Saint Athanasius Lutheran Church

How appropriate to have a baptism today! The Second Sunday of Advent, when John the Baptist always makes his appearance. John was the one who came to prepare the way for this. Because this is why the Son of God came into our world -- to make lost and condemned sinners His own. His own children. Children with hope and a future. John was simply preparing the way for Him. So John didn't go to the Temple, but into the wilderness, to do battle with the enemy and plunder him.

At the dawn of creation, God said, Let there be light, and there was light. But what did that light reveal? An earth that was without form and void. But just as soon as the night was ending, so was the formlessness, void, chaos and disorder of creation. God quickly brought order to His creation. But if the night would soon be ending, it would quickly come again. But God would break the darkness again. The light of God's promise.

Rend the heavens! Tear open the heavens! The nuclear option. Show 'em who's boss, God. Perhaps you've thought that, too. Wished that, too. When sin and evil and the enemies of the church and the truth seem to be winning. A little shock and awe might just be what they need. The problem is... the God we want to rend the heavens and come down and bring the hammer down on others, is the God who should rend the heavens and come down and bring the hammer down on us!

A shepherd gathers his sheep. They know as long as he is there, they are safe. They look to him and he looks out for them. Their lives are intertwined. And that is how it will be on the Last Day. For He not only knows us -- we know Him. So Come, Lord Jesus!

Sing to the Lord of harvest. Thanksgiving isn't really about the harvest anymore, though it may have started that way. Our food supply -- here in the United States at least -- is so stable we take it for granted. Small farms that are still around know, though, how precarious things are. To them, a good harvest is still a big deal. And a cause to give thanks. I do not thank God for all His gifts. I take them for granted. So it's good to have a day we should not need, like this!

Trusting is risky. It is much safer and shrewder to trust no one. But to close yourself off in such a way is not good. And to live in such fear and paranoia is, in fact, not living at all -- but is, I would say, the very opposite: dying. So as we heard in the Holy Gospel today, God shares with us, and trusts. And He began by sharing his life with us, entrusting to us His creation. And, well, you know how that turned out. But even then, God does not take this dominion away from them.

I'm sure you could provide your own story, of a time something went undone, and by the time you got to it, it was too late. That is what the parable Jesus tells us today would have us consider. Because with Jesus' return and the coming kingdom of heaven, there is going to be a time when it is too late. And you don't want to be on the wrong side of the door when time is up and the door is closed.

A scared world needs a fearless church. All Saints Day reminds us that whatever happens in this world and in your life, you are safe and secure. You are not alone. You have a heavenly Father who holds you in His hands and close to His heart. You might be a mess! But you are blessed. You are a dearly loved child of God. Yours is the kingdom of heaven. Not because you've earned it or deserve it, but because Jesus did, and gives it to you.

And so it is with all that in mind that we come to the Holy Gospel for this day, where we heard Jesus speak of violence. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Yet despite all the violence of sin and satan from the very beginning, the Church is still here.

Do not be deceived! What you heard today is not about coins, but about kingdoms. It is not about taxes, but about truth. It is not a real question, it is a trap. They are trying to bait Jesus into saying something they can then use against him. And the Pharisees are thinking about and looking for the wrong kingdom. Jesus is, in fact, restoring His Father's kingdom. But not the kingdom of his father David, but the kingdom of God the Father!

Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Thus said the apostle Paul in the Epistle we heard today. Words of admonition, of encouragement, I need. I wish forgiveness meant not just that my sins were wiped out before God, but that they are wiped out from my own memory as well. But maybe it's good they're not.

Rubbish. Trash. Garbage. That's what St. Paul calls everything he has in this world compared to Christ. His position, his esteem, his accomplishments, his knowledge, his righteousness. All of that, he says, is nothing, worthless, compared to Christ. How different the servants in the vineyard and their thinking in the parable Jesus told today. Paul said he'd throw away everything except for Christ. The servants would throw away Christ to keep everything else. He was the stone they rejected.

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.