The Lord’s Prayer is something that we say often.  We say it every time we gather for worship; it is part of the liturgy.  Those who follow a Daily Office our some other directed spiritual discipline say it everyday.  It is an important part of our spiritual life and discipleship.  This prayer was given to the disciples and to the church directly from the mouth of Jesus in response to their request; “Lord, teach us to pray.”  In this simple pray Jesus covers all aspects of our life in needs.  Our maker and creator when asked to tell us how to pray gave us these words.

 

There is a problem with this prayer but it has nothing to do with the prayer itself.  After all it comes to us from Jesus himself.  The problem is that like so many things that we do over and over again we tend to approach it in a mindless way.  We, most of us, know it by heart and can say the words with little of no thought on our part.  This pray needs to be approached with our mind in gear, attuned to the Holy Spirit who calls us to offer these profound words before the Father in the name of Jesus Christ his Son.

 

This morning I would like to look again at this prayer petition by petition and remind ourselves just what it is we are asking of our heavenly Father.  This rich prayer brings us before the Father calling to mind all the areas of our lives that the Lord thought it important for us to remember.

 

Jesus begins by telling us to address God with the words, “Our Father.”  This is so important for us to remember.  We are not beggars before some benefactor.  We are not trying to move the hand of some political leader to do things in our favor.  We are approaching our heavenly Father and we are truly his children.  We approach God from the position of having a relationship with him.  We are not strangers, we are not desperate beggars, rather we are his children.  The petitions that follow will be asked with boldness and with confidence in the same way that loving children approach their loving fathers here on earth.  I approach someone I love and who loves me differently than I do others who I am either in a different kind of relationship with or no relationship at all.

 

Our heavenly Father is different than our earthly father.  Our heavenly Father is holy.  He is holy in and of himself, but as Luther points out in his Small Catechism in this prayer we are asking that God’s name be holy in and among us.  He tells us this happens “whenever the word of God is taught clearly and purely and we, as God’s children, also live holy lives according to it.”  This then is a prayer for the church.  We are asking that the word be taught clearly among us.  It is a desire for the truth of God to go forth.  We are also praying for one another that we would all live out the truth that we learn in our daily lives.

 

God’s name is hallowed among us and in the world around us when we are clear about what we believe and we live accordingly.  This is not an abstract idea that we state as a declaration.  This is a pray for the serious Christian life.

 

We are then told to pray for the coming of the kingdom.  This petition should be near and dear to us as a congregation committed to the spreading of the kingdom of God in this city.  God’s work will go forward with or without us but we are asking that his kingdom comes to us as well.  This is a prayer for faith.  The kingdom is present where, through the grace of God, people believe the word of God and again live accordingly.  It starts here and now and continues into eternity.   We are praying for faith to believe but we are also praying that the kingdom would spread to others and in so doing the kingdom would come.

 

We next ask that the will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven.  It is a prayer for help in obeying the word of God.  It is a prayer against every evil scheme that would appose the work of God.  The devil, the world and our own selfish flesh are all working against the will of God being carried out on earth.  It is a prayer for strength so that we might be steadfast in keeping God’s word and strong in faith until he comes to receive us unto himself at the end of time.

 

Moving from praying for the faithfulness of God’s people and the spread of his kingdom we turn now to the acknowledgement that all that we have comes from God.  We are told to pray for our daily bread.  Though God supplies the needs of all people on earth we, in this petition, are acknowledging where our supply comes from and we receive it with thanksgiving accordingly.  God gives us all good things and we are thankful.

 

This prayer includes all the necessities and nourishment our bodies need: food, drink, clothing, housing, money, property, family, government, good weather for food production, peace in our nation, health, good friends, faithful neighbors etc the list goes on and on.  All that is needed for a good and healthy life is summed up in the petition, “give us today our daily bread.”  We tend to limit our thinking but rightly understood this is a simple catch phrase for a big request and a thankful heart.

 

From mission, to thankfulness we now turn to forgiveness.  We ask God to forgive us as we forgive others.  Be careful what you ask of God.  This is a two fold request.  First it is a request for forgiveness.  We sin daily and are in need of coming to our heavenly Father to ask that he not hold our sins against us but forgive us of all the wrong we have done.  This is a key component of our Christian faith.  Daily we sin, and daily we seek forgiveness.  It is our understanding of how we can stand before God.

 

This understanding of our own sinfulness then must lead us into an attitude of forgiveness toward others.  We know our own shortcomings and therefore we are quick to forgive those who treat us wrongly.  There is a danger that being forgiven we start to think that what we have we have earned.  This leads to an attitude of superiority toward others.  It is good to daily go before God seeking repentance and forgiveness.  It not only makes us right with God because of what Jesus has done for us but it helps us keep our thinking straight.  Our forgiveness must impact the way we live our lives before others.  It is interesting how Jesus phrases the petition.  He doesn’t say forgive me so I can forgive others.  He says forgive me as I forgive others.  My repentant heart is evidenced in how I view and treat the people around me.

 

Because we are prone to sin and wonder from God we are instructed to pray, “Lead us not into temptation.”  It is a prayer for wisdom so that the devil, the world and our own sinful leanings would not get the best of us.  It is a prayer for victory over all that would keep us from our heavenly Father.  It is a pray for preservation in this world until we see him face to face.

 

But as is the case there are times that we fall and so we pray deliver us from evil.  It is a prayer for grace.  We are overcome by the cares of this world.  We find ourselves making bad choices and falling for the lies of the enemy.  We end this pray with a call for grace upon grace.  Deliver us from the pull of this world we call out.  Fill us with your grace that we might live.

 

In the end we cry out Amen! So be it!

 

This is not just a religious tradition, a pray that we say because we learned it as children.  It is a heartfelt cry to God that covers all of our needs in this life.  It is a prayer that asks that the name of the Lord be lifted up through the right preaching of the word, that the kingdom of God would go forth from this place, that we would thankfully receive all that we have from the hands of a loving Father, that we would give and receive forgiveness and that we would be kept safely from all that would pull us from the hands of our heavenly Father.

 

Next time you pray this prayer, slow it down.  Take time to meditate on the words of this prayer.  Don’t limit your think to the concise phrases as if it is some simple children’s prayer.  Let you mind and heart wonder.  Lay hold to the richness of all that the Lord would have you to understand and experience.  Offer up this prayer in faith and do it often.  When asked if he would teach his disciples to pray Jesus said, “When you pray say…”

We find the Lord in our text passing on the mission.  Up until this point he has been traveling around calling people to follow him and teaching them about the kingdom of God.  His followers up until this time have been spectators.  They have watched from the sidelines as Jesus carried out his mission on earth, glad to be part of the scene but not active participants in the action

 

I love to be a part of the crowd at large events.  I am an events person.  If something is happening and a crowd gathers you can find me in the middle.  My great fear is that something is happening somewhere and I’m missing it.  Some people avoid crowds at all cost, but not me.  I’m the opposite.  I love nothing more than to be in the middle of a mass of humanity as some event.  I would have been part of the crowd that followed Jesus around.  Just glad to be part of what was happening, not really interested in doing anything but watch the master at work.

 

Church can be like that sometimes.  We gather each Sunday to watch God at work.  We gather with the people of God to sing the hymns of faith, to be touched by the hand of the master, to hear him speak to us in the reading and preaching of the Word, to listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, to just be part of the crowd that gathers to be in the presence of Jesus.  This is worth doing and it is a privilege just to be able to be a part.

 

The crowds following Jesus must have had the same feeling.  How great is it to see Jesus in person, to feeling his healing touch, to listen to him teach and to watch him go to work.  After all we are unworthy to even stand before him.  We bring nothing to the table so humbly we gather at his feet, just glad to be there.

 

Jesus had other plans for his followers.  He does not call us to be spectators who stand in awe at what he does.  Jesus calls us to be partakers of his ministry with him.  The disciples were not called to watch Jesus build the kingdom; they were called to be fishers of men.  They were from the beginning called to work for Jesus.  The disciples were going to pick up the ministry when Jesus ascended to the Father.

 

Jesus appoints seventy-two people from the crowd who was following him and sends them out into the community to spread the kingdom of God.  We are talking mission, evangelism, spreading the word.  Call it what you like but it is taking the gospel to the streets in order to spread the kingdom and win people for Jesus.

 

Jesus sends these people ahead to prepare the way for him.  They are sent out two by two to every town and village that Jesus is about to enter.  They are given a mission.

 

We have also been given a mission.  Throughout the last year we have been looking at our church and community, we have been in prayer and planning about what we are to be about as a church and we have come to the consensus that the Holy Spirit has called us to minister to the arts community.  We have been called out by the Holy Spirit to minister to the artist and those who follow them with the express purpose of sharing the love of Christ with them.  They are our village, our community to which we have been sent by Jesus.  In coming up with a vision statement we have moved from just being part of the crowd to being part of the seventy-two.  We are the called and the sent.

 

After Jesus separates the seventy-two and gives them their marching orders he tells them some things that are very important.  He tells them two things that we need to take heed of.  The first thing is that the harvest is plentiful.  The second is that the laborers, the workers are few.  Let look at the implication that has for us this morning.

