St. Thomas Evangelical Lutheran Church
3800 East Third Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47401
(812) 332-5252
Sermon for the Twenty Fifth Sunday After Pentecost (November 18, 2007)
Liturgical Color: Green
Deborah O'Brien
"Never Too Late for Grace"
Grace and Peace from God Our Father and Our Lord and Savior Jesus the Risen Christ. Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight our maker and redeemer. Amen.
What a wonderful text to conclude the year of Luke in the lectionary cycle. Luke, who has gone to such lengths to show the seeking, saving love of God in his gospel, now gives us what has to be a least a finalist for the most dramatic story of God's radical love and grace in the gospels. Here is the Son of God, thrown out on the city garbage heap of Jerusalem, still reaching out to the despised and rejected with his last breath!
Pastor Lyle asked me to prepare and deliver the sermon this morning so that he could take a much deserved vacation prior to Advent and our preparations for Christmas and the birth of the baby Jesus. As I prayed about his request and what God was leading me to do answer I read the texts and consulted the church year calendar. One of my ministries here at St. Thomas is to change the paraments and hanging banners. As you can see today the paraments are white celebrating Christ the King. White is a symbol of purity and royalty. As you may know the Lutheran Church observes the liturgical church year along with many other Christian denominations. We also use the 3-year lectionary based on gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Christ the King Sunday is the last Sunday of the church year. Next Sunday marks the first Sunday of Advent the beginning of the church year and the beginning of the lectionary cycle - just like this was the year of Luke, the gospel readings in the coming liturgical year will focus on readings from Matthew. All this to say that after much prayer and conversations with Pastor Lyle I was very humbled to be asked to share my thoughts with you today - Christ the King Sunday - the Crown Jewel of the liturgical year.
There is something astounding about today's scripture readings when you compare and contrast Luke and Colossians. You are seeing Jesus in two mind blowing, absolutely opposite views.
On one hand Paul lifts a veil - if you will- to a profound spiritual view of who Christ is...look at Colossians 1:19-20
"for God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."
Now juxtapose this with Luke's gut wrenching picture of someone hanging on a cross between two convicted criminals. This is a death deserved for the low-life's" of the Roman world. Those who are supposed to be the leaders of God's chosen people are hurling insults as though to grind salt into the wounds of the crucified One.
Can you imagine the sight? How can this be? In Colossians 1:15 Paul calls Jesus the "image of the invisible God," being ridiculed by the likes of these hypocrites, power mongers and thieves? And what is the response of the One in whom Paul says all powers and rulers and authorities were created? Does he fly in flame off the cross? Does He smash them with a Rambo-like sword of terrible vengeance? Or blow them into bits with a single breath?
NO. He says, "Father forgive them...
They shout more insults and spew venom from their mouths.
How low can you get? And here is the most important and critical message in the text. There are no depths to which God will not sink to offer you the gift of divine love and grace! Nothing is not forgivable. In Romans 6:23 Paul writes:
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus Our Lord."
Paul also says it this way, "Through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross.
This is the view of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ from the cross. Mere words can never contain the fullness of this truth. Isaac Watts comes close in his hymn When I survey the wondrous Cross, "Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all."
Perhaps only a parent has at least a partial sense of the depth of God's love. Losing a child is the greatest sorrow and grief a parent may have to bear. No matter the age of the child, the loss will never be forgotten and may only fade over the years.
In 1982 I was pregnant with our second child. Our first child a daughter was perfect. A perfect pregnancy, a perfectly timely birth — on her due date at 8 in the evening — so who would have imagined the horrors we would face as a couple and as a family with our second.
On July 5 1982 7 months pregnant my water broke as I got up from an afternoon nap. I was the home alone with my 3 year old daughter. The panic that set in was unimaginable — it still is 25 years later. I knew something was terribly wrong and had great fear that it would not get better.
After several phone calls an ambulance was called for me and my sister came to collect Katie. Arriving at the hospital what happened next was something like a scene from ER. Doctors, nurses, interns, and people I didn't know giving orders and acting like I the mother didn't matter — I was simply the vessel in which this precious babe was being kept for now.
