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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. (Amen.)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
Those who were hit by the fourteen “bunker-busting bombs” dropped by seven American B-2s last weekend in Iran may have thought that someone had told fire to come down from heaven and to consume them! Of course, what the government, the so‑called kingdom of the left hand, does with its God-given sword, today is to be separate from what the Church, the so‑called kingdom of the right hand, does with its God-given sword. President Trump and others are wrong to make the attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons development part of a “Holy War”, arguably just as in today’s Gospel Reading Jesus’s disciples James and John, whom for this or some other reason Jesus called “the sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17), were wrong to think that Jesus would want them to tell fire to destroy the Samaritans who were not willing to receive Jesus. Yes, the prophet Elijah twice essentially had called fire down from heaven that consumed a total of more than 100 Samaritan soldiers (2 Kings 1:10,12), but the circumstances in Jesus’s day certainly were different. The long-standing and deep‑seated hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans in Jesus’s day has been described as intense and notorious, perhaps not all that different from the hostility between the State of Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran today, but we agree with neither side then or now, at least not religiously. And, religiously is what matters most to us. Considering primarily today’s Gospel Reading, this morning we direct our thoughts to the theme of “Receiving Jesus and Proclaiming the Kingdom”.
From last Sunday’s Gospel Reading (Luke 8:26-39), we have come forward a good bit in St. Luke’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account for today’s Gospel Reading. Some aspects of today’s Gospel Reading are unique to St. Luke’s account, and some aspects of today’s Gospel Reading are also reported in passages of St. Matthew’s and Mark’s Gospel accounts, although we do not hear those passages in Lutheran Service Book’s Three-Year Series of appointed readings. Today’s Gospel Reading is sometimes said to have three parts: Jesus’s decision to go to Jerusalem, Jesus’s rejection by a village of Samaritans, and Jesus’s teaching about following Him to those to be sent as an apostle (for example, SQE §174-176, pp.255-256). The three parts are interrelated, however, as Jesus’s resolutely setting out for Jerusalem is said to be the reason why the village of Samaritans did not receive Him, and Jesus essentially teaches that those who follow Him to be sent as an apostle, also must resolutely set out for Jerusalem, no matter either the personal sacrifice or familial impact of doing so or what they may think of as Biblical precedent for their excuse for not doing so (confer Roehrs-Franzmann, ad loc Luke 9:62, p.68). For pastors and lay-people today, what amounts to the two main parts of today’s Gospel Reading are said by at least one interpreter to apply differently: for the lay‑people, there is an emphasis on “Receiving Jesus” and so supporting Him, and, for those who would be or are pastors, there is an emphasis on “Proclaiming the Kingdom” no matter the cost (confer Quill, CPR 29:3, pp.20, 21).
As I recall, today’s Gospel Reading was the text of the first sermon I ever preached for the congregation where I was confirmed, and you may know what Jesus says elsewhere about prophets being without honor in their hometowns (Matthew 13:57; Mark 6:4). I was home for the summer after my first year in seminary, and at least some of the people in that congregation knew that, when I had been younger, I had resolved to be a pastor, but then, after problems at our family’s previous congregation, to some extent I changed my mind and, at least for a time, became a broadcast journalist. The second main part of the Gospel Reading, especially Jesus’s words about no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back’s being fit for the kingdom of God seemed to especially indict me of my sin, then and even now, though for different reasons. Looking back is a temptation, at least, in a smaller struggling congregation, especially one that is standing at a significant crossroads. Perhaps somewhat similarly, the prophet Elijah, who had been jealous for the Lord, perhaps not all that unlike the zealous James and John—Elijah was more-or-less afraid and dis‑couraged in today’s Old Testament Reading (1 Kings 19:9b-21), but the Lord en‑couraged Elijah, including by designating Elisha as prophet in Elijah’s place, some time after which designation, Elijah was taken up to heaven by a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:1‑12).
