Saint Athanasius Lutheran Church

So to create chaos in your life is the very thing Jesus has come to do! If you're looking for a Jesus to make you feel good about yourself or pat you on the back and say keep up the good work -- find another Jesus. Because the nice, comfortable, sinful life you've settled into is not good. So Jesus doesn't want to leave you there. He wants to stir things up in your life so that you will not rely on yourself, but that you turn to Him and rely on Him.

The commemoration of Saint Michael and All Angels is a bad news / good news kind of day. For, we heard -- Woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short! All of the readings we heard today spoke of this war. But all of the readings we heard today also spoke of victory! So although we are in a war, we know how it is going to turn out. And that gives us hope.

Peter always takes Jesus' teaching to heart. He doesn't always understand it correctly! But he takes it to heart. So, he asks Jesus, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times? Imagine his surprise when Jesus completely zorches that thinking. I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven. What you do comes from where your heart is. That's the Father's heart.

Jesus talks about amputation today. Better to lose an arm, leg, or eye than that your whole body be lost to the hell of fire. And He says that because He knows -- although we don't often know, or acknowledge -- that we're in a war. Against General Satan and his army of evil. But Jesus doesn't want any amputations! He doesn't want even one member of His Body, the Church, lost. The great physician of body and soul has medicine for us. The medicine of forgiveness

God created you to have life. A full and abundant life. Everything about creation was about life. Even the tree in the Garden that God commanded Adam not to eat of it, even this was for life. Of course, things are different now. Because Adam and Eve ate of that tree and brought sin and death into this world of life. But what is not different is that God still wants you to have life. A full and abundant life. It's just that we don't know how anymore.

Who do you say that I am? This is the most important question you will ever be asked. Who do you say Jesus is? Peter, speaking on behalf of the twelve, gets it right. Not because they're smarter. But because it has been revealed to them by the Father who is in heaven. That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And so it is on this rock, on this confession, of who Jesus is and what He has done, that Jesus builds His Church.

Jesus had gotten the news. His cousin, John, was dead. Even though it wasn't a surprise, He wanted some time away. He is not unaffected. He wept when His friend Lazarus died. So here He goes to a desolate place by Himself. Death is not right. But this is exactly why He came. Come into a world we have desolated with sin and death, and save it. Save us. That's why satan tries so hard to keep you from here.

In the parable we heard from Jesus today, didn't you ever wonder... why was that treasure there in the first place? Who saw a treasure. But what do we see? We see people buried. Buried in sin. And yet the Son of God, our Saviour, Jesus, looks at you at gives you all He has for you. And if that makes no sense to you, you are beginning to understand that we cannot understand such love. And yet, it's true.

If Jesus were to tell this parable today, I think He might get accused of being a conspiracy theorist! An enemy came and intentionally sowed weed seeds in your field. Weeds just grow, Jesus! Everywhere! But Jesus wasn't being paranoid. This was happening to Him. The Pharisees were actively sowing seeds of opposition and doubt wherever He went. They didn't want to discredit Him or shame Him, they wanted Him GONE.

This week I want to tell you about another plant in our yard, but this one, one that we did not plant. It just grew by itself. A tomato plant in our front yard. And that plant we did not plant produced more tomatoes for us than the ones we did! The seed just grew, and produced an abundant harvest. The parable Jesus told today was about sowing seeds like that. Seeds that are sown that produce an abundant harvest.

Today, in the reading from Romans, Saint Paul talks about being trapped. But this is a far more serious kind of trapped than the others, bad as they may be. He is trapped in his sin. The struggle for Paul is not between his mind and his body, but between his Old Man and his New Man. It is between sinner and saint. But then Paul saw the light -- literally! Once Paul saw the light, he realized that to simply do better and try harder doesn't work.

Tough words we heard today! But Jesus doesn't hate families. They were His idea! But what Jesus does hate is idols. False gods. Which by catechetical definition is anything or anyone in this world that we fear, love, or trust more than God. And that can include the family. Now families are good. We thank God for families. But if family comes before God, that's not good. We've sinned. We need to repent.

Jesus sent the twelve out... Last week we heard the first part of that. And then the words we heard today -- more bad news. And you probably know how they felt. It's not easy being a Christian these days. The question is, what are you going to do? You gonna go back? There's no hope there. The wages of sin is death -- now and forever. He who denies Jesus is denied by Jesus -- but the free give of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So they came to Him, the one who had come to them, and for them. Here was the shepherd they needed. The one they had been looking for and waiting for. The one prophesied, and now here. That's why Matthew used the phrase he did, that the people were like sheep without a shepherd. He didn't think up that phrase himself -- it is from the Old Testament.

And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. It was NOT a compliment! It was ridicule, scorn. Christian meant fool. Christian meant stupid. As it still does for some people today. And yet, we heard, the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. Since the name stuck, that indicates to me that they didn't try to get away from it, but embraced it. It became not just a name but an identity. You could be a Jew or a Greek, you could be poor or rich, you could be from the city or the country and be a Christian.

All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore and... do what? It would be an interesting exercise to give these words as what they call a writing prompt. Perhaps Christians would say I'd make people believe. But what would non-Christians say? But what do all these answers have in common? The Law. But this is not the authority of Jesus. And so how Jesus completed that sentence was with using authority to give. To baptize and teach. To give forgiveness. To give the Word of God. To give Jesus. To give life. To give the kingdom of God.

They say that by the time you feel thirsty, your body is already short on water. So thirst is good. It is a warning sign that you need something. Jesus talks about being thirsty today. Now, John tells us that Jesus didn't mean literal water here -- He was talking about the Holy Spirit. He says, whoever you are, wherever you're from, whatever you've done, wherever you're searching, whatever Kool-Aid you're drinking, come to me and drink. Water of life. Water that gives life. For all people.

There's what I should be doing, and there's what I am doing. I should be doing chores around the house, but instead I'm watching the game, or binge-watching that show everyone's talking about. Peter mentions a few things like that for us today. Things we should do, but maybe don't do. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, he says. Be sober-minded, watchful of the devil, and resisting him. Cast all your anxieties on Him. So as we come to the end of this Easter season, we hear once again where to put our hope -- and it's not in us!

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Those were the last words of Jesus recorded by Luke in the book of Acts. Jesus is returning to the right hand of the Father -- His place from eternity as true God, but now also His place for eternity as true man.

Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? Ideally, no one, right? But actually, lots of folks. When a Supreme Court justice votes to overturn Roe v. Wade, a man comes to his house to assassinate him. When a baker or florist stands up for God's definition of marriage, they are attacked, sued, and put out of business. That's why Peter goes on to say, But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. So this is the hope, the confidence, the certainty that is in us.