 

The harvest is plentiful.  If we are to be people of faith we need to look first at the word of God and then at the world and not the other way around.  We have taken the easy way out by reversing the order.  We look at the city and we see an overwhelming number of unsaved people all around us.  Instead of seeing a ripe plentiful harvest we see an unmanageable resistant city that is set against the church.  We don’t see opportunity we see a struggle.  We long to see change but we don’t recognize our part in that change.

 

Jesus tells us here and in other places in the gospels that what lies before us is a harvest that is ripe unto gathering.  Jesus sees opportunity and invites us to participate.  He does not make reference to a planted field but to a field ready for harvest.  This reality needs to inform our understanding of this city and it needs to dictate our actions.  If we have been called to minister to the arts community and Jesus is telling us it is a field ripe for harvest we need to step out in faith and go declaring the word of God.

 

The second thing he tells us is that the workers are few.  We look around and get discouraged by the size of our congregation and the overwhelming demand of the mission.  If we had more workers we could spread the kingdom.  We are just too small to get anything done.  Jesus understands the problem and tells us to pray for more workers.  This we need to always be doing.  Notice what he doesn’t say.  He doesn’t say wait until there are more workers before you go out.  The commission is still the same.  Go and preach.  As you go pray for more workers but nevertheless get going.

 

We are not only concerned about our numbers.  It is one thing to be short handed but there is another problem that we face.  We are not very good at this.  We are understaffed and under equipped for this ministry that we are sure God has called us to. 

 

Jesus doesn’t deceive us by giving us a peep talk about how talented we are and how we can do this if we try.  There is no hype in fact Jesus is bluntly honest with us.  “I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.”  Well that’s encouraging.  If I was a betting man my money would be on the wolves in this contest.  Jesus sends us out knowing that we are totally incapable of doing this on our own.  We do not have the stuff or the resources to make this happen.

 

It gets worse.  He tells the disciples to carry no money, take no knapsack, no change of shoes.  We are to just go.  He is telling us don’t look at the bank account.  The thought is always if we had more money we could hire the right people, produce the right material, market our efforts correctly, if we had money we could make this happen, but we don’t.  The lack of money becomes the excuse not to act.  Jesus tells us go and take no money with us, because it’s not about the money.  He tells us to take no knapsack, no supplies.  Again we are used to thinking in terms of having the right tools to get the job done.  With the right tools and resources this mission idea would be a piece of cake.  Jesus reminds us it is not about resources.  No change of clothes.  It’s a call to go as you are.  We are not to alter our appearance our persona we are just to go.  Go called us just as we are and just as we are we are to go into the community that he sent us to declare his word.

 

He tells us not to be discouraged by the fact that not everyone will listen to us.  We are to lead with the peace of the Lord.  We are to be up front about what we are about.  We are the people of God and we are reaching out to the arts community as the people of God offering the peace of God.  If they accept us great we enter into their lives and minister the love of Christ to them.  If they reject us, and some if not many will, we are to move one.  The weeds are growing with the wheat.  We are not harvesting weeds.  When rejected don’t be discouraged move on.  The harvest is ripe unto gathering, don’t waste time and most of all don’t be crippled by rejection.

 

We have been given our message; heal the sick and announce the kingdom of God has come near.  We live in a sick broken city.  The gospel brings healing and we have been given the power to speak words of healing to a broken world.  In the midst of all the sin and brokenness all around us we are aware of the mystery of God.  That mystery is that the kingdom of God has come down among us.  When God took on flesh and dwelt among us the kingdom came down.  When the Holy Spirit entered the church, entered each one of us, the kingdom came down.  As we enter into the arts community and begin to share the love of Christ with them the kingdom of God draws near to them.

 

Listen to the promise that Jesus makes to us.  “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects me rejects him who sent me.”  It is not about you and me it is about Jesus.  When we speak we speak for Jesus.  When we act we act on his behalf.  However they treat us they are in fact treating Jesus.  We are not going off on our own, trying to impress God with our good deeds.  We are going forth as representatives of the Jesus.  We stand on his behalf and declare his word to the lost and hurting of this city.  What a privilege to be called to go.

 

The story ends with the seventy-two returning with joy at the success of their mission.  They went out as lambs among wolves to reap the ripe harvest.  Jesus said he saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven.  He saw the kingdom of the enemy crash and burn.

 

We are sent out into a mission field where the gospel is virtually unknown.  The kingdom of Satan is strong and we are like lambs among wolves.  But if we are faithful to the mission and to the savior we too will come back rejoicing at the defeat of the enemy of the church.  The gates of Hell cannot and will not prevail against us.  Will you join me in the call and announce to this place that the kingdom of God has drawn near?

The question I want to pose this morning is what does it mean to follow Jesus?  What is the cost?  Is salvation free?  A related concern is who owns my life and what does that mean?

 

We are use to thinking of salvation as the free gift of God that costs us the saved nothing.  Certainly from the perspective of initial outlay salvation is absolutely free.  My sin has separated me from God and I am in every real sense dead to sin.  In the Bondage of the Will, Luther makes it very clear that I can do nothing on my own not even turn to God in repentance unless the Holy Spirit moves upon me and opens my dead eyes.  Jesus said, “Unless a man is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  It is clear that unless God moves upon us we as humans have no chance of salvation and it is also clear that our salvation is not dependant on anything that we do.  Salvation is free.  It is also clear that on the cross Jesus purchased us for God.  We are not our own we have been bought with a price; therefore we are to glorify God in our bodies.  Purchased and set free to serve God with our whole being.

 

This leads to another question, why are we here?  If we have been brought back into a relationship with God through the cross of Jesus Christ and we no longer belong to our selves but to God for his glory the question becomes what is our purpose on this earth.  Many, if not most people ask this question.  The whole idea of mid-life crisis is one of questioning what is the purpose of my life and how have I spent my time here?  People leaving college or high school and entering the job market question how they are going to spend there time.  What job does one take and how much personal satisfaction will one derive from it is an important concern?  We all want to feel satisfied with our lives.  No one wants to get to the end of their life and have regrets.

 

There are a whole series of questions that one asks and answers throughout life.  Our goals and worldview, the paradigm we use for our life, the presuppositions that we carry effects the choices that we make and determine the direction of our lives.  Even decisions about what we do as a church are often determined as much by our values, both social and ethnic, as they are theological in nature.  Why is it we gather with people like ourselves more often than not when the Bible tells us to break down the walls that divide us?

 

In our text this morning Jesus points out that there is a cost to following him.  The road of righteousness is one that forces a person to make decisions.  You can’t serve two masters.  Jesus and this world stand in opposition to one another because of the question of sin and so a person has to decide.

 

We want a world without suffer and self sacrifice.  If we could have a stress free world where everything was simple and uncomplicated we could choose all the things that we like but we can’t.  The word of God defines for us the parameters of our existence.

 

Jesus becomes for us an example to follow.  We find him in our text at the end of his earthly ministry.  He has completed all that he was to do and was headed to Jerusalem to die.  Luke tells us he set his face toward the city.  He was not to be deterred or side tracked.  The disciples were sent ahead into the cities of Samaria to make preparation for him but the people of the cities did not receive him because, in the plan of God, his destination was Jerusalem.  The will and purpose of God was his priority and nothing could come in the way of his carrying out God’s plan.

 

The disciples had plans for Jesus.  Go into the cities and find a place to stay.  Take it easy.  No rush, move as things come up.  It is how they had operated up until this point.  So when the people are not open to receive Jesus, James and John want to go to war to stop them.

 

We all have had the experience of realizing that the plans we have will not and do not always pan out.  We set goals for ourselves and plan out our lives but things happen, things beyond our control.  Often times as did the disciples we lash out and come against those people or situations that we believe are side tracking our plans.  We oppose those who oppose us.  We try to reconfigure our plans in the immediate future to reach our goals in the distant future.  We are determined to make our goals happen.  Many times frustration leads to depression and we blame God for the fact that we can’t do what we want.  If we don’t blame God we blame the devil for our lot in life.  Someone has to be responsible for the fact that we cannot do what we want when we want to do it.

 

Paul learned to rely on God.  He tells us that he had to learn to be content in every situation whether good or bad; hungry or well feed, naked or dressed in the finest of clothing Paul learned to be content.  Job questioned whether he could only receive good from the hand of the Lord and not evil.  His conclusion, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.”

 

Like Jesus we need to come to the place where we make a commitment to the will of God however it plays out in our life.  James instructs us to begin each plan with the words, “If the Lord wills I will…”  The Samaritans rejected Jesus and the disciples because God would have Jesus get to Jerusalem.  Jesus understood that and told James and John to chill out and they would just move on to another city.

 

There is a cost to following Jesus.  Salvation might be free but once saved you belong to Jesus and he sets the agenda for you life.

 

Jesus is an appealing personality.  People who see and meet him want to follow him.  What was true when he walked this planet is still true today.  Even people who have no place for the church are struck by the life of Jesus and many want to model their lives after him.

 

We meet three people in our text, three people who want to follow Jesus.  Unlike us who are at times desperate to have people come to church Jesus gives them reason why they might not want to follow him.  Jesus sets before them the cost of discipleship.

 

The first person approaches Jesus and declares, “I will follow you wherever you go.”  Be careful what you commit yourself two.  Jesus tells them that the animals have homes but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.  In a time where home ownership is a major priority Jesus reminds us that we are aliens in a strange land, a people looking for a city whose builder and maker is God.  Where you live and how you live are a major concern for Americans.  Someone I read recently made the point that we look back a hundred and fifty years ago in judgment of the Christians who were committed to Jesus and yet owned slaves.  We ask how that could be.  The writer wonders in a hundred and fifty years from now people will judge us for living in huge homes that are way bigger than our need demand while untold numbers of people live on the street.  Our possessions are so important to us that a whole industry has spring up around storing our goods. 

 

We pray give us today our daily bread.  Our hope and confidence for the future is not on what we own, but on the one who supplies our needs.  We worry about our future about sustaining our lifestyle.  Jesus focus was on doing the will of his Father.  Remember the rich young man who wanted to be saved but his clinging to his possessions got in the way of his following Jesus.

 

Following Jesus demands that we consider how we live.  We are not our own.  We have been bought with a price.

 

The second person to approach Jesus acknowledged that he too wanted to follow him, but he wanted to first go and bury his father.  The idea is not that his father was already dead and he wanted to attend the funeral.  His father was elderly and he was saying to Jesus that his father’s care was timely and that as soon as his father passed away he would be freed up to become a disciple.

 

Throughout life we are confronted with all kinds of demands that we use as excuses to postpone committing our lives whole heartedly to following Christ.  Our children are too young, work is too demanding right now, I have family responsibilities.  We make the claim that we are committed to following Christ but…  There are an untold number of reasons why we can’t do things at the moment.  Once this present situation passes through we are selling out for Jesus.  The problem is that there is always something else.  Jesus understood that and told the man to let the dead bury the dead and he should commit to following him.

 

In our list of priorities Jesus must come first.  That being the case there will be times when other important responsibilities will have to take a back seat to Jesus.  We make value judgments all the time.  We do or don’t do things based on what we think is important, like taking care of elderly relatives.  Jesus said that even this important responsibility has to take second place behind our loyalty to him.  We say Jesus is first but is he.

 

The third person to approach Jesus simply asks if he could first go home to say good-bye to his family.  His question is really, can I go home and tie up some loose ends and than I will be free to follow you Jesus.  We want to negotiate our terms of commitment to Jesus.  We want Jesus and our own set of priorities. 

 

When you emerged from the waters of Baptism you entered into an open ended agreement with Jesus.  You signed the bottom line and he is free to fill in the rest.  There was no negotiated agreement of what you would or would not do.  You died to sin and rose again in newness of life, but you belonged to Jesus.

 

When a farmer stands at the edge of a field and looks out everything looks good.  Because of the vegetation that is growing in the field he fails to see the rocks and the ditches and all the obstacles that he will encounter as he plows the field.  All he sees is wide open field.  Once he lays his hands on the plow and sets out he is unsure of what he will encounter until he begins to turn over the soil.  He runs into uneven land, rocks buried beneath the surface, fallen trees, and all kinds of obstacles.  If he decides it is more than he bargained for and turns back, the land will not get plowed, the seed will not get planted and there will be no harvest.  Once you start out you have to finish.

 

The same is true of us.  Once we put our hands to the plow and begin to work God’s harvest field.  We will run into obstacles we had no idea existed.  We like the farmer have preconceived ideas of how hard the work will be and what needs to be done.  We make our plans to serve God and we make our own plans for our life and it all kind of fits together until we start to plow along.  Every obstacle is an opportunity to determine our commitment to Jesus.  When faced with a decision will I serve the Lord or will I serve my own desires.  We stand in the place of the rich young man and have to decide.  The arguments about how good we have been all of a sudden seem hollow.  The question is always will I hold unto my life and what I think is important or will I let go of my life and cling to Jesus.

 

Salvation is free.  Dead in my sins at one time I have been made alive in Jesus through his death on the cross.  I have decided to follow Jesus.  The question is will I daily make the choice to follow him?  Having put my hand to the plow will I press on?  Or will I choose to hold on to what is important to me, and decide that where I live and how I live, that other priorities in my life that demand my attention, or that my personal plans are more important than Jesus in my life?  Jesus is calling you to follow him.  Will you leave your nets, your father and the hired hands in the boat and follow him?

We live in a dysfunctional world.  Our world is plagued by sin.  Certainly we see the effects of it all around us.  We are used to the dysfunction.  It is so obvious that it often goes unnoticed.  We throw away food while much of the world suffers from hunger.  We step over the homeless on our streets.  There is too much information about suffering for us to process so we tune it out.

 

Because there is little we think we can do to alleviate suffering we take the ravages of sin as normal and we just accept it as part of life.  If the suffering is normal we don’t need to look for solutions, we don’t have to ask what our part is in all of this and we see no need to work for change.  Our feelings of helplessness cause us to shrink our world down to personal needs; my job, my friends, my needs.  Even church is reduced to what’s in it for me.

 

When Jesus exited the boat in the country of the Gerasenes he came across a man who was suffering, possessed by many devils, and out of control.  Sin consumed his life.  In a very real sense he was dead; spiritually, socially and otherwise.  The community pushed him to the outside of their sphere of concern.  They forced him into the mountains where he could not harm them or even more telling, he could not by his very presence confront them with their own lifestyle choices.

 

If we are Christ like in our response to life then we would be moved to compassion by the suffering around us.  I am not sure we always are; I know I am not.  The more I pull back into my own little world the less caring I am of others.  When that happens the community begins to breakdown.  We no longer fulfill the law of Christ by bearing one another’s burdens.  This painful, broken life that is ever before us makes us uncomfortable and so we do away with as much of it as we can.  Send the possessed man into the mountains. Herd the homeless into shelters no matter what the cost, nor the pain that it causes them and their families.  At age four determine which children are on a tract toward prison and build detention centers accordingly.  Gate our communities so as to keep out the riff-raff.  Justify self-indulgence with the idea that if I earn it, it belongs to me and me alone.

 

Jesus approaches the man who is naked and alone.  Vulnerable to all that life throws at him. 

 

It is interesting to note that the man resisted all efforts to contain him.  He continuously broke from his chains and had to be guarded to keep him from harming anyone.  Don’t fix the problem, contain it was their approach to this situation.

 

Jesus speaks healing to the man when no one else would.  Jesus is found not in the city, but in the mountains with the man.  Where are we found in this city?

 

We have taken on the vision of ministering to the arts community.  The Stoop and the various uses of this building by community groups and artists springs from our calling.  But the question is where are we found?  I have decided that if we are going to really follow our vision, if it has meaning for us as a congregation I need to model behavior.  I need to be in the clubs supporting the musicians who we are in relationship with and I need to be giving the Holy Spirit opportunities to use me as he sees fit.

 

Tuesday some of us were at a Tabitha Fair concert at the Rockwood Music Hall on the Lower East Side.  During her set, as she did when she played the Stoop, she inter disbursed hymns that gave glory to Jesus with her other songs.  Not all of her band members are Christian and certainly much of the crowd wasn’t nor was the bartender and the servers.  But that is exactly where one would find Jesus.  Jesus is where his people gather and Tuesday night he was at the Rockwood with us.  Where Jesus is things happen.

 

When Jesus entered the scene he brought about change.  The man who was cast out to the caves in the mountain was set free.  When you look over your life you need to take stock in the fact that Jesus has set you free.  It is the gospel message that must be lived out in your life.

 

The demoniac in the text is in fact all of us.  We are born in sin, overcome by our own sinful nature and by the fact of our willful sinfulness.  Isolated by our sin, remember that effect of sin on all of us was separation, from God and from one another, we are in a sense living in our own cave cut off from those around us.

 

The reality of the people around us and maybe even some here this morning is that they are dead. Even though they walk around and look quite alive they are spiritually dead and isolated from those around them.  There is a loneliness associated with life in this city that is hard to grasp.  So many people, so many interchanges and inter actions each day yet people lack real connections with one another.  We are off in the mountains crying out in need, feeling constrained, bound by our circumstances.  No one to help when along comes Jesus and everything changed.  “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.”

 

But salvation is costly to the community.  Jesus sends the demons into a herd of pigs who drown in a near by lake.  No one touches this idea.  The focus, and rightly so, is on the man.  There is a cost to the community though.  The swine herders lose their pigs, all of them.  Life in the community is changed.

 

The Bible speaks of two communities; the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world.  When you entered into the kingdom of God through the waters of baptism the kingdom of this world suffered lose.  When the disciples came back from their first missionary journey and told of what took place Jesus said he saw Satan fall like lightening from the sky.

 

What kind of societal transformation would take place if many people in this city turned to Christ?  What would happen if the Christians of this city took their walk seriously and began living their faith out loud in word and deed?  If we began to not just invite people to church, but begin to call them to repentance and faith.  If we took our stand for justice and righteousness?  If we feed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick and imprisoned.  If we began to reject the sins that so easily enslave us.  How would that impact the city; spiritually, economically and in every other way?  When kingdom values are lived out in the power of the Holy Spirit change occurs and the cost can not be avoided.  Jesus presence disrupts the status quo.

 

The assumption is that life as we know it, as we are experiencing it at the present time is inevitable.  No reason to stand in opposition to the things we see around us because nothing will ever change.  That is the lie we are handed and which we often accept.  No one could help the man in the caves, no one that is but Jesus.

 

A Christian that looks and act like everyone else around him or her is no Christian at all.  Jesus said they will know us by our fruits.  Pure and undefiled religion cares for the needy among us James tells us.

 

The city isolated the man in the mountains, tried to chain him up and placed a guard to contain him.  They avoided him at all costs.  We do the same to the people of this city that threaten us and our belief system in any way.  Jesus entered the man’s life and set him free.

 

When he was freed sides were drawn.  When the people of the village witnessed the power of god, the man was free, you are free, they reacted in fear.  The possessed man they could deal with.  We have learned to deal with a level of sin.  The freed man was another story.  Him they could not deal with.  Instead of embracing Jesus and rejoicing that the man was delivered, they asked Jesus to leave.  If you engage in behavior as a Christian that challenges the status quo they may ask you to leave as well.  Righteousness means change and change is always costly to the community.  Sin is somehow acceptable because it has worked its way into the fabric of society.  Righteousness shines a light on dark behavior and exposes it for what it really is.

I have been reading about cities and one was a case study on Las Vegas.  Vegas is a made up disneyesque city with a slogan that implies darkness, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”  It is a main tourist destination for many.  Gambling and prostitution are a way of life.  Families are ruined by the behavior most people believe is wrong and would never tolerate in their own neighborhood has become entertainment and taken as acceptable.  Try to stop it and opposition will arise.  Vegas tried to remake itself as a place of family friendly entertainment a number of years ago.  It didn’t work out so it’s back to selling sin.  Instead of rejoicing that the man has been set free fear grips the city and they ask Jesus to leave.

 

The man wants to follow Jesus but is told to return home.  Where you come from is where you need to return.  There is only so much the pastor can accomplish.  You are from among the people we are trying to reach.  If we are to win them to Jesus you must be found in their world.  They are not going to show up on Sunday mourning on their own.  You need to climb their mountain, enter their cave and set them free by the power of the gospel.

 

Are we like the people of the surrounding region, afraid that Jesus just might save the people around us?  Are we to uncomfortable and afraid of the man clothed and in his right mind?

 

Where are you this morning?  Are you the man in the mountain bound by sin and alone in this world?  Jesus is here to set you free.  Or are you one of the town’s people who are afraid of the movement of God?  More content with the status quo and a level of acceptable sin than you are will to embrace the power of God to set people free no matter what the cost and how disruptive it might be to the way you have grown accustomed to living your life.

 

The gospel is about real change.  When Jesus enters onto the scene everything is different.  We are asked to embrace a new way of seeing the world and a new way of responding to it.  Are you up for the challenge?

Law and gospel are the foundation of how we understand our relationship to God.  The law condemns us because on our own there is no way we can ever live up to God’s standard.  Before the law we are always guilty.  If the law could save, if the law could give life there would be no need for the cross.  The law cannot save and so every time we look into the law we are found wanting, guilty before a holy God and deserving of death.  The gospel is the message of grace; undeserved favor with God that he purchased for us through the precious blood of our lord and savior Jesus Christ.

 

To minimize either side is to run into trouble and will cause us to misunderstand the relation we have with God.  To down play the law is to fail to understand the seriousness of our sin.  We are not confused or misguided; we are willful in our disobedience to the decrees of God.  We have set ourselves on the throne of our own hearts and have declared ourselves rulers of our own destiny.  We have said with our actions that we know best.  This attitude is one of death and separation from our creator.  The law is our school master that points out to us our faults and points us in the direction of the savior Jesus.

 

The law leaves us with no hope but the gospel on the other hand is filled with hope.  What the gospel does is announce to us the grace of God; that if we have faith in Jesus, if we appropriate the price he paid for our sins we can be restored to a relationship with Jesus.  We don’t earn it.  All we can do is accept it as a free gift from God.

 

As people we tend to respond to our understanding of things.  We are drawn to people who are nice to us and repelled by people who do us harm.  Things that please us elicit from us a loving and kind response.  We react against things that harm us and we tend to avoid things that we perceive as having little or no effect upon us.  In many ways our responses spring from our emotions far more than from an intellectual assent.  People who have an emotional encounter with Jesus are usually much more involved in ministry than those who only intellectually ascent to the proper doctrines and beliefs.  Consider the churches that are growing and those in decline.

 

We meet Jesus today in the home of a Pharisee.  Pharisees were committed church people.  They were strongly committed to their belief system and they were rigid in seeking to keep the laws passed down to them in the scriptures.  Many of them were viewed by others and by themselves as holy and righteous.  Consider the story of the Pharisee and the publican who went up to the temple to pray.  The Pharisee thanked God that he was not like other men and then proceeded to list all the things he did that he was sure made him holy.  The publican bowed his head and simply asked God for forgiveness.  Jesus said it was the publican who went away justified.  When we think that we are pretty good people we tend to act in proud and arrogant ways.  There was little room for grace and the gospel in the Pharisees life, while the publican counted on it for it was his only hope.

 

Jesus is at the house of a Pharisee where he was invited for dinner.  While he was reclining at the table and women came in and began to anoint his feet with expensive oil, to wet his feet with her tears and dry them with her hair.  Jesus quietly accepted the adoration.  The Pharisee seeing what was taking place began to question within himself if Jesus was truly a prophet sent from God.  He raises the question because in his view a prophet would have known the character of the woman even by her dress, and would not have allowed her to touch him.  The logic is simple.  Good people are holy.  Holy people are better than others and therefore they remain apart from sinners.  Holy people do not let sinners touch them.  Therefore if Jesus was truly a holy man he would pull away from this woman because if she touches him he would become defiled and would no longer be holy.  Bad company ruins good character.

 

Simon doesn’t say a word but Jesus knows his heart and the questions he has and so begins the conversation.  Jesus tells the story of two debtors; one owed the moneylender five hundred denarii and the other owed fifty.  Neither could pay the debt so the moneylender decides to forgive the debt.  You can tell this is a story.  What moneylender forgives debt?  Nevertheless the debt is forgiven and the two men walk away with clean slates.

 

Jesus asks Simon a simple question, “Simon, who loved more?”  He asks and emotional question.  Who has the kindest regards for the moneylender, the one who was forgiven much or little?   This is a no brainier for Simon; the one who is forgiven much loves much in return.

 

Jesus tells him he was right on.  The Holy Spirit has a way of catching us off guard.  Nathan caught David of guard when he told the story of the man with a flock who wanted to entertain his guest and so took the lone sheep of his neighbor’s instead of one of his own.  David was outraged until he realized that by taken Bathsheba he was as guilty as the man in the story.

 

Simon you are right.  The one forgiven much loves much.  Now back to your concern.  This woman who you are so concerned about because she might defile whoever she touches is well aware of her own condition.  You are missing the point.  What has happened is that she, aware of her sin, has found favor with God and has received forgiveness and the evidence is what you see happening before you.  She has been forgiven much and so she loves much.

 

Simon, you have been a good man all of your life.  You pay your tithes, go to synagogue regularly, yearly go up to the temple, and you are well versed in the scriptures because of your much study.  I came here and you showed me minimal respect.  You didn’t give me water to wash my feet, no oil to cover the smell of the road, in fact you showed my no kindness.  Why would you?  You do not see yourself as having to receive forgiveness because in your own eyes you are a pretty good person.

 

Much forgiveness much love.  Little forgiveness little love.  Let’s get personal, where do you stand this morning?

 

I said earlier that if we lean one way or the other our perspective is off.  I would venture to say that most of us are closer to Simon than to the woman.  Most of us here today would argue that we are not and never have been really bad.  Sure we have done some things but we are not like other women especially that one at Jesus’ feet. 

 

Simon’s problem is that he read the scriptures but he failed to apply them to himself.  He took the blessings and applied them to himself and applied the warnings to those around him.  “I thank God that I am not like other men.”  Since he compared himself favorably to others he sought to remain distant from them lest he become contaminated.  Jesus was sure of him self and so was never threatened by the company he kept.  Simon on the other hand held his status at the expense of others.  If he could remain separate then everyone around him would see that he was not one of those people.

 

Jesus was accused of many things; a drunk and a glutton.  He spent no time defending himself because the accusations were not true.  Simon defended himself because the position he held and the view he had of himself was incorrect and false.

 

We are all like the women.  We are all sinners in constant need of a savior.  We have all been forgiven much.  When we hold ourselves up to the standard of the law we are found wanting.  Our picture is not a pretty one.  I am not asking you to share all your grime secrets but the truth of the matter is that if our hearts were exposed for the entire world to see none of us could hold our heads up.  We would be overcome with shame.

 

The woman recognized her sinfulness and was open to the forgiveness offered by Jesus and the gospel.  Simon was self deluded and therefore had little place for Jesus. 

 

Do you come to church to show off you spirituality as Simon did?  To pray the prayer that thanks God for how good you are and how much better you are than the rest of the people here?  Or do you come to church because where else can you go, Jesus holds the words of eternal life?

 

How you answer these questions will be reflected in how you live your life for Jesus.  Your involvement in the spreading of the kingdom of God will be in direct proportion to how you perceive your forgiveness.  Much forgiveness much love.

We met Jesus in our text this morning entering the town of Nain.  As usual his disciples are with him and they are surrounded by a great crowd.  People wanted to be near Jesus.  As the get close to the town gate they are met by a funeral procession.   The poll bearers are carrying the body of a man who had recently died.  The man was the only son of a widow.  He was obviously well liked because there was a considerable crowd headed to the burial site.

 

Funerals have always interested me.  They are the time when we confront the most difficult phase of life.  A phase that awaits us all and that is death.  It’s at funerals where all the issues of life come to a head.  When confronted with death, we ether have the hope of eternal life that springs up with in us or we are faced with our mortality and are left with nothing but hopelessness. 

 

In the early years as a pastor I had the privilege of presiding over many funerals.  I have witnessed the joy of the Christian hope of eternal life with Jesus temper the sorrow felt by family and friends at the loss of a loved one.  I have seen the agony of the hopelessness felt by those who were not equipped to deal with death.

 

One funeral will always stick out in my mind.  A young Ethiopian man who my church sponsored as a refugee to this country was murder on Christmas Eve for the presents he had purchased for his family.  The funeral turned into a scene of chaos that sprang from the hopelessness and frustration of the people.  On the day of the wake there was a crowd outside the funeral home.  When the doors opened the mourners rushed the casket trying to touch the body.  We had to force them back out the door and close down the viewing.  The next day the funeral was no less difficult.  Mourners stood outside of the church beating themselves and wailing uncontrollably.  There was standing room only inside the church and people lined the street outside.  The body was walked across the street to the cemetery and when it was placed in the hole the crowd had to be held back to keep people from jumping into the grave.  Uncontrollable sorrow, as people mourned without hope.

 

Jesus confronts the funeral procession leaving Nain.  He is drawn immediately to the widow who was in deep sorrow.  He tells her, “Do not weep.”

 

Who is it that is the focus of the funeral?  We certainly gather to honor the dead person who is no longer with us, but it is the living that we comfort.  At a Christian funeral we rejoice that the brother or sister in now with the Lord and we remind the family and friends of the promise of the resurrection and we declare the gospel or grace to the unsaved that they too might have the hope of the resurrection.

 

Jesus has nothing to say about the dead man and he doesn’t address the crowd at the funeral, he turns right away to the grieving mother.  She is the one he is concerned about.

 

There are many reasons this widow is sorrowful.  She has just lost her only son.  Parents should never have to bury their children.  The children should always out live their parents.  The loss of a child must be one of the most difficult things a parent can ever face.  With the death of her son the widow has lost her only means of support.  There was now welfare system in place back in Nain.  No social net to catch those who have no visible means of support.  She could not go out and get a job to take care of her needs.  The care of widows was the reason the deaconate was formed in the early church.  James tells us pure religion takes care of the widows and the orphans.  This woman was put in a position of dependence with no one to depend upon.  And she lost her future.  The family would no longer continue on because her son had died.  No son, no means of support, and no future, the death of this man brought great sorrow to his mother and Jesus understood all of that.

 

Jesus is the resurrection and the life.  He identified himself as the way, the truth, and the life.  Easter Sunday was about life conquering death.  Belief in Jesus leads to eternal life.  Those that believe in Jesus will never die.  Jesus whole mission on earth was centered on bringing life to the dead who were that way because of sin.

 

Jesus concern is for the widow.  The dead man seems almost to be a side figure in the drama.  He touches the brier and tells the young man to arise.  He does and he gives him to his mother.  This is a story about life.

 

In giving the women back her son Jesus is restoring her life, both emotionally and physically.  The woman received her son back from the dead.  No matter what else she faced the life of her son was most important to her.  He gave her back her means of support.  The woman would be cared for.  She received her life back again in a very real sense.  Someone would take care of her at a time when widows were dependent on the support of others to survive.  She had the hope of a future back.  We take joy in our children and grandchildren because they carry our families into the future.  We remember our families past and tell the stories to our children so that we live on in them.

 

Jesus did not come to save our souls; he came to save his people from their sins.  Christians are not about eternal life we are about life that continues on into eternity.  We are kept here on this planet to live out the kingdom of God in a world dead in sin.  We acknowledge that sin and we feel the pain of those who suffer because of it.  We recognize the agony of the widows all around us.  Or response to the sin and death around us is one of life.  We are asked to grapple with a number of issues as Christians and our response must be for life.  There are not always easy answers but our discussion must be around how to bring healing and life to this world.

 

Think back over the issues of this year.  We had an extended discussion as a nation about healthcare.  I don’t know where you come down on the issue but the need of thousands of uninsured people must be part of your thinking.  It is not a socialist/capitalist debate no matter how the politicians and pundits would have us to think about it.  It is always about those in need and how can they be best served.  There were the earthquakes in Haiti and Chili this year that left many lives ruined.  How did you respond?  The church was on the scene and we gave money to the effort because the savior that we serve is about life.  Then there is the oil spill in the Gulf that has affected the livelihood of so many families, especially in Louisiana where they are still not recovered from Katrina.  How are we to respond?  These are matters of pray that should lead to action because the church of Jesus Christ is about life.

 

We have been placed in this location in this city by the grace of Almighty God.  We have been called to bring life to this place and that is all part of our mission to this neighborhood.  New York is a city of networks and contacts, but not a place of friends and community.  This can be a lonely place to live and work.  The church is all about reconciliation and life.  Sin separates us from God and from one another.  The vision, my vision for this place is that we become the community center, the focal point, the hub of this neighborhood.  Our opening up of the doors of the church was so that people in need of rest and refreshing can come out of the hustle and bustle of the streets into a place of peace.  We open our doors to musicians so that they can reflect the image of God as creators in a place that respects them for who they are and what they do.  The Stoop is about giving Christian artist a forum to play and also to bring beauty and life to this block.

 

God is not just a practical God.  He is a creator of beauty.  He could have had the bees pollinate drab gray flowers but instead in made flowers that are beautify to look at and lovely to smell.  Beauty and friendship in a cold city is about bringing life to a dead world.

 

How did Jesus bring life to this widow?  He raised her son from the dead.  It was a temporary thing, he would die again eventually, but it was a taste of things to come.  You were dead in the trespasses and sins.  You were without hope and without God.  Placed under the waters of baptism you were given life.  As faith and the Holy Spirit came together you were made alive in Christ.  You were lifted from the briar and you became God’s instrument of life in this world.

 

Your life in not about you it is about others.  Jesus raised the young man and gave him to his mother.  Jesus raised you and gave you to this city.  You have been given life to give life.  We forget that. Too often we act as if life is about us.  We were dead in sin and raised to newness of life and we think it is about us.  God cleans us up, gives us good jobs and set us on our way.  We spend what we have on ourselves and contribute little to the needs of those around us.

 

I would ask you to take a look at yourself.  How is it you are living out your eternal life?  Is it all about you?  Do you work to enjoy the next party or are you about the needs of other?  The joy of the Lord comes to those who spend themselves on the kingdom.  As a baptized member of the kingdom of Heaven are you about life?  He who keeps his life will lose it but he who loses his life for Jesus sake will find it. 

 

Jesus was moved with compassion by the death in our story; the death of the young man and the death of the widow whose life in many was came to an end with the death of her son.

 

Life is brought to this world through the announcement of the gospel.  In all that we do our primary task is to speak life to the dead.  The world is changed when people who are dead in sin are made alive in Christ.  Zaccheus is a prime example.  Evil tax collector encounters Jesus and his life is changed.  He repents of his wrong doing and pays back with interest those he had wronged.  He restores life because his life was restored.

 

We have been called to breathe life into this city.  We do that in many ways but the primary way is to tell people about Jesus to witness to them in word and deed.  With each new person who comes to faith a breath of life is breathed into this city.  The church of Jesus Christ is the hope for this place.  Have you received life from Jesus?  We you spend your life so that others might live?

Our text in Acts takes us to Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost.  The Holy Spirit fell on the disciples and they headed into the streets to declare the word of God with power.  Peter, who a short time before, denied knowing Jesus now stood up with boldness to declare the word of God.

 

He takes his listening audience back to the story of Jesus, back to the man who walked among them doing good by the power of God.  Jesus the incarnate one, God in flesh is the central figure in Peter’s message.

 

Jesus had walked among the people.  They knew of him and many there may have actually been in Jesus’ presence.  They at least had heard the story of Jesus, were aware of his reputation, had heard of all the good things he had done among them.  Jesus had healed the sick, delivered the oppressed, fed the multitude and was kind and loving to the outcasts.  By all accounts Jesus was a good man and they all in their heart of hearts knew that.  Peter starts with that fact.

 

Peter than makes a theological jump, he moves to the eternal plan of God.  Before the foundation of the world we are told Jesus died for our sins.  The death of Jesus was in the mind of God before he created the world.  The sovereignty of God is a comforting truth.  We often feel out of control.  Our world is beyond our ability to direct.  Even when we talk about our making choices and plans the fact remains that most of life is beyond our control.  This is a humbling reality for we live in a world that tells us that it is all up to us.  We are the creators of our own destiny.  If we succeed it is because we earned it and if we fail it is our fault and having fallen we are to pick ourselves up by our own boot straps.  Where is God in all of this?

 

We have little control.  We don’t choose our family, our talents, our looks, where we are born etc.  We inherit these things.  We are responsible for what we do with them but much depends on circumstances and our lives are intertwined with and dependent of the decisions of others.  God is in control and we should be comforted.

 

The other side of this is that we can err on the side of fatalism.  We have no control over anything.  We are the victims of a preordained destiny.  We are not responsible for our lives in anyway.  We are victims of our fate. God is in control and we should be comforted by that fact but we are not off the hook.  This is the mystery of God.

 

Peter tells us that Jesus was delivered up according to the plan of God, a plan that dates back to before the foundation of the world, back into the mind of God.  The events surrounding the arrest, trial, and execution of Jesus were all part of the plan of God.  God planed for it to happen and therefore knew that it would happen and how it would happen.  God is in control of all things and we should take comfort in all of that, after all our salvation hinges on the fact of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

 

Peter than goes on to make an important point to his listeners.  Jesus was arrested, tried and executed according to the plan of God but you the listeners did it to him.  You had him arrested, you called for his execution and you had him nailed to the cross.  Peter doesn’t focus in on the actions of the Sanhedrin.  He doesn’t single out the rulers of the Jews.  He doesn’t make mention of the actions of the Roman soldiers.  Peter tells them they are all guilty of Jesus’ death.

 

Peter speaks to us this morning.  All of us sitting here are guilty before God for the death of Jesus and we need to let that truth sink in.  The events are far removed from us.  We were not there the night he was arrested in the garden.  We did not stand in the crowd and yell, “Crucify him!”  Nor were we the ones who held the nails and drove them in to his hands and feet.  Yet we were.  Peter speaks to the crowd of corporate responsibility.  As Nehemiah took responsibility for the sins of his people years after the fact so too we must understand ourselves as part of the crowd guilty of the death of our savior.

 

It’s easy for us to play church.  We make an intellectual assent to Biblical truth and go through the motions and we feel fine.  Someone recently pointed out that formal participation in the rite of confession and absolution is meaningless.  We must engage God in true repentance and as Luther points out we are to daily return to the waters of our baptism and daily repent of our sins in faith and in truth. 

 

Our relationship to God and his people is contingent upon how we relate to our sins.  If we down play our part in the Easter story church becomes an after thought, something we participate in on a certain level but is not central to our lives.  If we understand as Peter’s listeners did that we are guilty of the death of Jesus than that changes everything.  When we understand our sin, we understand the price Jesus paid for our salvation and we understand that we are not our own but have been bought with a price.

 

Later on in this chapter the people’s hearts will be moved by the Holy Spirit toward repentance.  When we are confronted with our sins we have only one of three choices.  I used to think only two but there is a third choice.  The first is to deny our sin, to down play it, to say it doesn’t matter.  The idea that everyone is good and we will all make heaven.  The opposite is to take quite seriously our sin and turn to God in repentance.  This is the response that we should make.  This is the response of a person whose eyes have been opened by the Holy Spirit.  This is when the journey toward Christ likeness begins.  I used to think only in these two choices but there is a third.

 

To often those in the church, those who have been around for some time chose complacency.  They don’t deny their sin as the first group does.  They don’t down play it.  What happens is they give it a nod, they turn right to grace.  God understands and he will forgive me.  No sorrow for sins committed, and no regrets.  Bonhoeffer called it cheap grace.  It springs from a wrong foundation.  People think because they have been baptized and attend church most of the time that all is well.  Jesus has cleaned up their lives and there are no major sins so all is well, they are good and God is pleased.

 

We sin daily.  As one writer put it we must rejoice in the Lord each day and condemn ourselves each day as well.  The joy of the Lord comes with understand that Jesus has forgiven us of our sins.  Yet to experience that joy we must with Paul say, “Wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

 

What drove Paul to serve Christ and what will drive us to serve him is an understanding of our sinfulness and a joyful acceptance of the grace of God found in Christ Jesus.  To understand the cross aright we must grasp hold of our sinfulness.  We must daily confess our sins to God our Father and in faith lay hold of the atonement applied to us through Jesus.  Jesus, speaking to the church of Laodicea said he “would that you where either cold or hot!  So because you are neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”  Luke warm doesn’t cut it.

 

So I ask where are you this morning in your relationship with Jesus.  That you have taken the time to come to service I think it save to assume you have not written off the whole idea of sin.  But are you hot for Jesus?  When the crowd heard Peter they turned to Jesus is repentance.  They made a complete 180 and started walking in a different direction.  Have you?  Is your life different than that of the world around you this morning?

 

When you acknowledge your sinfulness the way you view the world changes.  You no longer feel superior to those around you.  Pride grinds to a halt.  You begin to understand that all that you have you have received from the hand of the Lord.  It is a direct answer to the prayer, “Give us today our daily bread.”

 

Our fear is that if we acknowledge our sin others will no longer be impressed by us.  If we acknowledge our sin we will no longer be looked up to, people will shy away from us.  We even think in some twisted way that God will turn his back on us.

 

Christ Jesus died for sinners. It was the reason he came into this world.  He resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.  What we fail to remember is that when we cover up our sins and give out a false sense of who we are we actually push God away.  It is when we repent that we are drawing near to God.  It is in confession of our sins that we find grace and mercy and pure joy.

 

Luther reminds us that God can only dwell in sinners.  He comes to us when we acknowledge our sinfulness and confess our brokenness.  Than and only than can we enter into a relationship with Jesus.  When we look at ourselves aright and confess our sins God comes in and makes his home in our heart.  The way up is down.

 

If you have been trying to keep up the good front and walking around as if everything is under control you are missing out of the joy of the Lord.  King David committed the most vile of sins; lust, adultery, murder and then lied about it to the whole nation of Israel acting as if everything was fine, no peace.  Finally confronted by Nathan the prophet he breaks down and cries turning to God in repentance.  Then and only then does he find forgiveness and the joy of the Lord returned.  David was called a friend of God.  Not because he was good and worthy of the title.  Just the opposite is true.  David was a friend of God because as a sinner he acknowledged the fact that he was unworthy and that God was just in condemning him.

 

As we walk off like the prodigal son to enjoy life to the fullest on our terms God is grieved but he lets us go.  When we wake up with the pigs and return home repent God runs to us with open arms and receives us back into the family.

 

If you are trying to live the good life on your own terms you deceive yourself and you disrespect God.  The joy of serving God will be missing from your life.  When you repent and turn to God confessing your unworthiness God will run to you and the joy will return.  Don’t take a complacent stand think God understands and everything will be alright.  Rather fall on your knees daily in confession and rise each day in newness of life.  God dwells with sinners.  Invite him to dwell in you.

 

We read two very interesting text this morning; the Tower of Babel and the Day of Pentecost.  In many ways they are opposite experiences and I will look at that in a moment.  But first there are some similarities.  On one level they are stories of the human experience.  They tell us a lot about ourselves.

 

We as human beings are created in the image of God.  For all that that means it means that we are creative and resourceful.  Humans are builders of great things.  We also have eternity in our hearts and seek to build things that last; things that will carry on into the future.  We are also social beings.  We do things in groups.

 

What is the story at Babel?  Up until this time the race has been spreading out from Eden.  We aren’t told how far they have spread over the earth’s surface.  It seems that they stayed close together.  There was at this point only one language.  As they moved east they came across a fruited plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

 

When groups of people settle in a place they begin to build.  When Cain fled after killing his brother we are told that he took a wife and went out and built a city.  Cain’s descendants, Jabal who was the father of those who dwelt in tents and have livestock, herders, and Jubal, the father of those who play the lyre and pipe, musicians, developed and created culture.  We build things and create culture, that’s what people do.  That’s what we are doing even now.  We don’t think about it we just do it.  Our work, our relationships are all building and developing culture and changing the life in this place we live.

 

The people on the fruited plain of Shinar got together and said let’s build something.  Let’s make it big and let’s make it so that it will last.  What they decided to do was build a city.  Everywhere people go they build cities.  Remember we are social beings.  So they got together and started to build and in the middle of the city they decided to build a tower that would reach into the heavens.

 

Some things never change.  I have traveled a bit through out this country and around the world as many of you have.  What strikes me wherever I go is the similarities of the kinds of things people build.   Everywhere people build cities of some sort.  Size is not the issue.  People gather together to order their lives.  Homes cluster together around a central market of some kind.  People also build restaurants.  We like to eat out no mater where we live.  The other thing I have noticed is that we like to build high.  All over the world people are trying to outdo one another to see how high they can build.  And as we see from our story this is not a new idea.  From early recorded history we have tried to reach the sky with our building efforts.

 

I see the hand of God in all of this.  In our countrified perspective on life we always see God in nature.  We under stand God as the Good Shepherd, and things like Psalm 23 point us to nature in order to find God.  But I must tell you I see God in the city.  If we are created in the image of God and therefore are created to create than what we make reflects the God who made us.  God is the master builder.  Abraham looked for a city whose builder and maker is God.  Psalm 48 tells us to “walk around Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the nest generation that this is God, our God forever and ever.”  The city of Zion reflected the glory of God from generation to generation.  So walking around the streets of this city I see the glory of God in all that has been done here.

 

But Babel had a problem and the problem was not unique to her.  Because of sin the people of Babel thought that what they did reflected their own glory and not the glory of God.  They declared, “let us make a name for ourselves.”  Too often what is built is built for the sake of the builder and not for the glory of God.

 

Every time sin is in the picture the endeavor is tainted.  God shares his glory with no man.  He resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.  At Babel God said enough.  He confused the languages so that the people could not unite in their building project.  Ever notice how hard it is to get things done?  There always seems to be opposition.  People on one hand work together to do great things but then on the other hand they oppose one another and things slow down and at times grind to a halt.  We come together yet we remain apart.  The story of Babel continues.

 

We come to Pentecost.  Like at Babel the people are of one mind.  Together they are ready to go to work.  Unlike Babel the focus is not on them selves but on God.  If you recall Jesus had told them to wait in Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit and as they did they devoted themselves to prayer.  In Babel they came together to lift up a name for themselves.  In Jerusalem they gathered to lift up the name of Jesus.  As they prayed the Holy Spirit came upon them and pushed them into the streets to declare the kingdom of God.

 

One of the things the humans build is culture.  Jabal and Jubal are the first recorded doing just that.  The early church was to go out and construct the kingdom of God.  They were to build a counter cultural institution that lived out the values of the new kingdom.  To do this effectively they would have to come together.  A kingdom by its very nature is the coming together of a diverse group of people.

 

In Babel the self absorption caused God to disrupt the work, confuse the languages and send the people off in different directions.  The desire to build as evidenced in history remained.  At Pentecost something else took place.  Instead of sending people off in different directions God brought them together from every tribe and tongue and nation.  Instead of confusing their languages so they could not communicate God united the languages so that everyone heard the word of God in their own native tongue.  Instead of disrupting the building process, God encouraged it, and in fact he empowered them to build and to do it together.

 

We gather today to celebrate Pentecost.  I hope you have not come for a memorial service.  This is not a time to fondly look back on a great moment in church history.  Pentecost is not Reformation Sunday.  Pentecost is much more.  Instead of remembering a great event in our past thinking back with longing saying in our hearts, “Oh I wish I could have been in that upper room when the Holy Spirit first fell.”  This day is not about that.  We look back on Pentecost to look ahead in our ministry.  What happened on Pentecost is God raised the bar and asked us to get on board with what he was doing and in order to do that he gave us power, the Holy Spirit is upon us.

 

Pentecost reminds us that we are a powerful people.  I know church people don’t like that language but I am not sure why.  We like the emotional language.  We like the family of God images.  We  like being called brothers and sisters in Christ.  We like the warm and fuzzy stuff which has its place.  What we don’t like is the army of God images, the fact that we are to put on the armor of God because we are the warriors of God.  We prefer the meek and mild Jesus because we are not quite sure what to do with the Jesus who threw over the tables of the money changes and drove them from the temple.  Power frightens us and it does so I believe because if we admit to being powerful we are accepting the responsibility to use that power for the kingdom of God.  Meek and mild is passive.  Power is aggressive.  Pentecost reminds us that we are powerful.

 

Pentecost reminds us that we are active builders of the kingdom of God.  There is no place for complacent church attendance if one understands Pentecost.  I we have the power of God within us than carrying out the Great Commission is no longer an option.  We must be about our Father’s business.  Fear is no longer an option either.  We have the power to overcome our fears and doubts, its Pentecost.

 

Pentecost reminds us that we are part of something bigger than ourselves.  We are not a lone church on 57^th Street, We are part of a circuit that covers Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island.  We are not a lone circuit we are part of the Atlantic District.  We are not a lone district we are part of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.  I think we get that.  But Pentecost tells us we are not just Lutherans but we are part of the greater body of Christ.

 

There are a lot of things that would separate us.  We have doctrinal differences with other churches and denominations.  The reason we are so divided is that we have a hard time coming together with others but this is Pentecost.  We are by the power of God to build the kingdom of God with all of the people of God.

 

In the midst of this city we see Babel and the Church building side by side.  I am encouraged that the churches work together to build culture, seek the lost, and expand the kingdom of God.  We are in the midst of a move of God and I believe that Pentecost is the time to remember that.

 

We work with Manhattan Together to curb and correct Babel.  Not every institution is Christian but there are enough of us and besides Jesus would have us in the mix befriending and working with the lost on things for the common good.

 

We are part of the Atlantic District.  Churches in the district are working together to spread the kingdom of God.  I am in a Learning Community with other pastors seeking to figure out ministry in this place and encouraging each other in the task before us.  The Circuit functions in as similar way.  I have a coach to help me in the ministry here.

 

We have opened our home to the greater body in New York City.  The Church Multiplication Alliance meets here twice a year.  Concerts of Prayer hold workshops here.  I have been invited to participate in formulating a National Scripture Initiative to encourage people to read the word.  The Stoop concerts have allowed us to make contacts with Christian artist in other churches and to share the love of Christ.

 

I know we can get discouraged because we fall back on the belief that this work is our work and is for our glory.  The Babel mindset  likes to creep in.  Pentecost reminds us this is God’s work and we have been given the power to carry out the task.

 

Pentecost should get us energized.  God has given us the tools for the job.  We will win this battle, we will win this war.  When the Spirit fell the believers took to the streets and began to live their faith out loud and the world was turned right side up.  The work continues in us.

The last thing Jesus told his disciples to do before ascending to the Father was to stay in Jerusalem and prayer.  He had given them the task of witnessing to the ends of the earth.  They were told to make disciples, as they went through their lives, of every nation.  The job was clear, the question remained how.

 

The world they inhabited was hostel toward the gospel.  It had not yet been 50 days since Jesus was executed.  Opposition to the young church was strong.  The small group of followers were scared and outnumbered.  They had talked with the risen savior on a number of occasions, but now he was gone.  There was not a good track record on the part of Jesus’ followers.  They had deserted him in his hour of need.  The disciples on the road to Emmaus did not recognize him at first.  Thomas refused to believe in Jesus until he saw the wounds and touched them himself.  So they on the one hand had been with the risen Christ, but remember they had walked intimately with Jesus for three years and they still crumbled under pressure.  What was to say that it would not happen again?

 

Jesus promised that they would receive power for ministry when the Holy Spirit came upon them.  His presence would make all the difference in the world.  But for that to happen, the disciples needed to pray.  Not just cursory formal prayers, not liturgical prayers said during temple worship as important as they might be, but heart felt prayers that sought answers to the question, where do we go from here.  They were devoted to prayer.

 

Not knowing what to do next they turned to the Lord to seek his guidance and strength.  This was their life.  The church and the message and the commission to go were central to who they were as the people of God.

 

When the world is hostile to what you believe it has a way of galvanizing you for the tasks ahead.  The church grows when it is not too comfortable in the surrounding environment.  The culture of the day wanted to bring and end to this group that they saw as a threat.  The disciples were gathered together in an upper room.  They were fearful and uncertain about their future.  Being few in number, uncertain about what to do and where to go and feeling disconnected from those around them they took the only road open to them and that was prayer.

 

We have a different reality in many ways, yet the message remains the same, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand, and believe the gospel.”  The commission is the same, “Go and make disciples of all nations.”  But often the conclusion we draw is different.  The disciples were driven to God.  We are not always.  The message and the urgency of their commission sent them to their knees.  They were a community in need of strength to walk in obedience to their savior Jesus.  They needed the wisdom of God and the power of God to walk in obedience to God.

 

Is it different for us?  I wonder who gathered here this morning would define their Christian journey and one devoted to prayer.  I would like to be wrong about but I am not sure.  As a people do we pray?  Our national loyalty is sometimes confused.  We are not always clear as to which kingdom our primary allegiance is directed.

 

In spite of the fact that Jesus clearly stated that his kingdom is not of this world we live under the myth that this is a Christian nation.  That being the case our cause in not to convert the lost, but to reclaim the conditions of the nation, to get back to our Christian roots if you will.  We become uncomfortable when we see non Christian things happen around us.  We are concerned that mosques are appearing in our community.  It is unsettling to see people of different cultures sharing our space.  Our initial reaction is to seek to change the laws or fight to prevent certain laws from being changed.  I get e-mails all the time asking be to join this or that cause.  Facebook debates rage as to whether or not we are or ever were a Christian nation.  The talk is endless, but are we talking to God?

 

The urgency of the Great Commission is often lacking in us.  Since we don’t see the need to take the gospel to the lost in our community, to the people in our building, on the job, or in the gym we feel no need to pray.  People ask for prayer when a loved one is sick, or they are out of work and looking for a job.  Prayer is asked for when people travel, but I can’t remember the last time someone asked me to pray for a coworker who needs Jesus.  We are not engaging the lost in conversation like we should and so there is no felt need for the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

 

We as a body have sensed that God is calling us to minister to people in and around the arts.  Are you asking God to bring you personally into contact with the people of that community?  We go about our lives thinking the ministry at the church is a good idea and we hope someone picks up the ball, but we have our own lives to live.

 

For the early believers the gathered body the church was central to their lives.  It wasn’t a once a week occurrence as it is for many.  Why does one come to church?  Because it’s Sunday and that’s what you do?  Because you need you spiritual fix to get you through the week? 

 

Jesus said, “Go!” and they took him seriously.  He tells us the same thing and you ask, “When is the preacher going to get off of this topic?”

 

I guess I have a problem of priorities.  I think Jesus is very important in our lives and deserves our all and all.  Didn’t he go to the cross for us?  Didn’t he die so that we might live?  Shouldn’t he be a higher priority in our lives over family, work, and play?

 

I hear often from people that they don’t know what to do.  They would like to witness but they don’t know how.  They would like to be in ministry but there are priority issues and time constraints.  People want to talk about the church, have meetings, complain and lament.  Everyone has ideas of what should take place and everyone feels powerless in light of the obstacles before us.  But do we pray?

 

The disciples were gathering behind close doors in an upper room.  They were just commissioned to change the world.  They were well aware of their shortcomings and their past failures.  They were no different than you and I.  Confronted with all of this they went to prayer.  They were devoted to prayer.  It was a lifestyle decision.  Prayer is the beacon by which the thrust of one’s life can be seen.  The person that takes the time and makes the effort to pray has gotten their priorities in order.  No pray is the evidence of an undisciplined life.

 

The disciples were so unsure of what was before them that we are told that they devoted themselves in pray and because of that saw the results.  We are here in Acts 1.  By Acts 2 the power of the Holy Spirit falls in response to prayer and the disciples are no longer found in the upper room but are out in the streets declaring the grace of God.  The result of answered pray is an active body of believers working for the spread of the kingdom and thousands coming to faith.

 

Here we sit in the midst of a mission field that if reached the effects would be felt worldwide.  We have all been placed by God into places of influence on our jobs or in our school.  Opportunities are all around us.  We lack the power that comes with the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  We don’t pray.  We don’t pray because we don’t see the need.  Prayer is only for those times when we feel helpless, and since witnessing of our life in Christ is not seen as a pressing need we don’t feel the need to pray.

 

One thing is different for us than the disciples in our text.  The Holy Spirit has come upon the church.  He is already in our midst and dwelling within us.  We are not waiting for him to come.  We are not informing God of the needs we face because God by his very nature knows all things.  We have the long history of the church that witnesses to us the power of God. We are not the first to find ourselves in a situation like this.  Or job is not to call down God as if he is not already on the scene.  Our job is to get in step with what God is already doing in this place.  We have in a very real way sought the Lord about our calling as a church and Steve has down a good job of leading the discussion and clarifying the vision, but it doesn’t stop there.  The vision sets before us the task ahead, now its time to get to work.

 

Jesus set the task before the early disciples and he has set ours before us.  What we need is to tap the power of the Holy Spirit in our midst.  Jesus waits for us to join him.  I believe that there is a bit of confusion on where to go from here I sense it myself.  This is a hard city and the people of this church don’t stay around very long and that is just the nature of the city.  This is God’s work and so we need him to point us in the right direction and to empower us for the work of the ministry.

 

Paul reminds us of a very important point.  When we don’t know what to pray the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings that can’t be uttered.  When we don’t know what to pray or how to pray all we need to do is come before God even in silence and let the Holy Spirit intercede, to pray for us.  It is not something we should take for granted.  We need to get before God in silence and let the Holy Spirit do his work.

 

The city pulls us in many directions and the people in this city like to get things done.  This work we are called to is the work of God.  We don’t need to get things done we need to walk in step with the one who has called us to declare is gospel. 

 

I am confident that God is at work here.  He has done great things for us.  Each week we gather together to hear him speak and as we partake of the sacrament we declare the gospel a fresh and are built up in our faith.  What we fail to do is take this message out into the streets with us.  When the early disciples received the Holy Spirit they took to the streets and told everyone the Good News that Jesus died for their sins and through faith in him they too could be saved.

 

We have the Holy Spirit.  We don’t have to wait.  What we need to do is to walk in the assurance that the promise of God is real and the Holy Spirit is among us.  We need to live our faith out loud.  This city is lost and we have the answer.  We draw our strength from spending time with God.  We need to be devoted to prayer.

I sensed the leading of the Holy Spirit to depart for this week from the texts of the lectionary.  I want to look at the very popular minor prophet Habakkuk.  I believe he has a very relevant word for us this morning.

 

I have been listening to people lately and what I am hearing are thoughts of fear and anxiety.  We as a city and as a nation are afraid and worried about a whole number of things.  The evidence is in the anger we see in the responses of individuals and groups of people to the things around them.  We are going through hard times that have followed on the heels of very good times and we are unsure of our future.

 

We entered a recession at the end of 2008 and we watched as the unemployment rate soared.  Though they tell us things are getting better the number is still too high and many remain out of work.

 

The homeless are once again visible on our streets.  It feels like the 80’s again when there were whole communities of homeless living on the streets of the city.  The numbers seem to be visibly growing each day.

 

Predatory lead has lead to many homes going into foreclosure.  Families have lost their life savings and whole neighborhoods in Southeast Queens have been devastated.

 

The cost of healthcare is on the rise.  It is being reported that companies are cutting back on the benefits they offer their employees because of cost and this has added to the strain but on individuals and families.

 

Interest rates are sky rocketing and banks seem unconcerned.  As families struggle banks and car companies are given huge bailouts.  They then turned around and gave unjust bonuses to their top executives for all the good work they did brining on the economic collapse.

 

While foreclosures are happening in some neighborhoods there are buildings throughout this city that sit vacant because developers over built and can’t find buyers or renters.

 

The city is cutting back services and crime is on the rise.  The state is bankrupt and can’t pass a budget.  Instead of curtailing spending the governor wants to tax us for drinking soda.  Our national debt is numbered in the trillions of dollars and the nation of Greece is bankrupt.

 

Fear drives or reaction to immigrants.  The Feds remain inactive and the state of Arizona overreacts.  Instead of people coming together to find workable solutions we draw lines in the sand and through stones at one another.

 

Few people trust the federal government.  The president’s approval rating continues to fall and congress’ rating is worse.  Rather than taking action they move to a defensive stance.  The citizenry has taken to the streets on a number of issues, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is not leading to thoughtful debate and productive compromise.

 

The divide between the rich and poor increases and even though a black man sits in the White House we can’t move forward on the issue of race.  We are fearful and anxious. 

 

If all of that is not enough we hear of earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, tornados in the mid-west and floods in Tennessee.  Even the planet seems in turmoil.

 

It has been over 9 years since 9/11 and in this town that is a lifetime.  There are people who no not 9/11, but the wound has been opened up once again.  Last Saturday someone attempted to explode an SUV in Times Square causing an evacuation of the area.  And again on Friday a suspicious box was found and again the area was evacuated.  Thankfully the car failed to explode and the cooler was filled with water bottles but the fear and uncertainty is real.

 

Injustice seems to be the word of the day.  Families wonder how they will make it.  People question if we will survive as a nation or if the next generation will do as well as the last.  Those facing retirement wonder if they will see their social security money and if not how they wonder will they survive.

 

The Christian asks, “Where is God in all of this?”  We do not believe that there is a god of good and a god of evil that are fighting for dominance.  We are not hoping that the good god will win out.  For us there is only one God the creator of all things.  He is sovereign and in control of all that happens in the world.  Therefore we rightly ask, “Where is God in all of this?”

 

We scramble for an answer to this dilemma.  We think that if we still had prayer in the public schools all would be well.  We panic when a court decrees that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional.  We worry that they will take “under God” out of the Pledge of Allegiance and “in God we trust” off the coins.  Where is God and why is this happening to us and too our world?

 

Habakkuk lived during a difficult time as well.  The rich of his day were exploiting the poor.  People were taking advantage of others to satisfy their own desires.  The nation was about to come under siege by the Babylonians.  The nation deserved judgment but why was God rising up a nation more wicked then Israel to judge Israel?

 

Fear and anxiety were the rule of the day.  Where is God and why is this happening to his people?

 

When we perceive that things are not right our first impulse is to question God.  We all do it.  We have a set way we believe that God should act toward us, we have promises often taken out of context that we hold on too and when things don’t work out as we think they should we blame God.  We seldom question ourselves and our lifestyles or our responses we instead question God wondering why he doesn’t treat us correctly.  Habakkuk had the same response, why God is this happening?

 

Habakkuk does not get stuck in questioning God and neither should we.  He moves from questioning God to casting himself upon his redeemer.  Hear what he has to say, “Though the fig tree should not blossom, no fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.  God is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.”

 

Habakkuk doesn’t look for deliverance, or relief or a way out of the current situation.  He decides to let faith replace fear and contentment replace anxiety.

 

Though the crops fail and I have trouble buying food as the price goes up.  Though the flocks dwindle and the herds of cattle are no more resulting in more suffering for me and the nation.  Though the recession drags on indefinitely and my economic future is uncertain.  Though the financial institutions continue for a time their unjust practices and I feel the pressure on my budget.  Though reports of natural disasters continue and I remain helpless.  And though reports of terrorist threats continue even around where I work and live.  Yet, even at a cost to myself and my family causing present struggles and future uncertainty, I will rejoice in the Lord.  I will take joy in the God of my salvation.  It is a declaration of intent that is not tied to circumstances but is an act of the will! 

 

God is our strength.  He is the one who gets us through and at his appointed time takes us home.  Often times he doesn’t take us out of situations but he, if we trust him, always causes us to rise above them.  Whatever the present struggle maybe, we still walk in high places.