Now, I do not want to completely cast the rest of you in the role of the Samaritans, the religiously-intermarried, false‑believing, false-teaching, and false-confessing people who would not receive—and thereby not support—Jesus and those traveling with Him. But, to the extent that the jester’s‑cap or the glass-slipper fits, wear it! By nature, no one would truly receive and support Jesus and those whom He sends, and so all would be fit for destruction in the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41), apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, just as, if it were up to us who are pastors, no one would be fit for service in the Kingdom of God, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. In all our lives, all too evident are the works of the flesh that we heard described in today’s Epistle Reading (Galatians 5:1, 13-25), when what we who repent and believe should show forth are the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
If we were to hear today’s Gospel Reading from translations such as the King James Version or the New American Standard Bible, we would hear Jesus rebuke James and John with words like these, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them” (NASB95). Those words are textually disputed but nevertheless true in what they say (confer Metzger, ad loc Luke 9:55, pp.148-149; Arndt, ad loc Luke 9:55, p.275; Just, ad loc Luke 9:55-56, pp.429, 431). The Son of Man truly came in order to save people’s lives (Luke 19:10; John 3:17)! Jesus cared about the Samaritans, and He cares about you and me! As God had determined, the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up to heaven, and the man Jesus, the Son of God in human flesh, set His face to go to Jerusalem (confer Isaiah 50:7). There, in Jerusalem, eventually everything written about Him by the prophets was accomplished, including His being betrayed, mocked, shamefully treated, and spat upon (Luke 18:31-32). There, in Jerusalem, Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world. He died the death that you and I deserve, in our place. Then He rose from the dead and was taken up to heaven (Luke 24:50-51; Acts 1:9-11). As we sang in the Introit (Psalm 85:8-10, 13; antiphon: v.7), God shows us Hs steadfast love and grants us His salvation. When we repent of our sin and believe that God forgives us for Jesus’s sake, then God does just that: God forgives us for Jesus’s sake. God forgives us through His Word and Sacraments.
As Elijah anointed Elisha before Elijah was taken up to heaven, so Jesus “anointed” His apostles before He was taken up to heaven (for example, John 20:21-23). Those apostles likewise ordained their successors, down to pastors today. Those pastors ideally were willing to make personal sacrifices and to suffer familial impacts in order to reside at a physical seminary and then to move anywhere as needed for vicarage and eventually for placement. Those pastors not only proclaim the Kingdom of God, as we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, but they also baptize and absolve in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (for example, Matthew 28:19‑20), and, as an angel fed Elijah bread and water and so strengthened him for his journey (1 Kings 19:5‑8), so these messengers of God feed us on bread that is the Body of Christ given for us and wine that is the Blood of Christ shed for us, so that in the strength of that food for body and soul we go to life everlasting. Those pastors do not tell fire to come down from heaven and consume anyone, but they do, as necessary, excommunicate those who are manifest and impenitent sinners (Smalcald Articles III:ix; confer Luke 10:10-12). But, most importantly, through those pastors’ ministry of Word and Sacraments, God gives the Holy Spirit and creates and sustains the faith that thereby also receives His forgiveness of sins for Jesus’s sake (Augsburg Confession V:1).
Not all of the Samaritans remained false‑believing, false-teaching, and false-confessing people who would not welcome—and thereby not support—Jesus and those traveling with Him. For example, St. Luke’s Gospel account tells of a leprous Samaritan man who, after he was cleansed, fell at Jesus’s feet giving Him thanks (Luke 17:11‑19). And, St. John’s Gospel account tells of a promiscuous Samaritan woman who apparently came to believe in Jesus and told the people of her town about Him, so that they also believed (John 4:4-42). The Holy Spirit also works such fruit in us, including not only our receiving Jesus but also our supporting those whom He sends to proclaim the Kingdom, and, with daily repentance and faith, our living in His forgiveness of sins for all of our failures in those and other regards.
There are two kingdoms and two swords, but there is one God (confer Ephesians 4:4-6), Who works through the government for the benefit of His Church. To the human eye there is nothing quite as dramatic as a 20-foot-long 30‑thousand‑pound “bunker‑busting bomb” here at Pilgrim, but here we are “Receiving Jesus and Proclaiming the Kingdom”. Thanks be to God!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +