Saint Athanasius Lutheran Church

So maybe like Adam and Eve, you've doubted God's Word and thought to yourself: it's just a little sin, after all! If so, good news for you! You have a faithful God. He sees your sin, your leprosy. He knows it better than you. And He says to you: I forgive you all your sins. In fact, they're not even yours anymore -- they're mine, He says. And so free to live. To live as the child of God you are. Free not to go back to your old ways, like Ruth. So now you -- rise and go; your Jesus has made you well.

Three little words. You know them. Wives long to hear them from their husbands, and husbands from their wives. No, not I love you! But I forgive you. So I don't know about you, but if someone sins against me and hurts me pretty bad and I forgive them, I'm feeling pretty good about myself. And yet we heard these words from Jesus today: So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.' And so when you forgive, when you speak those three little words, you're not earning anything -- you are simply giving what you have received. You are clinging to Jesus by faith, and you are giving Jesus to others.

Things look bad. And the future? Well, it's hard to predict the future, but it's hard to imagine things getting any better. We're on the wrong trajectory, and picking up speed. How can you turn this thing around? Well, Daniel saw all this, and he fasted and prayed. You might remember Daniel's story -- or at least part of it. He did not have an easy life. But like as with Daniel, God sends His angels to fight for you. So if you look around at our world today, it looks like it was in the days of Daniel. But Jesus, the promised one came, and is coming again. With His agels. And when He and His angels come, things change. So fear not. You have the victory.

One sheep. It's only one sheep Jesus. You still have 99. Don't worry about it. It'll probably just wander off again anyhow. But that's the way of man, not of God. For God, each and every one is important, valuable, and worth His time and effort. Not sheep, but sinners. He doesn't want even one lost. Because Jesus is here for all of you and each one of you. For each and every lost sheep, lost person. And there's no place He'd rather be than here, with you, with sinners, loving you, rescuing you, being your God.

How did you do it? How did you become a disciple of Jesus? Because you are. You're here. You confess. You're a Christian, a follower of Jesus. But you don't measure up. Because all those things I can'd do, Jesus did. He did leave everything behind. He did give up everything. He didn't let anything or anyone move Him from His mission. He did take His cross and die. For me. So that's how you did it, dear children of God. It wasn't you after all; it is Christ, and Christ who lives in you. And so you are His disciple. And even more that that, His child.

At my father's funeral, my brother, his son, and I all mentioned discipline in our sermons. My nephew talked about something my father had written, which referred to the strap that ended all foolishness in my father's house when he was growing up. That kind of discipline isn't done much today, if at all. As times change, discipline changes. The methods change, but the discipline continues. Because love continues. And the Lord disciplines those he loves. Discipline isn't just to stop a bad behaviour, but to instill a good one. The Lord's discipline, too. We heard today that God disciplines us that we may share his holiness.

The rich man in the parable Jesus told today was exactly right. The rich man's desire to relax, eat, drink, and be merry is spot on. That's exactly what God wants for you. Now. As His baptized children, you can relax now in your Father's love and care for you. You can eat and drink here and now at His Table. And you can be merry now because you have an inheritance in heaven that your brother, Jesus, provided for you with His death and resurrection. An inheritance that doesn't end or go away when you die, but one that will never be taken from you.

Surely the disciples knew how to pray. The Jews had their prayers and their times for prayer. The disciples knew how to pray, like we know how to pray. For prayer is the breath of the Christian. We breathe in God's Word and we breathe out that word in prayer. Yet we could be better, do better. So we can understand the request of the disciples that we heard today: Lord, teach us to pray. It is our request, too. The hardest part of learning is learning to ask the right questions. This was the right question, the right request. Lord, teach us to pray.

Be different! That's the message rom God to you today. Be different. Don't be like the people around you. Don't do what they do. You, be different. That's what God gold Old Testament Israel in the reading from Leviticus we heard today. Don't be like everyone else. Don't be like the world. Because you're not. You're mine. I am the Lord. Sometimes when we hear that phrase, I think we hear it like parents say it. Except that's not how God means it at all! I am the Lord is like the Invocation we hear at the beginning of every Divine Service here -- In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

So you don't go to the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God comes to you. Sounds backwards, doesn't it? But not with God. For Him, the kingdom is on the move. The kingdom of God comes to sinners, finds sinners, and forgives sinners. Even here, to you, today. Don't see it? Maybe you're looking for the wrong things. That was a stumbling block to people in Jesus' day, and in our day, too. We want a church that is powerful and influential, that the world will look up to and pay attention to. So repent. And know that when you hear I forgive you all your sins, that's Him, not me; you hear not me but Him who sent me. And the kingdom of God has come near to you.

Jesus had been going about His business for some time now. He could have stayed up in Galilee and Samaria, kept doing amazing things, lead a comfortable life. But Jesus wanted so much more than that. Not for Himself, of course, but for you. And so when the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up -- that is, taken up on the cross, He did not turn away -- He set His face to go to Jerusalem. And thank God for that! But not just that Jesus set His face to go to Jerusalem, but that long before this, God set His face toward us.

I'm not saying you have a demon... but have you ever been driven by something within you, like the man we heard about in the Gospel today? Maybe your anger, which causes you to lash out at others. Or maybe for you it is lust that drives you to do things that are hurtful, shameful, and harmful to yourself and others. What about envy? And if you're like me, you do these things even though you don't want to. So I'm not saying you have a demon... but maybe the sin in us makes us more like this man than we'd care to admit.

Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon! I used to chuckle at those words. Because what is Jesus supposed to say? Yeah, you're right. I have a demon. You got me! So what's the point? Well, they're not just saying that Jesus is crazy, or a few cards short of a full deck. By saying Jesus has a demon, what they were saying is this: Jesus is evil. The eerie thing is: that sounds an awful lot like what many people are saying today. We are dangerous and cannot be tolerated.

Some events that happen in life are life-changing. Marriage. Or divorce. The death of a loved one. Moving to a new place. Having a baby. And some events are world changing events. D-Day, the beginning of the end of World War 2. September 11, 2001. The Tower of Babel was an event that changed the world forever, dividing peoples and languages that are still separate today. Well one of those events is Pentecost. The sending of the Holy Spirit changes lives, larger groups of people together, and even the world.

Remember back to when you were little. A little child. When you needed something, you asked your parents. You didn't worry about whether you were going to get it or not -- you just asked. And then after a while, you just stopped asking. Because you got old enough to do things, get things, on your own. As a Christian, maybe that's where you're at -- relying on God less now than you did before. Oh, He's still there for advice when problems arise in your life. But the day-to-day stuff, you just take care of on your own. Well, with His words to His disciples, Jesus is inviting us back.

Jesus doesn't try to insulate His disciples from sorrow. He is no helicopter God, trying to spare them any hardship or pain. He doesn't promise them that every day will be sunshine and laughter. You will weep and lament, He says. You will have sorrow. But... your sorrow will turn into joy. And so the problems and struggles you face this week... you can have joy even in them, like the discipes. For you're not alone and you're not on your own. And that when you stumble and fall -- and you will! -- it won't change your Saviour's love for you.

What does it mean to have a Good Shepherd? For most, I think, the answer would be that Jesus is watching over you. But it is more than that. For you have not only a good shepherd, but the Good Shepherd. When you have the Good Shepherd -- or maybe better to say, when He has you, in his flock, it means this: that you will be one of the one coming out of the great tribulation. What is the tribulation, the trial and trouble, you need your Good Shepherd to get you through?

Death's strong bands look awful strong. And one man caused it all, Paul said today. One man. Named Adam. But the good news that we are celebrating today is the second half of Paul's sentence. For as by a man -- one man --came death, by a man has come also the resurrection from the dead. Because of one man. One man. Named Jesus. One man. Risen from the dead. Yes, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Things in life can change in an instant. And often do. Today in the readings we heard, things changed dramatically in the span of one week. A whirlwind that took twelve disciples from following their King into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to being holed up in fear behind locked doors on Saturday. But the truth is that nothing that week changed at all. This was the plan from the beginning of time, from the first sin that plunged us and all the world into death.