After all the chaos and craziness of our arrival at the hospital we were put in a room to wait it out and to see if medications would help stave off the inevitable birth of the baby too soon, or would I be confined to the hospital for three more months to prevent infection. I prayed. I didn't know what else; it was the best thing I knew how to do.
In the stillness of July 6th about 4 AM our son Daniel was born. He was 12 inches long 2 = lbs and perfect. 10 fingers and 10 toes, dark hair and oh so very small. He was immediately whisked away and just like the TV shows my doctor eventually came back into my room and said those awful words: "We did everything we could possibly do — it just wasn't enough." In 1982 a baby like Daniel who had underdeveloped lungs chief among his troubles did not have the benefit of surfactant. A medicine that helps infants lungs remain inflated so they can breathe. Daniel died after several painful breaths for which he struggled and gasped.
After we held him and said our good byes a nurse came in to do the paperwork. I will never forget her or her words: "You will have to name this baby but don't waste a good name on him, it won't matter in the long run and you can save that name for a good baby. How dare she? Was this what it was like when Mary watched and heard her beloved son taunted and insulted?
This is my only comparison and point of reference to the human tragedy of the death of God's son Jesus Christ. We lost our infant son, we had hopes and dreams for him that were unrealized; it was tragic. Now imagine with me choosing to sacrifice your son for the sins of the world. Our sins are so deep and so grave that this was the only way as Paul says, "Through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross.
Now here's the crux of the gospel lesson. Indeed the essential point of the entire gospel of Luke during these weeks in November we have heard various views from Luke's gospel of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ — all of this begs the most obvious question of all.
What is your view of the life and ministry of Jesus?
In the 9th chapter of Luke, Jesus asks the disciples "Who do the crowds say I am? (v. 18) and then asks them directly "But who do you say I am?"
In the final analysis it doesn't matter what anyone else's point of view of Jesus is. Whether it is the thief on the cross, the Pharisee on the sidelines or the soldier at the foot of the cross — it matters not what they make of this whole scene. I think what matters most is this, but what do you say — what is your view of Christ on the cross between two criminals?
In verse 39 one of the criminals hurls an insult: "Aren't you the Christ?
This question was asked in a mocking way but it is an important one. If this is simply a great teacher who has met an unfortunate end, then the story is touching but not truly relevant to our lives — except as a wonderful example of a dedicated man.
But this great teacher promises "today you will be with me in paradise." Is he offering false hope at best and is quite deluded in the worst case.
If this is truly the Messiah of God, then there is no more powerful statement in all history than this crucifixion of Christ between two criminals. If God sinks this low to claim our love we must ask the question ourselves.
Are you not the messiah? Do you not fear God?
The one convicted felon says to the other in effect, "Even at this worst possible point in your life have you no room to look to God? Even now?"
Even at the end of his mortal existence, this man has no room for the possibility of God! Can you imagine that? No room for God. No room for hope.
And yet, even in his final hour Jesus offers no words of angry condemnation. The grace he brings is too passionate, too fiery. It is grace beyond all understanding. Silence in the face of vilification? Perhaps even an offer of grace to the one who spits in your face?
My spirit is called to attention by this depth of love and grace — it is an awesome thought. What does it mean to reject a love such as this?
There is no such thing as being "too far gone" when it comes to redemption. From one of scripture to the other the message is the same — the shortest distance between ruin and redemption — faith and failure — heaven and hell is a simple prayer, "Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom".
So how does Jesus respond to this thief on the cross? "Sorry buddy too late, you missed your chance." Not at all. The response of Jesus to any honest, sincere reaching out is immediate. There is no, "I'll think it over and get back to you." There are no classes to take or hoops to jump through or paperwork to complete. The response of God to our deepest needs is instantaneous. "Today you will be with me in paradise."
The core of this awesome story is that is never too late to turn our hearts toward God. Never too late to ask for and receive the love of Christ. There are times in life when opportunities have passed. The opportunity is missed — the moment gone — you might say, "The time for that is gone."
But one thing is sure. It is never too late to seek and find the grace of God! Amen.
