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. Our world seeks such unity and peace, but these noble goals continue to elude us. Unless... unless there was some other way we could be united and at peace.

The parable Jesus tells today is a pretty simple one to understand. There's a corrupt judge. He doesn't care what God thinks about him and the job he's doing. He is 100% in it for himself. But one day a widow shows up. She can't do anything for him, so he ignores her, sends wer away. But she won't go away. So finally he relents. it's a story to cheer, right? But then Jesus turns the parable around.

What's worse? The war you can see or the war you can't? That there is war in our world should not surprise us. We are reaping the wages of sin and the Scriptures are clear this is how it will be. Underneath it all, behind it all, is the evil one. But do not despair! Because of this, too, the Scriptures are very, very clear -- who has won and who will win. And it is not evil or the evil one! But though we should not take him lightly, neither should we cower before him. Remember and remind him constantly of his defeat!

Violence. Iniquity. Destruction. Strife and contention. The wicked are winning. Is that a description of what we see today? Maybe so. But that's what we heard today from the prophet Habakkuk. That's what he saw. And God tells His prophet, I'm sending in the Babylonians. Wait... you're what? That's the nuclear option! But that's exactly what God is going to do. Such times are not the times to turn away from God and seek help elsewhere, but to turn toward Him and trust that He is working good, even if we cannot understand how.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. When time is short, your priorities change. What you would have put off, you no longer do. So when the manager in the parable today heard these words, Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager, his life changed in a heartbeat. So Jesus' question for us today is this -- how come you're not like this spiritually? For the day is coming when the Master of all, the Lord of all, is going to call us to account. And then what happens when you are called to account for all this?

Today was a day that a great searching began. September 11, 2001. The searching was frantic and desperate at first. If there were any survivors, surely their injuries would be grave and they wouldn't be able to survive long. But there was more than one searching that started that day, September 11, 2001. The other was the searching for the man and the people responsible for this act. And for Jesus, too, the Good Shepherd searching for His sheep, there was a price to be paid. And Jesus paid it. He took responsibility for all the sin, all the rubble, all the death, all the chaos, all the grief caused by our sin.

Most of the time, when we make a bad decision, we may regret the decision we made, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter all that much. But some bad choices have a more lasting effect. So what of the decisions we make concerning God? How would you categorize them? One of the responsibilities of fathers and mothers is to teach their children how to make good choices, good decisions. And Jesus is doing the same thing in the words of the Holy Gospel that we heard today. Count the cost, He says, of following Him.

Hey, how are you? How's it going? If someone asks you that question, you know better than to actually start telling them! They're just being polite. And if you gave a dinner in Jesus' day, you'd leave the door open so that anybody could come in, but it was really for show. You didn't really want them to come in! Except if you invite Jesus to your dinner. We're not told if this man with dropsy had come into the house or not -- but it seems like he did. Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not? They don't answer, not because they didn't want to answer -- they just want this man to go away.

Lord, will those who are saved be few? This was one of those questions the rabbis in Jesus' day liked to argue about. They had many such questions that occupied their time -- this was just one of them. And they liked to ask Jesus. He doesn't answer the question, but changes it from few to you -- the question is not whether few will be saved, but will you be saved? And thus in Jesus, where He goes, you go. Cling to that, to Him. And then don't despair, but rejoice!

The man was a lawyer. Lawyers are trained in details and specifics. So it is natural and quite in keeping with how this man was trained for him to ask for more definition, more precision. If there is a contract between God and man for salvation, for eternal life, then he needs to know -- How is it fulfilled? What shall I do? Who is my neighbor? So it turns out that not only is the definition of the word neighbor really big, so is Jesus' definition of the word love!

The march of Jesus to His death is on. We heard that last week. He is going to Jerusalem. He is going to the cross. He is going to lay down His life. FOR YOU. But as He goes He sends out 72 others to go ahead of Him. A mission of peace. Of proclaiming peace and giving peace. The peace that Jesus is going to Jerusalem to establish -- not with Rome or the political powers of His day, but with God. But they do not go powerless. They are armed with the same weapon as Jesus: the Word.

Elijah was hiding. Israel, he said, was out of control. Insand 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. Perhaps you feel a bit like Elijah. 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!

Demons are powerful. Chains and shackles are useless. Demons are fearsome. Demons are numerous. Demons wreak havoc. Demons want you to believe that they're in charge. But then into the picture steps Jesus. And everything changes. In His presence, the powerful demons beg for mercy. He wreaks havoc on them and their up-until-now comfortable existence. Well, as you can imagine, when something like this happens, word gets around fast! I would think the people would have been thankful for such a change. But instead they are afraid, of Jesus, and they ask Him to leave. So why did they do it?

Jesus makes an audacious claim -- that He is God. The only God. The one true God. No wonder they thought He was a Samaritan -- an out-of-his-mind half-breed. Sure, Jesus did a lot of good things. 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.

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. But if that's all we get out of this story, we haven't understood it. And one of the keys, I think, is to look at what God said about this project: and this is only the beginning of what they will do. Man is supreme. Man is God.